The railway sector has been an interesting market with a lot of potential for the Salzburger Aluminium Group for already many years. Recently, the rail vehicle market recorded annual growth of around three percent worldwide. This is based on transport and environmental policy measures that are at the top of the agenda in many countries.

Via its subsidiary Pierburg GmbH of Neuss, Germany, the Rheinmetall Group plans to supply hydrogen recirculation blowers to Daimler Truck Fuel Cell GmbH & Co. KG, the company which bundles all of Daimler AG’s activities in the field of fuel cell technology. The deal represents sales volume in the two-digit euro-million range.

The London Metal Exchange announced plans to move forward with its sustainability strategy. The LME’s sustainability strategy hinges on providing metal market participants with the option for greater transparency and access in respect of sustainably produced metal and metal that itself plays a significant role in global decarbonization and the circular economy.

Between October and December 2020 the Audi AG supplied 505,583 cars – more than half a million in a quarter for the first time ever. In this challenging year, Audi delivered a total of 1,692,773 models, a fall of 8.3 % compared with 2019. In China, however, the company nevertheless attained new best figures with a total of 727,358 vehicles supplied (+5.4 %).

One year ago the motto for 2019 was: Sales up, profits down. For two years in a row, growth had slowed down. But compared to the current situation and the findings from the first half of 2020, times were rather rosy.

While German foundries were already struggling with a downturn, the corona crisis has further shaken the industry. The challenge now is to provide assistance and make concrete recommendations for action.

The ongoing corona pandemic is dominating the world and is not stopping at the foundry industry. We have surveyed the industry and identified current and upcoming challenges facing foundrymen, suppliers, manufacturers and service providers.

After years of continuous growth, the global economy has recently begun to shrink. Especially the automotive industry as the most important customer of the foundry industry is affected by this.

When building a new foundry, the aspects of technical building equipment should not be neglected, as great savings potentials can be hidden here. The potential to be exploited is also shown in the case study of an HPDC foundry.

The car manufacturer Opel Automobile GmbH, together with the Fraunhofer LBF and the System Reliability, Adaptive Structures, and Machine Acoustics department of the Technical University of Darmstadt, has developed innovative numerical fatigue strength assessment approaches for multi-material joints based on fatigue tests of hybrid joined shear and peel specimens.

Harsco Corporation announced its subsidiary ALTEK is now able to provide complete end-to-end dross processing and environmental solutions to enable the global aluminum industry to maximize aluminum recoveries and achieve zero waste.

On January 13, 2021, YXLON presented the new release of the Cheetah and Cougar EVO microfocus X-ray families in three online events. Under the motto 'Innovation is key to Evolution - Evolution empowers you', the next step towards automation was demonstrated and new options were presented that significantly increase efficiency in the X-ray inspection of electronic components.

Constellium SE has announced that it is leading a new R&D initiative in France, Project ISA3. In partnership with Groupe Renault, ESI Group, Institut de Soudure (Welding Institute), and the University of Lorraine, this approx. EUR7 million project will develop lightweight, recyclable and cost-efficient aluminum solutions for the automotive market.

WKW Automotive, a major Tier 1 supplier, has awarded Shape Process Automation, a program valued at approximately USD15M to provide two inline laser systems complete with material handling capabilities. This program has the potential to be the highest throughput aluminum robotic laser cutting line in the world.

AUDI AG is the first automobile maker to be awarded the Chain of Custody certificate of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative. This certifies that Audi can comply with the materials flow chain for sustainably produced aluminum in accordance with the ASI standard and can also input correspondingly certified material to the Aluminum Closed Loop with its suppliers.

The new Jeep Grand Cherokee celebrates its world premiere and presents itself in a new size in the full-size SUV segment. For the first time, the vehicle offers three rows of seats - and yet a lot of weight was saved during construction. Read here which parts were made from magnesium and aluminum.