Alcoa 1996 Annual Report Download - page 15

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transmission component order
for Europe in 4032 product. It
represents new business of
50,000 pounds per year.
Hold the Phone. When Alcoa-
Köfém installed a new tele-
phone switchboard system in
its offices in Hungary, the old
equipment was still workable.
Rather than scrap it, Köfém
Alcoans gave the equipment to
Viktoria Fund, an organization
that helps the disabled in the
Székesfehérvár area, where
Alcoa-Köfém is located. The
telephone system has now
been installed in a home for
handicapped people.
Super Service for Carmakers.
Alcoa’s Aerospace/Commercial
Rolled Products business unit
is building a $48 million auto-
sheet facility in Danville, Ill.,
including heat-treating and
finishing equipment. The new
plant is designed to provide
automotive customers with
new levels of responsive ser-
vice, supported by customer-
driven information technology.
It will supply aluminum sheet
products for such models as
the Ford F-150 truck, Ford
Crown Victoria, and Plymouth
Prowler. Production is expected
to begin in late 1997.
A Boost for Aircraft Plate. Alcoa
and AMI, an Alcoa distributor,
were successful in extending
and expanding a cut-to-size
plate program at Boeing,
Wichita. This $84 million con-
tract will support increased
metal requirements for the
Boeing 737 and 747 programs
over the next three years.
Getting Kids to Read. Alcoa’s
Davenport (Iowa) Works spon-
sored “Reading Adventures in
the Park,” a day designed to
encourage reading for children
and their families. More than
2,000 residents attended, and
500 books were distributed to
children. Reading Adventures is
tied in with Alcoa’s sponsorship
of Newspapers in Education in
partnership with the Quad City
Times, Davenport’s leading
newspaper. In this program,
Alcoa will supply more than
25,000 newspapers to area
classrooms during the 1996-97
school year.
Scoring in Lacrosse. High tech-
nology has come to the ancient
game of lacrosse. STX Lacrosse
of Baltimore is producing high-
performance lacrosse sticks
using Alcoa’s patented alloys,
CU31 and C405 aluminum. The
oldest organized game in North
America, lacrosse was played by
the Six Nations of the Iroquois
long before Columbus landed.
Currently, there are more than
250,000 registered lacrosse
players in the U.S. Their sticks
average half a pound in weight
and consume roughly 300,000
pounds of aluminum annually.
By designing the handles to
take advantage of Alcoa’s
patented alloys, manufacturers
have been able to reduce weight
while increasing strength,
longevity, and performance.
Gold, Silver and Aluminum.
From bats to bikes, diving
boards and javelins, Alcoa’s
Alcalyte™aluminum alloys had
a field day at the 1996 Summer
Olympics in Atlanta. Alcalyte is
derived from a series of alloys
developed by Alcoa for the aero-
space industry. For sporting
equipment, these materials take
the form of extruded, tubular,
wire, rod and bar products from
Alcoa’s Engineered Products
business unit. These help to
make the Olympic equipment
light, strong, and durable. Alcoa
customers use the alloys to
make archery equipment, base-
ball and softball bats, mountain
bikes,
discuses,
spring div-
ing boards,
horseshoes,
gun sights,
and javelins.
Alcoa
also was a sponsor of the
Volvo/Cannondale mountain
bike racing team at the
Olympics. Alison Sydor, riding
for Canada on an Alcoa Alcalyte
Cannondale CAAD3™front
suspension F3000
mountain bike, pedaled
her way to a Silver
Medal in the first-ever
Women’s Olympic
Mountain
Bike
Race.
Inroads in France. Alcoa
received its first production
order from Ford-Bordeaux for a
patented 4032 alloy product.
Supplied as bar stock from
Massena, this material will be
machined to form a sleeve for
the transmission of the Ford
Explorer. This is Alcoa’s first