Assembling aluminum vehicles in volume

Ford's 2015 F-150 pickup pioneers highvolume mass-production of lightweight aluminum car and truck structures.

The next six months will be challenging times for Ford workers. Dearborn has redesigned its best-selling and most profitable model, the F-150 pickup truck. The tried-and-true, all-steel truck has been jettisoned for an all-new mixed-metal design that pairs an aluminum body and cargo box atop a ladder box frame that is three-quarters high-strength steel.

The new configuration means that the company's pickup truck assembly lines will have to retain resistance spot-welding systems to make the rolling base and also install a far more complex aluminum-joining process that relies on mechanical fasteners and industrial adhesives for the upper structures.