Aluminum specialist Alcan (Hall 2 Stand B19) is developing new alloys and new processes to better compete with composite materials, the proportion of which has been steadily increasing in airframes over the past decades. At Voreppe in France, Alcan Engineered Products (Alcan EP) has a major research-and-development (R&D) center to devise and test these solutions. Officials at Alcan Global Aerospace, Transportation and Industry (Alcan Global ATI), a division of Alcan EP, want to change the perception that only composites have features such as reduced maintenance costs and integrated health and monitoring.
According to Alcan Global ATI president Christophe Villemin, proven metal solutions help aircraft programs stay on schedule. He was referring to the ongoing delays in the Boeing 787 program, which relies on composites for some 50 percent of its structure. “Our customers want delay-free machining and assembly,” he insisted, adding that Alcan is now working on alloys that will fly on the successors of the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
