Novelis Inc., the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, today announced it has agreed to partner with Impression Technologies to explore innovative ways to increase the broader adoption of aluminum through the hot stamping process. Impression Technologies has the exclusive rights to Hot Form Quench (HFQ®), a unique technology used to design and manufacture components using ultra high-strength aluminum for the high volume automotive and transport markets.
This partnership reflects Novelis' strategy to collaborate with partners across the automotive and aluminum industries that are developing products and processes to achieve innovative and cost-effective solutions for lightweighting vehicles. Novelis will utilize ultra high-strength alloys, such as 7000 series, that offer higher levels of strength and lightweighting to compete with hot formed Boron steel in a wide range of strength and safety driven parts of automotive structures. Impression's HFQ hot stamping technology is an enabler for new vehicle design applications in both aluminum-intensive vehicles as well as mix-material architectures.
"Combining our most advanced high strength aluminum alloys with hot stamping allows automotive designers and engineers to push the limits of what is possible for next-generation vehicle architectures," said Todd Summe, Chief Research and Development Officer, Novelis Inc. "By leveraging the expertise of technology suppliers like Impression Technologies and others, Novelis is able to provide solutions to our customers' most demanding requirements throughout their development journey."
As automakers continue to adopt aluminum into vehicle design and use hot stamping technology, Novelis will work with Impression Technologies and other partners to share knowledge and best-practices with OEMs and Tier One suppliers to accelerate adoption of aluminum light-weighting as a global standard.
"We are delighted to be working with Novelis to accelerate the adoption of ultra high-strength aluminium formed using HFQ into the volume automotive and transport markets," said Jonathan Watkins, Chief Executive Officer of Impression Technologies.
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