Novelis creates RC5754 high-recycled-content aluminum alloy for automotive industry

Novelis, Atlanta, has announced that its RC5754 alloy, a new automotive product designed to contain up to 75 percent recycled content, has been successfully integrated into the structural components of high volume production passenger vehicles.

RC5754 was developed with Jaguar Land Rover and serves as a key component of Jaguar's REALCAR (REcycled ALuminum CAR) project. First introduced in the new Jaguar XE, the RC5754 alloy also will be featured in all new and legacy Jaguar Land Rover models.

Novelis and Jaguar Land Rover compiled what they learned from developing this new product in "Collaboration for a Closed-Loop Value Chain," a case study issued in January following the companies' participation in the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership's Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Value Chains.

"As a leader in alloy innovation and aluminum recycling, Novelis is honored to work with Jaguar Land Rover to help lead the automotive industry in sustainable vehicle manufacturing," says Pierre Labat, vice president, automotive, Novelis Europe. "Novelis' new RC5754 alloy not only meets the high recycled content threshold required by Jaguar Land Rover's REALCAR project but also it delivers the strength, durability and formability specified by world-leading Jaguar Land Rover engineers."

Labat recently was promoted to vice president, sales and marketing, global automotive, effective April 1, 2016.

Launched in 2008 by Jaguar Land Rover, the REALCAR program is a multistakeholder initiative established to create a closed-loop vehicle production model that recycles automobiles at the end of their lifecycles. The RC5754 aluminum alloy, developed by Novelis to serve the REALCAR program, is designed to absorb higher levels of processed automotive aluminum scrap than ever before.

With more than 40 years of experience in the automotive industry, Novelis says it has pioneered many of the common aluminum alloys used in automotive manufacturing today, including 6111, 6016 and the original 5754, in addition to its own Novelis Advanz™ family of alloys.  The RC5754 alloy further enhances the Novelis portfolio, the company says.

Novelis currently works with many of the world's leading automakers to deliver a variety of strong, formable and lightweight aluminum sheet products that are used in more than 180 vehicles in production today, including the new aluminum-bodied Ford F-150 and Range Rover. Novelis says it expects double-digit growth in the global use of automotive aluminum by the end of the decade and is growing to meet this demand with manufacturing expansions ramping up in Europe, North America and Asia.