Aleris Plate and Sheet Developments for the Aircraft Industry

The high pressure on the Aircraft Manufacturers from the airline customers led to the development of new high performance aluminium alloys in order to compete against other materials such as fiber reinforced composites or other advanced metals. Due to this ongoing competition new high performance plate and sheet alloys for use as fuselage or wing components are required. Additionally cost efficient and time saving manufacturing techniques have to be taken into account.

In order to achieve these challenging targets a combination of performance increase together with new manufacturing concepts seems to be preferred.

Thermally stable alloys such as AlMgSc alloys allow for both established and advanced manufacturing techniques such as welding and creep forming. Due to their robustness various processing routes are possible leading to the same final properties. With their excellent fatigue and damage tolerance properties, a very low density and excellent corrosion resistance these alloys offer additional benefits in terms of weight savings.

The presentation will provide an up-date of Aleris’ plate and sheet developments and will highlight some future developments. Focus will be placed on 7xxx and 5xxx alloys for various aircraft applications such as fuselage panels and wing spars.