Aluminum WrapUp
Volume 10, Issue 1
February 2022- Winter/Spring Issue
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Secat Awarded R&D Contract!
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The REMADE Institute, a 132-member public-private partnership established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with an initial investment of $140 million, announced $33.2 million in new technology research, selecting 23 new projects as part of the Institute’s latest round of funding. As part of this announcement, Secat was awarded $1.1 million to support an aluminum R&D project focused on “Development of Computational Tools for Predicting Seam Weld Integrity in Thick-Walled Hollow Aluminum Extrusions”.
This latest round of investment is cost-shared between REMADE and the funding recipients. The 23 R&D projects are expected to lead to technologies capable of:
- Increasing recycled, or secondary, materials by as much as 8.9 million metrics tons per year
- Saving up to 407 petajoules (PJ) of embodied energy per year — the equivalent of conserving 66.5 million barrels of oil per year
- Decrease greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 24.1 million metric tons per year — eliminating the annual emissions of more than 5.2 million cars.
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Secat Mentors Intern Hannah Bai
Hannah Bai, a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at University of Kentucky, recently began an internship with Secat. Hannah’s studies at UK are focused on nanoscale Metal Thin Film generated by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) and plasma process with various characterization methods (i.e., XPS, XRD, SEM, EBSD, FIB, EDS). She is in her final year at UK and after graduation she plans to look for a position in industry.
Hannah received her bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) in 2013. She then continued her study of MSE at USTB and obtained a master’s degree in 2016. She followed her interest in the industry to a position as R&D engineer at NSK (China) Research and Development Co., Ltd from 2016 to 2017 and subsequently as a Research Assistant at Metalink Special Alloys Corporation from 2017 to 2018 in China.
Hannah says “Working as an intern at Secat impacts my education both financially and physically. On one hand, Secat sponsors the tuition of my final year study at UK, which I appreciate a lot. On the other hand, it offers me an opportunity to know what Secat is: when I compared the work in Secat with my experience in industry and academy, I think Secat is more like something between academy and industry, and I am getting to see how industry and academy influence each other.”
Outside of study and work, Hannah likes to go hiking in spring and autumn, “because there are lots flowers in spring and the trees are colorful in autumn.“
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Visit Secat at Booth #517 at ET ‘22
Stop by and check out the latest from Secat at the International Aluminum Extrusion Technology Seminar and Exposition, May 3 – 5 in Orlando, Florida.
For more information Click Here
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You can learn more about us on Secat’s website here.
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What’s New in Training
In 2022, Secat will continue to offer a variety of training opportunities with virtual and in person options.
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Visit us at www.secat.net and check out all that we have to offer!
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Person of Interest
Charles W. Coney – Chief Technology Officer, Commonwealth Rolled Products (CRP)
Chuck Coney joins the Board of Directors of Secat, Inc. bringing over 30+ years of experience focused in the metals, automotive and aerospace industries and has held senior leadership roles in operations, maintenance, engineering, technology, supply chain, continuous improvement and project management.
As Chief Technology Officer for Commonwealth, Mr. Coney oversees all technical processes including product qualification and industrialization, product quality and recovery, capital projects, non-metals procurement as well as new product development. Prior to being appointed CTO, Mr. Coney led the Hot Mill Transformation project, served as Director of Supply Chain and most recently as Vice President of Operations.
What brought you to the Board of Directors of Secat?
Secat and Commonwealth Rolled Products (previously Aleris) have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Both have a vested interest in establishing aluminum as the material of choice in a broad range of industries such as building/construction, packaging, automotive and aerospace. When Todd Boggess reached out, I considered this a great opportunity to help Secat continue to be a leader in this space and create new opportunities for growth.
Describe the relationship between your company and Secat and the benefits of this relationship.
CRP is fortunate in that it has two very capable labs – one located at the plant in Lewisport, KY and the other at our R&D center in Madison Heights, MI. But Secat, and the extended relationship with the University of Kentucky, allows us access to equipment and testing that would otherwise be cost prohibitive due to the initial capital cost and/or low frequency of use. Secat was also very instrumental in performing material properties testing during the initial qualification period of our Continuous Anneal lines for automotive body sheet. The ISO/IEC 17025 certification that Secat maintains allows us to not only utilize the labs for overflow sampling, but also allows us to round-robin processes which help both facilities check/audit for best practices. And the various training curriculums that Secat offers allows CRP to keep staff abreast of the most up to date information and industry standards.
In your opinion, what makes Secat unique/special in the industry?
As stated above, CRP is very fortunate to have access to two labs. Many smaller businesses just do not have access to this type of equipment and the expertise required to interpret data and provide recommendations to solve customer problems. And that’s probably what makes Secat so unique – it goes beyond just the equipment. It’s the deep knowledge base, basically access to a robust R&D team, that can’t be easily duplicated in the industry. And obviously the partnership that Secat has with the University of Kentucky and all the resources that organization and extended network can offer is a real plus.
Tell us something about yourself that people may not know. . . and anything else you would like to share.
I graduated from Purdue University – the Boilermakers. Boilermakers are individuals that prepared the boilers for trains and the term “engineer” used to be synonymous with the operator of the train. At one point in my career I actually had an opportunity to operate a train – moving and unloading railcars. As far as anything else I would like to share – In my 30+ years in metals, automotive and aerospace I don’t think there has ever been a time that I’ve see so much volatility. COVID, supply chain disruptions, the push for sustainability initiatives and neutral carbon footprint, etc. It’s during times like these that good companies find ways to minimize the impact and preserve business. But great companies use times like these to reinvent themselves – evaluating business practices, market opportunities, even mission statements. I look forward to working with Secat to turn uncertainty to opportunity.
Mr. Coney holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and is a Lean/Six-Sigma Black Belt.
#HeLovesAluminum
#WeLoveAluminum
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Tech Talk
Secat Semi-fab LCA Post
In January, the Aluminum Association released its 2022 Semi-fab LCA Report, a third-party critical-reviewed life cycle assessment report documenting the environmental footprint of primary, recycled, and semi-fabricated aluminum products manufactured in the United States and Canada in 2016. Quantifying all material, energy use, and environmental release impacts over the life cycle, this report considers both cradle-to-gate and cradle-to-grave stages.
By measuring a variety of products including aluminum ingot, extruded aluminum, aluminum sheet, and aluminum foil, this LCA report provides a broad understanding of the potential environmental implications of aluminum manufacturing and is an important resource for industry to use in strategic planning and sustainable development.
The topline finding: the overall environmental impact of aluminum production has decreased significantly since 1991. Technological advancements, efficiency improvements, phase-out of older smelting technologies, and substituting coal for renewable energy in smelting have all contributed to a 49 percent reduction in carbon footprint for primary aluminum and a 60 percent decrease for recycled aluminum.
One way that the aluminum industry can continue to make progress in its sustainability goals is to increase the use of recycled aluminum and improve the recycling rate. Unlike nearly every other material, aluminum can be recycled over and over without ever losing functionality, which ultimately results in producers needing to extract fewer natural resources and utilize less energy. According to the report, just a one percent increase in the end-of-life recycling rate can reduce the carbon footprint of 1,000 kg of products by 80 kg of CO2e – roughly the equivalent to the impact of driving 200 miles.
While primary aluminum is significantly more carbon intensive than recycled across the board, the degree of the carbon footprint varies significantly depending on the country and region of origin. Mostly due to lower adoptions of hydro and renewable power, the global warming potential of aluminum production in China and the Middle East is significantly higher than in North America, across all products.
With findings like these in hand, the Aluminum Association has committed to increasing aluminum recycling rates. More than a million tons of aluminum is lost in landfills every year in North America alone. By improving recycling infrastructure and changing policy around the collection and capture of used aluminum, we can make great strides in making the industry even greener.
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Aluminum Art
Human In Aluminum
William King was a contemporary American sculptor born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1925. His work spanned countless media and usually revolved around the figurative portrayal of human figures. After attending the University of Florida, King moved to New York in 1945 and graduated from Cooper Union in 1948.
“The sculpture of William King is a sculpture of comic gesture. It is sculpture that choreographs a scenario of sociability, of conscious affections and unavowed pretensions, transforming the world of observed manners and unacknowledged motives into mimelike structures of comic revelation. Often very funny, sometimes acerbic, frequently satiric and touching at the same time, it is sculpture that draws from the vast repertory of socialized human gesture a very personal vocabulary of contemporary sculptural forms…”
– Hilton Kramer
Visit williamkingsculpture.com
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Do you have a piece of Aluminum Art you’d like to share? Contact us at info@secat.net
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Don’t Forget to Connect with Secat on Social Media!
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