Alcoa 2012 Annual Report Download - page 9

ALCOA 2012 Annual Report 7
Alcoans are always looking for new ways to add value for our customers and our Company. And they are great at forming teams to build
on our diversity of talent, wisdom and experience. Innovation is in Alcoa’s DNA from our inventor-founder, Charles Martin Hall. Applying
innovation through teamwork is in our DNA from his sister, Julia Hall, a chemist who helped Charles bring his inventions to life.
The men and women of today’s Alcoa are sustaining that tradition of innovation through teamwork. The scientists and technicians at the
Alcoa Technical Center work closely with the market teams in our business units and our group centers of excellence, all collaborating to
drive the innovation chain from research to development to application. They are guided by a passion to apply innovation to improve products
for our customers and production processes for Alcoa.
We’ve chosen  ve areas that illustrate how innovation works at Alcoa. The  rst three bene t our customers in the aerospace, automotive
and oil and gas industries. The next enables Alcoa to produce alumina more ef ciently and the last bene ts our smelter operation and our
local communities.
Living Alcoa’s Vision: Applying Innovation to Advance Each Generation
During 2012, we began expanding our capacity to meet growing demand from aerospace customers
for aluminum-lithium (Al-Li). Because our third generation Al-Li alloys are 4% to 6% less dense and 5%
to 7% stiffer than conventional aluminum alloys, they enable manufacturers to build lighter and stronger
airplanes. The combined benefi ts of lighter weight and the corrosion resistance properties of Al-Li lead to
lower fuel costs and maintenance expense for our customers. Forthose performance and cost benefi ts,
aircraft designers are choosing Alcoa Al-Li alloys for a wide range of aircraft, including the Airbus A380,
the largest commercial airplane in the world. To meet that increased demand, Alcoa is building a new
state-of-the-art facility in Indiana that will produce more than 20,000 metric tons of Al-Li annually,
expanding the Alcoa Technical Center’s Al-Li capacity by 30% and upgrading our Kitts Green, UK,
casting house to serve European aerospace customers.
Lighter Airplanes with Alcoa’s Aluminum-Lithium
Developing Aluminum-Lithium applications at the Alcoa
Technical Center that provide less dense and lighter weight
metal for aircraft manufacturers.
To obtain fuel effi ciencies that reduce consumer cost and meet stricter
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, our automotive
customers are rapidly replacing steel with lightweight aluminum in automobiles.
In recent years, Alcoa has made great strides in improving fuel effi ciency with
aluminum wheels that are 44% lighter than steel wheels. Now aluminum
use is shifting to more components and by 2025, the amount of aluminum
in cars is projected to increase by 60%. We’re developing technologies to
adapt to that growth, such as a pretreatment for the metal that enhances
the performance of structural adhesive. Because the Alcoa pretreatment
is compatible with existing automotive manufacturing processes, it sets
a new industry standard for cost-effective mass production of aluminum-
intensive vehicles.
Building Lighter Weight Automobiles with Alcoa Structural Pretreatment
Alcoa built the hood for the Cadillac ATS which has been praised for innovative lightweighting
and was named car of the year by Esquire magazine.
© General Motors
Faster and Less-Expensive Drilling for Oil and Gas Thanks to
Alcoa Aluminum Drill Pipes
Alcoa’s innovative and proprietary aluminum alloy drill pipe is a tapered, high-strength, aluminum
alloy tube with a steel tool joint using a proprietary thermal connection technology that allows steel
tool joints to be attached to the aluminum pipe body. Produced in 30-foot aluminum tube sections,
the Alcoa drill pipe is approximately 40% lighter than steel drill pipe and can increase drilling reach
20% or more. Given the weight advantage and less friction, especially in extended-reach wells, the
aluminum pipe can improve rotational speeds and rate, which allows for reduced drilling time and
cost. For many long wells, this process can save days of drilling time for signifi cant savings to our
customers.
Lightweight aluminum drill pipes are decreasing the time
and cost of drilling for oil and gas.