Fuel economy is a hot topic, especially when it comes to load carrying capacity transportation, such as the trucking industry. Trucks, trailers, rail cars, buses, and even consumer automobiles are now all exploring the advantages of using aluminum to help reduce fuel consumption. While the trucking industry has been working with aluminum extrusion solutions for many years, the automotive industry is just now getting on board. However, experts anticipate that manufacturers will be upping their use of standard and custom aluminum extrusion within the next ten years by over 40 percent. As a result, the aluminum extrusion industry is booming and growing by leaps and bounds.
Choosing a Quality Manufacturer
Before you jump into designing your own custom aluminum extrusion with just any local facility, it pays to take your time and learn more about your prospects. Silver City Aluminum has a solid reputation for working with clients to design aluminum extrusion solutions that will help maximize the return on investment while achieving fuel economy goals. The secret to our success is that we work with each client on a case-by-case basis to develop custom aluminum extrusion profiles or dies that will help to meet their specific needs. This approach can be extremely beneficial to the trucking industry, where every extra pound of weight costs money, both in fuel and the amount of weight that can be hauled in each load.
Located in Taunton, Massachusetts, Silver City Aluminum has worked hard to earn the trust of our clients, doing everything from the initial design and engineering of the custom profiles and dies all the way to quality checking and delivery, to ensure top quality results. We do everything in-house, which means that your parts or products won’t be shipped from one location to another. This helps to reduce lead time considerably but also helps us to have greater control over the quality of each item that we produce. Once production, fabrication, and finishing are complete, we quality check the items again, take it to our shipping department, quality check the items again, and then ship to you direct anywhere in the world.
Lightweight Aluminum Extrusions
One of the biggest advantages of using aluminum is its low weight to strength ratio. While the strength of aluminum is comparable to that of steel, depending on the alloys involved, the weight is about two-thirds less. This can help to reduce emissions, lower fuel consumption, and boost fuel economy across the board. Most of the big names in trucking are now using or exploring the idea of using aluminum extrusion industry parts and products to help reduce the overall weight of their vehicles.
Custom aluminum extrusion offers additional benefits, allowing manfacturers to create custom parts that reduce assembly and increase durability for OTR vehicles. Aluminum is extremely malleable, allowing it to be quickly and easily shaped with tight tolerances into aluminum extrusion solutions. However, once the parts are complete, the strength and long-lasting durability of the aluminum parts and products is another huge advantage. Lightweight aluminum extrusions are becoming more and more popular in the trucking industry.
A Growing Trend
While some might see this as a passing phase, the cost savings and improved fuel economy are very important to business owners within the trucking industry. As more and more companies switch to green trucking solutions, and more consumer vehicle manufacturers look to find new ways to provide better fuel economy and reduced costs, we will see more aluminum extrusion solutions at work. Whether your goal is to design and create new parts for the automotive industry, or if you need to redesign existing parts using custom aluminum extrusion profiles or dies, we can help. Our team of highly trained and experienced technicians can help you get the aluminum extrusion solutions you need at a price that you can afford.
Contact the team at Silver Aluminum to get a FREE estimate on your standard or custom aluminum extrusion order. We can answer any questions that you might have about options for development of parts and products with the aluminum extrusion industry, including which aluminum alloys are the best for your project and the options for finishing solutions. Give us a call at 508-824-8631 to speak with one of our engineers or technicians about your aluminum extrusion solutions and the advantages of using aluminum in the trucking industry.