Aluminium Wrought / Cast Alloys Applications:

Due to the short lifespan of aluminum in the transport and packaging industries, these two markets represent the biggest generators of aluminum scrap. Over the next thirty years the anticipated annual growth rate of aluminum in the transportation and packaging industries will continue to rise by 3.1% and 1% respectively . This means that the amount of aluminum used in today’s automobile will rise from 115 kg to 170 kg by 2005 and as much as 410 kg in aluminum-intensive vehicles . If these numbers are coupled with the modest increase expected in car production this industry will become the largest producer of aluminum scrap. Since the future surge of aluminum scrap is expected to be in the automotive market, this paper will focus entirely on aluminum scrap from end-of-life vehicles.

AUTOMOTIVE ALUMINUM SCRAP

Aluminum is used in the automotive industry to produce a variety of parts. The distribution of aluminum in a typical car, and the percentage of those parts that are cast or wrought aluminum alloys,. For recycling purposes, the distinction between cast and wrought aluminum is very important since only pure wrought aluminum scrap can be recycled into a wrought aluminum product again. Currently, the only technique available to reduce the levels of alloying elements when recycling wrought aluminum is dilution. A mixture of cast and wrought scrap can only be recycled into a cast aluminum product. It is clear from Table 2 that the majority of aluminum in the automobile is cast, but this percentage is expected to change dramatically when aluminum car panels, which are mostly wrought alloys, capture a larger percentage of the automotive market by replacing steel which is currently used for these applications. In order for this to occur, the recyclability of wrought alloys needs to increase substantially to meet the increasingly stringent government regulations. This need is being met by advances in the technology for sorting aluminum scrap not only into cast and wrought aluminum alloys, but also into their individual alloy groups. The purpose of this report is to review established and developing technologies for sorting aluminum scrap from end-of-life vehicles.

% of cast and wrought aluminum alloys in automotive.