Aluminum prepares for its next big leap

Ford's F-Series blockbuster was just the beginning. New Micromill processes now in pilot phase aim to bring vastly stronger and more formable and recyclable light-alloy materials at higher capacity, says Alcoa's Mike Murphy.

Mike Murphy will never forget the day in 2011 at Ford World Headquarters when the aluminum industry won its biggest automotive prize: the blockbuster deal to supply the new aluminum-intensive F-Series trucks. Murphy stood nearby while his boss, Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, co-signed the supply contract along with Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

“Everyone there recognized the historic event that was taking place that day,” Murphy, who is Alcoa's VP Commercial Global Automotive, recalled. “And when the signatures were finished, we laughed when we saw what Mulally had written next to his name: ‘Have fun!’”