Constellium Inaugurates New ‘Airware’ Aluminum Casthouse
Constellium, the French aluminum specialist, has opened a large-scale foundry to produce a new family of alloys, called Airware, with which it intends to compete with suppliers of composite materials for aircraft construction. (Photo: Emmanual Foudrot)
Constellium, the French aluminum specialist, has opened a large-scale foundry to produce a new family of alloys, called Airware, with which it intends to compete with suppliers of composite materials for aircraft construction. (Photo: Emmanual Foudrot)

Aluminum specialist Constellium’s new foundry in Issoire, France, is up and running–a key step in a strategy aimed at regaining some of the ground lost to composite materials in aircraft construction. The casting house focuses on a new family of alloys, dubbed Airware, which are lighter than the previous generation made of aluminum-lithium. According to Constellium (Chalet B39), the Issoire foundry is the world’s first large-scale facility producing such alloys, with a planned capacity of 14,000 metric tons per year.