Aluminium is passed through hot and cold rollers to make it thinner and longer in the direction of the roller. In this rolling process, the aluminium slab is either cold rolled or may be heat-treated to increase its strength and rapidly cooled to room temperature with further processing. They are aged naturally or artificially aged in a furnace. Finally, the plate is trimmed to final size. Plates produced in this manner may be used at full thickness, but are often machined into a variety of simple to complex shapes like plates, sheets strips and foil. Sheet, the most widely used in various industrial aluminium applications like aerospace body construction, transportation for automotive body sheet, packaging for can bodies and ends and in construction for building facades. As a standard, as Aluminum Association explains, “Aluminum from 0.008 inches to less than 0.25 inches thick is considered sheet. Thinner aluminum is foil and aluminum 0.250 inches and thicker is plate.” Strips are sheets that are machined into units with smaller width for specific applications.
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The U.S. is the house for some of the top aluminium rolling companies that produce sheet, plate and strips and supply to crucial industries like automotive, aerospace and defence and also to packaging consumable industries. Top key players of
aluminium plate, sheet and strip market from the U.S. are: Arconic, Novelis, Constellium, Aleris, and Kaiser Aluminum. Here is a quick look at their operations and products offerings.
Arconic Inc
Arconic Inc, the world leader in value added engineering and manufacturing, offers a range of highly-differentiated aluminium sheet and plate products for the aerospace, automotive, commercial transportation, brazing and industrial markets under Global rolled product division.
With their breakthrough aluminium alloying technology, Arconic produces a wide range of aluminium alloy sheet, strips and Plate that are exclusive for the aerospace and automotive sector. They are the number one supplier of aluminium sheet and plate to the aerospace industry (fuselage panels, wing skins and other parts), and a leading supplier to North American automakers. The company plays a big role in automotive market’s shift to aluminium-intensive vehicles. Their Davenport, Iowa rolling mill produces some of the largest single-piece aluminium airframe parts in the world.
Arconic’s sheets and strips are also widely used in commercial transportation, building and construction and other industrial fields.
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Arconic’s breakthrough Arconic Micromill technology has produced the next generation automotive aluminium alloys that offer greater design flexibility, strength and durability than the standard automotive aluminium. The automotive aluminium sheet that was produced through this technology debuted on multiple components on the 2016 Ford F-150.
Arconic’s aluminium plates and sheets are also used in U.S. military and other defence sectors as well as in space applications.
Novelis Inc. (A Hindalco subsidiary)
With its acquisition of Novelis, the global leader in value-added high-end aluminium flat rolled products and aluminium can recycling, Hindalco becomes the world’s largest aluminium rolling company in the world. Novelis is the largest single producer of aluminium flat rolled products for the beverage can and automotive industries globally. In the Fiscal Year 2017, Novelis shipped 3 Million Metric Tons of Flat Rolled Products from all its facilities with increased level of higher conversion premium products and record level of automotive shipments.
Novelis is the largest producer of aluminium beverage can sheet. The company serves the most recognizable brands including Coca-Cola, Crown, Ball Corporation, Ardagh Group and ABInBev. Novelis is also the leading buyer and recycler of used beverage cans (UBC’s) globally.
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Novelis is the world’s leading supplier of aluminium sheet to the automotive industry and their products are featured in more than 180 different models and many of the world’s premier brands. The company also supplies automotive sheet and strips to mass transportation system like trucks and buses, including pre-painted and plain sheet for vehicle structures, plain, heat-treated or painted-slit strips and coils etc.
Novelis plates, sheets and strips are also used in a number of industrial applications, building and construction sector as well as in consumables.
Constellium
Constellium is another key player in the rolling industry in the U.S. Constellium’s Packaging and Automotive Rolled Products business unit designs and produces a wide portfolio of solutions on the market. The company has leading market positions in aluminium packaging, automotive, and customized industrial coil and sheet solutions. Constellium ships more than 1 million tons of Packaging & Automotive Rolled Products (P&ARP) annually.
With over 1,000 employees, Constellium’s plant in Ravenswood, West Virginia, is one of the world’s largest rolled products facilities, offering customers the most powerful plate stretchers in the world, as well as one of the largest cold rolling mills. Currently, the Ravenswood plant produces plate, sheet and coil products for aerospace, defence, transportation, marine, and other industrial uses.
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The Ravenswood plate shop is known as a leading center in the industry. With the world’s largest stretcher, closely coupled to the heat treatment furnaces, Ravenswood provides unique production capabilities not found anywhere else in the industry.
The Ravenswood cold mill produces an array of thicknesses and widths for the transportation and marine markets.
Aleris
Aleris, which has recently signed an agreement to be acquired by Zhongwang USA LLC, is a global leader in the manufacture and sale of aluminium rolled products. The company has approximately 14 facilities in North America, Europe and China. The company supplies aluminium plates, sheet and strips to a variety of end-use industries covering aerospace, automotive, defence, building and construction, packaging and transportation. The company ships about 900 thousand tons of finished products from its manufacturing sites in North America, Europe and China.
Aleris manufactures many different plates in various standard and customer-specified alloys using some of the world’s most advanced hot and cold rolling mills. High-quality aluminum plates from Aleris meet the most demanding standards of some of the top aerospace and automotive companies in the world. The company has world-class automotive aluminium manufacturing facilities that provide customers with state-of-the-art lightweight solutions.
Aleris is also a leading supplier of common-alloy, mill-finish (bare) sheet made from recycled aluminum via two different methods: direct-chill and continuous-cast.
Kaiser Aluminum
Kaiser Aluminum is a leading producer of fabricated aluminium products for aerospace/high strength, general engineering, automotive and custom industrial applications. Their expansive aluminium rolling product offering from the Trentwood, WA plant includes plate, sheet, strips and wire.
Kaiser Aluminum offers
aluminium plate, sheet and coil products specially tailored for the aerospace and high-strength market. Kaiser has recently introduced a new KaiserSelect Aerospace Plate product AA7099, now specified for a structural application on a current production twin-aisle aircraft. The plates are engineered to provide an optimum combination of high strength, corrosion performance, and high toughness. This new alloy creates airframe lightweighting opportunities for wing structures such as ribs, spars and skins, as well as fuselage applications.
The plates are designed to streamline manufacturing processes in aerospace fabrication and ideal for simple to moderately complex parts and have been adopted by major aircraft manufacturers around the world.
(N.B. The listing is made based on their product offerings, production and shipment, market reach and end user profiles. The numbers are from the last reported figures. The sequence is dynamic and subject to market changes and any other possible changes in the mentioned components.)