{"id":67069,"date":"2025-09-30T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T22:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=67069"},"modified":"2025-09-29T17:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:46:13","slug":"new-alloy-turns-scrap-aluminum-into-high-value-auto-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/new-alloy-turns-scrap-aluminum-into-high-value-auto-parts\/","title":{"rendered":"New Alloy Turns Scrap Aluminum into High-Value Auto Parts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new aluminum alloy<\/a>, called RidgeAlloy, that could transform how recycled scrap is used in the automotive industry. By turning low-value post-consumer aluminum into structural materials, the innovation could reduce energy use, strengthen domestic supply chains, and reshape the future of car manufacturing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough comes at a critical time. Aluminum-intensive vehicles, such as Ford\u2019s F-150 trucks<\/a>, began entering the U.S. market in 2015. By the early 2030s, many of those vehicles will reach the end of their lifespan, producing an estimated 350,000 tons of scrap aluminum sheets each year. Until now, most of this material has been downcycled into low-grade castings or exported overseas, since impurities from shredding made it unsuitable for high-performance parts.<\/p>\n

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With RidgeAlloy, that barrier may finally be overcome. The new material was created by remelting post-consumer aluminum<\/a> and recasting it with a blend of magnesium, silicon, iron, and manganese. Advanced tools such as high-throughput computing and neutron diffraction helped the ORNL team predict and fine-tune the alloy\u2019s properties. The result is a recycled material that meets the strength, ductility, and crashworthiness standards needed for structural components like underbodies and frames.<\/p>

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Using RidgeAlloy could also cut the energy demands of aluminum part production by up to 95 percent compared with primary aluminum. That is significant since most primary aluminum is imported and requires energy-intensive processing from raw ore. By tapping into the U.S. scrap infrastructure instead, automakers could reduce reliance on imports while improving sustainability.<\/p>\n

If adopted at scale, RidgeAlloy could enable recycled castings equal to at least half of the United States\u2019 current primary aluminum production by the early 2030s. That would represent not only a win for the environment but also a major boost for the resilience of American manufacturing.<\/p>\n

How do you feel about Ford\u2019s incorporation of 3D printing? Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0LinkedIn<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>pages! Plus, don\u2019t forget to sign up for our free weekly\u00a0<\/span>Newsletter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to get the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox. You can also find all our videos on our\u00a0<\/span>YouTube<\/span><\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/span>\u00a0If you are interested in more 3D printing news in the automotive and transportation sector, visit our dedicated page\u00a0HERE<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

*All Photo Credits: ORNL<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new aluminum alloy, called RidgeAlloy, that could transform how recycled scrap is used in the automotive industry. By turning low-value post-consumer aluminum into structural materials, the innovation could reduce energy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6118,"featured_media":67071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[125,1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-additive-manufacturing-automotive","category-news","category-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67069"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67092,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67069\/revisions\/67092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}