Over the next decade, a large amount of aluminum from vehicle body panels is expected to enter recycling and salvage systems. Much of this material cannot currently be reused in critical automotive components because contamination makes it too impure. That limitation has reduced its value.
Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are working to change that. The team created a new aluminum alloy called RidgeAlloy that can convert low value recycled aluminum into a reliable source of material for manufacturing structural automotive parts in the United States.
Aluminum appears on DOE's critical materials list because it plays an important role in many energy technologies, including systems used to generate, transmit, store and conserve energy.
RidgeAlloy is made by remelting aluminum recovered from used products and recasting it into a new alloy designed to meet the strength, ductility and crash safety requirements of structural vehicle components. ORNL researchers developed a targeted alloy design approach that speeds up the development of new materials.
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