Ford plans to build future F-150 models with stronger yet lighter aluminum material.
The automaker already uses aluminum for the F-150's body which come from various suppliers. This time however, the company said that it will soon start using a new type of aluminum for some parts of the F-150 towards the latter part of the year.
In order to fulfill such plan, Ford has entered into a partnership with aluminum producer Alcoa which will allow the auto maker to produce more parts such as fenders that are built with the new aluminum material.
The F-150 is now considered as the company's top-selling and highly profitable model. Likewise, the truck is the first mass-market vehicle in the industry which is built with an aluminum body.
If using the new aluminum material will go on as planned, Ford will be able to make the truck weigh 700 pounds lighter (317 kilos) than the earlier model with fuel efficiency increased by 5 up to 29 percent.
Raj Nair, Ford's product development chief, sees a huge potential in using aluminum.
"The fact that we're collaborating on technology at this scale shows a pretty big commitment on both our parts," said Nair.
Alcoa, on its part, said that it will use a production process dubbed "Micromill" which should be able to quickly produce aluminum coils in a span of only 20 minutes as compared to the previous time period of 20 days. The process is indeed much faster since molten metal is immediately formed into coils, cutting the need to pour it into ingots.
"That's how disruptive and revolutionary it is," said Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO of Alcoa.
Increasing the speed of producing aluminum seemed to have a number of benefits. This include the added assurance that there will be no shortage of the material since the auto industry needs it in order to cut down the weight of vehicles. Another is the potentiality of making more fuel efficient vehicles which would allow auto makers to meet the newly prescribed efficiency standards set to be in full force by 2025.
In a 2014 report by Ducker Worldwide, it was estimated that in 2025, 18 percent of all vehicles will be made with aluminum bodies. The number is definitely a huge one to reckon with considering the fact that the current percentage is lower than 1.
Kleinfeld added that using the new process, Alcoa will now be able to produce car parts that are made of the type of aluminum which had previously been impossible to achieve.
Alcoa will be supplying aluminum for the 2016 F-150 vehicle models of Ford. There is no information on the specific type of alloy it plans to use.
"After working on the F-150 it was clear we would not stop there," said Kleinfeld.
