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Aluminum Brings Innovation to FutureCar Goals and Beyond

9 June 1998

Aluminum Brings Innovation to FutureCar Goals and Beyond; New Award Highlights Aluminum's Growing Importance in Automotive Design

    DEARBORN, Mich., June 9 -- Innovations in Aluminum -- a new
automotive design and engineering award premiers tomorrow at the FutureCar
Challenge.  It will highlight innovation, feasibility, weight reduction
capability, recyclability and craftsmanship in the creative uses of aluminum
in the FutureCar Challenge.
    FutureCar is a two year student competition to build a vehicle paralleling
the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles' goals for developing a
midsize car with up to three times the fuel efficiency offered today while
maintaining the price, performance and utility currently available.
    Weight reduction is a crucial factor in meeting the tough requirements of
FutureCar.  Every pound of aluminum can replace twice its weight in most
automotive applications.  Automakers have already produced aluminum designs
which demonstrate up to a 50% weight savings in body structures over
traditional materials.
    "Aluminum is the world-recognized leader in reducing weight while
maintaining requisite stiffness," explains J. Stephen Larkin, Aluminum
Association President, who will present the Innovations in Aluminum award.
"We want to encourage the competing FutureCar student engineering teams to
find new ways to seize the benefits of aluminum automotive technology."
    Aluminum has already been recognized for its contribution to reducing
weight and increasing efficiency. In its recent report reviewing progress
towards super-efficient cars of the future the National Research Council (NRC)
has confirmed aluminum as "the lightweight material of choice for intensive
use" in reaching the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) and
FutureCar goals of tripling fuel efficiency.
    "Significant auto body weight reductions by using aluminum leads
inevitably to other weight reductions in parts, with an aggregate benefit
unlike other automotive engineering materials," remarks Larkin.  "Aluminum
does this while maintaining a crashworthiness equal to that of traditional
automotive body materials."
    During the judging of the Innovations in Aluminum award, how well students
took advantage of aluminum's design benefits will be evaluated.  This includes
aluminum's high recyclability, design flexibility, and cost effectiveness.
    While aluminum may comprise only five to ten percent of an average car's
weight, it represents 35 percent to 50 percent of the car's recycled value.
As more aluminum appears in new vehicle designs even higher recycled amounts
will be achieved -- with additional cost savings and environmental benefits to
automakers and consumers.
    "Aluminum will play an important part in meeting FutureCar and PNGV goals:
safety, fuel efficiency and affordability, innovative uses of aluminum will
take us well beyond those goals to benefits from challenges undiscovered.
That is what we salute with the winner of the Innovations in Aluminum award,"
concludes Larkin.
    The Aluminum Association, based in Washington, DC, represents U.S.
producers of primary and secondary aluminum, as well as semi-fabricated
products and is a proud sponsor of the 1998 FutureCar Challenge.  Member
companies operate approximately 200 plants in 35 states, e-mail:
jlichter@aluminum.org.