Alcoa Responds To The Aluminum F-150 Story

TTAC Staff
by TTAC Staff

We received a note from Alcoa, a supplier of aluminum, regarding our story on delays with the next Ford F-150. Alcoa’s Monica Orbe sent us this note

While details of future programs and timelines should come from automotive OEMs themselves – regardless of the platform — we can say that Alcoa does not have any issues with its automotive production lines. It is important to note that aluminum is the second most used material to build cars today. Automakers have successfully used Alcoa materials to produce aluminum-intensive vehicles since the mid 1990s.

TTAC Staff
TTAC Staff

More by TTAC Staff

Comments
Join the conversation
7 of 55 comments
  • Chicagoland Chicagoland on Dec 12, 2013

    Well, I look at TTAC as car entertainment site. Since this 'scoop' was not concurred by 'legit' news sources, I see it as another 'tabloid car news' story.

  • Scott_314 Scott_314 on Dec 12, 2013

    Aluminum is simply an awesome material... I am an engineer so maybe a geek but aluminum has 70 years of history as a preferred advanced material and there's plenty of expertise out there. Get yourself a chunk of aluminum just to own and admire, I say (seriously). So I could see some problems popping up with tooling, but not fundamental problems with the material. Ford is making a bold move, in my books a good one, and they should and will get some accolades for it. Besides now that aerospace is moving to composites (which are a long way off for major components of mass market vehicles), the auto industry might be able to lock in reasonable commodity prices.

    • See 1 previous
    • Mcs Mcs on Dec 13, 2013

      >> Besides now that aerospace is moving to composites (which are a long way off for major components of mass market vehicles) That's no longer true now that the i3 is in production.

  • Felix Hoenikker Felix Hoenikker on Dec 13, 2013

    For strenght and heat resistance, I choose Inconel 600. I also keep a chunk at home just to admire.

  • Larry P2 Larry P2 on Dec 13, 2013

    This conversation is hilarious. I have completely restored three NA Miatas, which come with aluminum hoods and trunk lids. All body work and paint was done by the guy working out of his modified garage down the street, with mostly standard hand tools. He reports that repairing aluminum is really not much different than working on steel parts. He would die and go to heaven with the robots and controlled environments employed by Ford.

    • JuniperBug JuniperBug on Dec 13, 2013

      Only NCs have aluminum trunk lids. Regular steel on NA and NB. I put the magnet which indicates which run group I'm in on the track on my 99's trunk lid, as do the other NAs and NBs I see there. Also, I'm not sure you can claim that you "completely restored" the Miatas if someone else did all body and paint work; what does that leave you to restore? I'm really not sure how the opinion of one guy who paints some parts as a hobby negates what everyone else says. If his idea of "repairing" is some bondo and paint, then sure, but anyone who's ever seen how aluminum bends, or tried to weld it, knows that it's much more difficult to work with than steel.

Next