News

Feb 22, 2025

On point for the growing aluminum market

Images: Lincoln Electric Aluminum has long been an important metal in the automotive industry due to its high strength-to-weight ratio and versatility, which contribute to greater fuel efficiency. Its

Images: Lincoln Electric

Aluminum has long been an important metal in the automotive industry due to its high strength-to-weight ratio and versatility, which contribute to greater fuel efficiency. Its popularity has only increased with the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) in the market; it is commonly used for battery enclosures. But, as Raheel Khan, manager of global aluminum sales at Lincoln Electric Canada explained, the growth in the aluminum market extends beyond EVs; it relates to a broader shift to greener technologies.

“Anything that needs to be transported needs to get lighter,” Khan said. “This affects tanker trailers and lighter-bodied water vessels. It also affects LNG [liquified natural gas] manufacturing. With the shift away from traditional fossil fuels, LNG is playing a critical role, and that involves the manufacturing of many heat transfer components that are reliant on aluminum.”

To support this technological shift, Lincoln Electric Canada has invested in its facilities and introduced advanced systems to support Canadian manufacturers.

From a welding perspective, aluminum presents unique challenges.

“The common complexities you experience with steel translate to aluminum, but aluminum is more sensitive,” said Khan. “Because it takes in more heat and releases heat quite quickly, distortion, porosity, and achieving proper weld fusion demands special attention.”

Khan noted that with aluminum, the approach to the weld is chemistry dependent.

“You can get cracking and porosity if you’re not using the right chemistry and applying the correct process,” he said. “Aluminum has so many different formulations for aluminum alloys that you are rarely welding the exact same type of metal to one another. Finding the right combination of parameters and materials, the right technology to weld those different alloys together needs to be carefully addressed.”

The welding of castings also requires special attention.

“Aluminum castings are being used more frequently in a lot of new vehicle structures, by welding an extrusion metal or sheet material to the casting,” said Khan. “Finding the right process to join different forms of an alloy without having porosity, cleanliness, and quality issues adds a layer of complexity that steel components rarely have.”

Lincoln Electric’s Aluminum Solutions Group works next door to the company’s automation group, which gives it the opportunity to collaborate and optimize concepts for achieving the best automated aluminum welds for applications.

Lincoln Electric’s Aluminum Solutions Group works next door to the company’s automation group, which gives it the opportunity to optimize concepts for achieving the best automated aluminum welds for applications, such as the company’s Cooper CRX aluminum welding cobot.

A good example of this is the company’s Cooper CRX aluminum welding cobot. The teams had to determine the best wire feeder system, the type of servo-driven torch to use, the correct feeding package, and the ideal aluminum process parameters within the Cooper App.

“The main complexity for automated aluminum is the wire placement and operating parameters,” said Khan. “We help address this with enhanced solutions, such as the Cooper CRX aluminum welding cobot with the Gem-Pak bulk packaging feeding solution. When you’re pulling the wire out of a drum, it likes to stick together and tangle in the drum. The glass gems in the Gem-Pak reduce that risk and help ensure consistent wire availability as the cobot moves quickly from one weld to the next. This results in a reliable solution for automated aluminum welding.”

Lincoln Electric also tries to combat these feeding issues with the wire chemistry. The newest innovation in this space is the company’s SuperGlaze Plus wire, which is designed to feed better on large spools, while also delivering a clean finish—important in areas such as pleasure craft and trailer fabrication.

With its purchase of Indalco Alloys in 1998, Lincoln Electric became the leading aluminum wire manufacturing facility in the world with a complete vertical process, from ingot to final wire (Indalco now operates as Lincoln Electric Aluminum Solutions).

“The materials typically used to produce wire are used for a lot of different applications, not just welding,” he noted. “In fact, welding probably makes up a relatively small percentage of the overall applications of rod/wire metal producers. Aluminum is quite sensitive to the underlying chemistry range required for AWS specifications. A slight variation in chemistry can impact the quality of the weld. It can impact your parameters, such as wire feed speed, amperage, and voltage. That subsequently can impact your fusion and penetration profiles, porosity, and arc stability. One of the value propositions from a quality and operability perspective is that Lincoln Electric’s vertical process helps maintain a very consistent chemistry from lot to lot, so users can reliably dial in their procedure and maintain that through the life of a project.”

From a supply security standpoint, Khan said the sourcing of the aluminum ingots out of Quebec is another benefit, as it takes away the dependence on rod manufacturers which typically serve all applications and not necessarily welding.

To make processes as robust as possible, the company has implemented a strategy that can help improve weld quality and productivity.

“Lincoln Electric's been trying to drive a change in perception, explaining that when it comes to aluminum welding, you can be welding hot and fast,” said Khan. “A lot of aluminum users feel that it is a delicate or sensitive material, so we should weld it with the lowest possible parameters and the smallest possible diameter; but that can cause issues. Lincoln Electric, whether it be automation or semi-automation or just manual welding, typically encourages the hottest parameters paired with the fastest travel speeds. It’s easier to achieve hot and fast welding by using the largest wire diameters possible.”

The use of a large wire diameter has other advantages too, including improved feedability, overall porosity, and performance.

“Aluminum likes large diameters and hot processes. One of the things that we've done with the Cooper cobot is shown that 99 per cent of the applications that come through our lab we will do with a 1/16-in.-dia. wire or larger. We've shown that it can increase the weld quality. It increases the travel speed, so your cycle time goes down, and because you're not limited with travel speed through automation like you may be in manual process, you're able to achieve that very easily.”

With its purchase of Indalco Alloys in 1998, Lincoln Electric became the leading aluminum wire manufacturing facility in the world with a complete vertical process, from ingot to final wire.

With newer MIG pulse modes available, it’s easier to achieve a very clean and reliable aluminum weld. For instance, the new series of Precision Pulse welding modes that create a very stable arc provide users with the ability to weld on material thinner than the wire itself and still achieve a clean finish, Khan explained. And travel speeds above 80 IPM are achievable with the automation setup.

Precision Power Laser (PPL) is another technology Khan sees impacting aluminum welding. With this process, wire is heated near its plastic state, then a laser is used to produce fusion without an arc. Heating the wire increases the overall melting efficiency while reducing heat input.

“We are seeing this technology being applied in automotive for rapid production of components, but it would suit any industry that needs to automate and is looking at laser technology,” said Khan.

Khan encourages companies new to welding aluminum to approach their welding technology provider to get support regarding alloy and process selection.

“We prefer that conversations happen when product design, feasibility, and development is being done,” he noted. “But at the same time, we have been pulled into jobs such as the welding of castings where the quality of the weld is either intermittent or just not where the company wants it to be. We’re being asked to support their desire to get the current production process to a higher level. At the same time, we also say, ‘Let’s work together to better understand the challenges and address them early in the process.’”

Lincoln Electric Canada has its global Aluminum Welding Technical Centre (AWTC) where it can work with customers on their parts and help their engineers determine the ideal wire chemistry, diameter, and process.

“We work together globally to get ahead of complexities I’ve mentioned here,” said Khan. “We do work with customers on-site, and if necessary, we can bring those components back to our facilities to further that research.”

Of course, the further upstream that answers can be found, the better. For that reason, Khan is a member of the Aluminum Association and the Aluminum Transportation Group within that association.

“We’re trying to develop relationships with extrusion, casting, and flat sheet suppliers so that we can work through complexities and have a ready solution for customers who will be using these products,” he said.

As the demand for aluminum applications rises, Lincoln Electric Canada is boosting its capabilities to better support customers’ expanding use of aluminum alloys. In 2025, manufacturers can turn to Lincoln Electric Canada for technical industry seminars and application-specific support.

"Lincoln Electric's been trying to drive a change in perception, explaining that when it comes to aluminum welding you can be welding hot and fast," said Khan.

Editor Robert Colman can be reached at [email protected].

Lincoln Electric Canada, lincolnelectric.ca