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This multimedia presentation is a component of the August 2000 (vol. 52, no. 8) JOM. To best experience this presentation, you should employ the latest version of RealPlayer. As the audio plays, images from the presentation will automatically load in the window to the right.
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2000 Aluminum Plenary Session: Overview
Aluminum Fabrication and Applications

Elwin L. Rooy

Editor's Note: During the 2000 TMS Annual Meeting, the TMS Light Metals Division broke with tradition by striking all of the Monday morning sessions from its traditional programming grid in favor of presenting an all-division plenary plenary session. The goal of this session was to provide insight into critical issues in modern aluminum processing technology and industrial development. In further striking from tradition, the proceedings from that symposium are not available in print format. Instead, they are archived here in Real Audio format. Just click on the play button to hear the speaker and watch as the overheads from the presentation automatically click by in the right frame. The session was organized and moderated by Ray Peterson of IMCO Recycling. More detail, and other papers from this symposium, may be experienced by visiting the August issue's table of contents.

Modern manufacturing strategies combine solidification and thermomechanical process technologies for optimum efficiency, product quality and reliability, and product performance. The present and future importance of incorporating melt processing and solidification considerations into the sequence of down-stream operations for satisfying product requirements and for developing new competitive market capabilities forms an essential basis for these strategies. The majority of aluminum is consumed in fabricated forms ranging from rolled products to components formed by powder metallurgy. Remelted and cast products represent a rapidly growing manufacturing sector. The evolution of processes for aluminum's multivaried commercial shapes and forms paralleled the industry's successes in determined applications and market penetration. The history of the aluminum industry's development of casting, forging, extrusion and rolled products and the significance of process and product developments to the dramatic evolution of aluminum as the metal of the twentieth century is reviewed, and current and projected developments are outlined.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elwin L. Rooy, retired from Alcoa, is a consultant to the aluminum industry.


Copyright held by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, 2000

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