Moscow – 13 March 2018 – UC RUSAL (Hong Kong Stock Exchange code 486, Euronext code RUSAL/RUAL, Moscow Exchange code RUAL), one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, is testing out its new high-strength wrought scandium aluminium alloys with customers in the ship building industry.
The unique Al-Mg-Sc composition of the new alloys was developed by specialists of UC RUSAL and the Institute of Light Materials and Technologies. Its main competitive advantage is that it reduces the required scandium content three-fold while preserving the improved properties usually associated with scandium aluminium alloys. The new alloys are thus cheaper, while still delivering the best possible strength, corrosion resistance and welding seam strength characteristics. This means that the new alloys will be a much more accessible option, rather than an exclusive product. The company has been working on the project for four years, invested over RUB 90 million into it. Pilot runs of the material are already being tested by Russian and foreign companies specialising in production and supply of spare parts for ships. The results of these tests will then be used to develop new alloys to the specifications of customers.
While working on this project, the company's specialists managed to overcome the main obstacle standing in the way of making aluminium scandium alloys a mass market product: by managing to make a big reduction in the scandium content, they significantly reduced the cost of the new alloy, meaning that it can now be used en masse in ship building and aerospace production, as well as in other industries requiring materials that are easy to work with, low weight and use well-developed technologies.
The new material is being certified for mass production even as tests are being carried out. The certification process is expected to be completed in 2019, after which the company will start mass batch production of the new alloys and their promotion in the automotive and aerospace industries.
In the meantime, UC RUSAL continues its cooperation with the Institute of Light Materials and Technologies to develop new scandium aluminium materials for additive production. The company's new material offers the same high-strength properties as your standard Scalmalloy, but the amount of scandium used is 2.5 times lower than in products currently on the market. Work is currently underway to develop 3D printing processes that use the new powder to build finished products.
'The availability of our own raw materials base and unique technologies for producing scandium oxide, master alloys and aluminium-scandium alloys will allow RUSAL to launch competitive value-added products onto the market in the coming years, for which there is wide demand in many machinery engineering industries. Based on the results of our cooperation with both Russian and foreign companies, we will decide whether to increase our own production capacity for aluminium-scandium semi-finished goods,' said Victor Mann, Chief Technical Officer of RUSAL.