For Alcoa, Le Bourget is a coming-out party. The previously "stealth"
exhibitor (its booth was closed to the public) is throwing wide
its doors and staging its biggest-ever presence at the Paris Air
Show.
No longer content with a quiet "yes, well, airplanes are built
of aluminum," Alcoa is trumpeting the technical aspects of
its latest alloys. It is also celebrating a far larger aerospace
business than ever before after a series of multi-billion dollar
acquisitions last year brought Reynolds Metals, Howmet Castings
and Huck fasteners under its wing.
"Now we're on the wheels, brakes, landing gear, the fuselage
keel, stringers and skin, and wing skins and structure," says
Pat Hassey, executive VP at Alcoa and chairman of its aerospace
market sector lead team. "With Howmet we're into propulsion
with castings on almost every engine, then with Huck fasteners we
hold everything together."
Aerospace makes up the largest single business in Alcoa's transportation
sector, which itself accounted for $5 billion of last year's company-wide
$23 billion in sales.
"We want to showcase our products and our engineering,"
Hassey told Show News. "We are attaching such importance to
Paris that Alcoa CEO Alain Belda will be visiting on Tuesday-the
first time our chief executive has been here for many years."
Alcoa is looking to increase its aerospace sector activity as part
its corporate growth strategy. One example of the company's commitment
was the recent announcement that it will increase production capacity
for aerospace aluminum plate by 30% investing nearly $90 million
to expand its Davenport, Iowa facility. This will also allow it
to cast, roll and machine the largest wing skins ever produced,
for the Airbus A380.
Hassey believes the monolithic aluminum structures of today are
very competitive and more technologically advanced than ever, and
hold many advantages over composites. Alcoa's large R&D effort
is focused on new aerospace requirements, and the company can offer
manufacturers a menu of solutions for a particular application-for
example, choices of whether a particular part or structure should
be built up from sheet, cast, forged or extruded.
"Our light metals lab is the largest in the industry,"
Hassey says. "It is often working five to ten years out, in
advance of what manufacturers might need." Thus Alcoa was able
to supply Airbus with a new 2026 aluminum alloy for lower wing stringers
on the A340-500/600. The alloy has superior strength properties
and increased damage tolerance, providing a more durable structure
that can accommodate higher loads.
By John Morris
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