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  • Transportation

Novelis continues to accelerate the development of its innovative aluminum transportation materials to expand global product offerings for more sustainable buses, trucks, trailers, trains and other forms of commercial transport.

Aluminum’s Advantages

Aluminum-intensive vehicles are not only up to 40 percent lighter than those made with steel, they are also safer and more durable. Given their unique properties, aluminum transportation materials continue to emerge as the material of choice for the industry.

Manufacturers rely on aluminum’s many benefits, including diverse application development for electric vehicles and emerging mobility demands, superior energy absorption for crash management products and safety, and greater design flexibility due to strength, joining and formability properties, enabling better driving dynamics and vehicle agility.

In addition, sustainability improves as aluminum is infinitely recyclable and helps minimize environmental footprints and CO2 emissions. Overall weight reduction with aluminum transportation materials also helps to meet government regulations globally, without compromising safety, comfort, performance, durability and quality.

Driving Aluminum Innovation in Transportation

By creating high-strength aluminum alloys and pioneering new treatments and products, Novelis is the global quality leader in sheet production for aluminum transportation materials.

From catwalks and heat shields to stress panels and heat protective sleeves and mats, aluminum transportation materials are replacing incumbent materials across various structural components, helping manufacturers build safer, lighter and more sustainable commercial vehicles.

 

For commercial trucks, Novelis uses aluminum for enhanced performance and lightweighting throughout the chassis. Focusing on the intra-chassis and chassis hang-on components, Novelis offers solutions for the frame rail, cross member, gusset, bumper, fuel tank, hanger and stabilizer, among other components.

Novelis specialty aluminum solutions not only create lightweighting benefits with the aluminum chassis, but they also provide design and engineering flexibility in cabs. For manufacturers developing over-the-road (OTR) trucks or commercial electric vehicles, the weight savings realized through aluminum usage – up to 350 kg – offers new engineering opportunities for in-cab driver comforts and increased electrical components.

Collaborative Insights

Forty percent of all research and development investment at Novelis is dedicated to innovating transportation solutions. Novelis has expertise in mixed-material construction and provides technical guidance to manufacturers from design to production. This allows them to be highly flexible and cost-conscious when choosing the right mix of materials.

Novelis Transportation Applications

Our Partners

We partner with many of the leading manufacturers in the commercial vehicle industry. From providing product samples in the testing phase to large quantities of aluminum for mass production, our customers can count on us to deliver state-of-the-art transportation products with the same properties and technical specifications, no matter where they are in the world.

Leadership in Engineering Material Solutions

Novelis leads the industry with alloy versatility by collaborating with customers to surpass industry standards in formability and strength. This makes Novelis the world leader in technology development for joining aluminum to aluminum by metal inert gas (MIG) joining and laser joining, dissimilar metals joining using friction stir welding and self-pierce riveting (SPR), fatigue testing (S-N and E-N) curves, tick gauge bending capabilities, aggressive material stamping assessments, structural modeling and novel engineering solutions support, and dissimilar metals corrosion mitigation and testing.

Unmatched Expertise

Novelis engineers, metallurgists, chemists, computer scientists, commercial teams and technical experts work alongside our customers from program development to create new aluminum transportation materials and processes to meet the industry’s evolving needs.

Fast Facts
High Performance in Heavy-Duty Aluminum Chassis

To meet strength and durability requirements, Novelis engineers developed several new high-performance 6xxx series alloys for use in the heavy-duty aluminum chassis and chassis bolt.

Case Study:
Partnership with Global OEM Leads to Chassis Mass Reduction

Working with a global OEM, Novelis co-engineered an alloy that reduced the mass for selected chassis components by 35 to 50 percent. As a result of the partnership, the OEM implemented the innovative alloy to launch next-generation medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicle platforms. The manufacturer also adopted and commercialized the first fiberglass-reinforced polymer (FRP) aluminum cross members and supporting components for Class 6, 7 and 8 platforms.

Leading Aluminum Products for Transportation

Technology and development are central to everything we do. We have created industry-leading high-strength alloys that have become industry standards. Illustrating our continuous commitment to advancing aluminum technologies. This portfolio of products, designated Novelis Advanz™, offers a diverse range of solutions for transportation applications and is an ideal candidate for mixed-steel aluminum applications. We work with our customers to determine the products best for their transportation applications.