SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS WITH LIGHTWEIGHT COMPONENTS

ALCAN COMPOSITE STRUCTURES Alcan Airex AG Park Altenrhein CH-9423 Altenrhein, Switzerland Tel.: +41 71 858 48 48 Fax.: +41 71 858 48 58 www.alcancompositestructures.com acs.info@alcan.com

ALCAN COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

PHILOSOPHY, LOCATION

OUR PERFORMANCE YOUR BENEFIT

Alcan Inc. (NYSE, TSX: AL) is a leading global materials company, delivering high quality products, engineered solutions and services worldwide. With world-class technology and operations in bauxite mining, alumina processing, primary metal smelting, power generation, aluminium fabrication, engineered solutions as well as flexible and specialty packaging, todays Alcan is well positioned to meet and exceed its customers needs. PROCESSES RTM: Resin transfer moulding I structural components with high performance fibers in single skin, sandwich or hollow construction I for more than 10000 components / year / tool I dimensions up to 3 x 2 x 1 m VAC: Vacuum assisted resin infusion I three dimensional sandwich constructions with glass fiber reinforced plastic layers and rigid foam as core material I up to 500 components / year / tool I dimensions up to 6 x 4 x 4 m AVT: ALCAN vacuum bonding technology I two dimensional sandwich structures with aluminum skins and rigid foam core I up to 1000 components / year / tool I with fastening aluminum profiles I aluminum reinforcements, inserts I dimensions up to 2,5 x 20 m PERFORMANCE I Design I F-E analysis I Project Management I Pattern and mould production I Testing / Prototyping I Series production RANGE OF APPLICATION Automotive and bus industry Structural / automotive components such as engine hatches, deflectors, baffle plates, rollbars and body panels

Alcan Composite Structures is located at Altenrhein, in the north-eastern part of Switzerland, at the Lake of Constance. It is the leading company in development, design and fabrication of lightweight systems for the transportation and automotive industry. Alcan Composite Structures is part of Alcan Inc. A highly skilled workforce of 140 employees manufactures a wide portfolio of composite products, ranging from front cabins, roofs and floors for rail vehicles, structural components for the automotive industry to sandwich panels for the construction of buses, using state-of-the-art composite technology and advanced design and manufacturing methods. Components for exclusive sport cars like engine hatches and spoilers belong to the product line as well as highly complex propellers in cooling units for industrial application. The production area includes over 8500 m2 and the attached warehouse stores tooling and production material in excess of 22000 m3. Alcan Composite Structures is certified to ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:1999.

Rolling stock, buses Large structural components in the railway and bus industry, drivers cabs, interior decorating covers, lower covers, roofs and fairing Rolling stock, buses Composite structures of aluminum and rigid foam for flat or curved components such as floors, intermediate floors, roofs, side panels

YOUR BENEFIT I Lasting solutions I Freedom of design I Modular construction I Cost saving

TRANSPORTATION

Customised solutions for transportation vehicles from buses to high-speed trains. Alcan Composite Structures long-standing partnership with the worlds leading rolling stock manufacturers and bus builders form the basis for continued growth in these sectors. Many of Europes leading bus builders and rolling stock manufacturers benefit from two decades experience in Alcans bonding and vacuum injection technologies. Flat, single curved or 3-dimensional sandwich elements with best weight / stiffness ratio, suited for aluminium or steel car bodies, gain high recognition in all transportation vehicles. More than 4000 cabins and front masks are in successful commercial service with operators ranging from Hiroshima over Kuala Lumpur, all over Eastern and Western Europe to the United States of America. Alcan Composite Structures is also the leading manufacturer for large construction parts like roofs, walls and floors in adhesive bonded sandwich technology. Alcan Composite Structures delivers cabins for trams, light rail vehicles, mainline, regional, commuter, intercity and high speed trains up to magnetic levitation vehicles such as the Transrapid.

These products are designed to meet challenging customer needs and specifications, with regard to top speed, thermal and acoustic insulation, penetration resistance, fire protection and general mechanical properties. All these requirements are converted by Alcan Composite Structures into the definition and dimensioning of the sandwich structure, including the selection of the appropriate core material. The advantage of partially or fully equipped cabins is the possibility to subassembly cabins in clean, undisturbed places with excellent accessibility and beneficial labour costs. These operations are performed most economically prior to fitting of windshield and side windows. The mating of the cabin to the car body is done easily by an elastic, adhesive bonding operation and does not require any additional mechanical fastening systems. Other benefits from glass-fibre reinforced plastic constructions are evident by means of corrosionresistance, excellent RAMS values and unrivalled easy repair compared to metal structures in case of damages or collisions. Alcan Composite Structures offers here standard repair manuals, damage evaluation and further technical assistance.

Our experience in delivering sandwich composites to the transportation industry comprises a diversified portfolio of large scale components as: - Roofs or equipped roof modules - Floors for covering or structural usage - Hatches for exterior or interior applications - Acoustically insulated sandwich panels - Fire protected sandwich panels - Structural reinforcements in general Alcan Composite Structures sandwich technology offers all customers individual solutions for an economical appropriate way to better meet challenges rising-up in context of weight saving, increased efficiency of manufacture and high flexibility to better meet end-customers demands. Customised structural mechanical properties of Alcan Composite Structures sandwich appli-cations are achieved by combining light metal sheet materials and integrated profiles to different types of core materials, all qualified to meet high end specifications of the product. The Alcan vacuum bonding technology is designed to the integration of joining functions for the car body assembling and for the fixation of attached parts with the best design flexibility to deliver finished products which

can be incorporated in the customers process chain at the latest time. This allows our customers to benefit from modular production steps optimising final assembly times, ergonomics and infrastructure in their production lines. Our sandwich applications give proven potentials to lower total costs and to increase production capacities in comparison to conventional assemblies. Best corrosion resistant surfaces and homogeneous material properties allow flexible cut-out placement and assembling possibilities e.g. by bonding standardised C-profiles to the panel. Coil-coated surfaces can be offered for visible and decorating, innovative purposes. The Alcan vacuum bonding technology fulfils return on investment for batch production to series of several thousand components per year. A variety of existing vacuum moulds are available to manufacture one-piece panels of different 2dimensional shapes, any length and widths typically needed for transportation body structures. Strategic partnerships to our suppliers and developing capacities within Alcan allow further customising and strengthen the reliability of our established solutions.

AUTOMOTIVE

INDUSTRY, NEW PRODUCTS

Experience and innovation two main drivers for Alcan Composite Structures` activities in the automotive sector lead to reliable lightweight solutions for world `s leading car manufactures. Based on long range experience and challenging requirements Alcan Composite Structures develops and manufactures structural parts and body components for top performance cars. Alcan Composite Structures automotive solutions meet the highest quality standards in a costeffective way. The reliability of the products in daily use and the excellent supply services are the basics for sustainable customer satisfaction and continuous growth in a highly competitive market. Alcan Composite Structures is a real development and manufacturing partner for components who supports the trend towards improved safety and advanced performance. Using the multi-material and multi-process approach Alcan Composite Structures is able to shape customised solutions and processes. The services range from development of raw parts production up to JITdeliveries of fully equipped modules including system responsibility.

Integration of grown know how and state-ofthe- art technologies support the customer in the co-engineering process. The availability of in-house tooling and a well working network facilitate dependable short realisation times from design to prototyping and to series approval. Alcan Composite Structures` motivated staff is dedicated to creating innovative solutions for better cars.

Alcan Composite Structures uses its experience in composites to develop new products for transportation, automotive and industry customers. Our development partners benefit from Alcan Composite Structures applied production technologies to realise new ideas for modern and economical products in composite design. Our specialists are constantly improving the manufacturing processes to meet the targets of our customers for the serial production of composite parts. GFRP ventilator An example for the successful use of composites can be found in an industry application. One of our new products is a GFRP ventilator for cooling towers. The use of composites enables complex aerodynamic blade profiles for high air flow by significantly reduced noise. Manufactured in RTM technology (Resin Transfer Moulding) the sandwich ventilator blades have an outstanding stability, precision and lifetime. Serial production of CFRP parts in RTM technology Especially the automotive companies are asking for lighter components with quantities up to thousands of parts/year. The weight saving which is

achievable with high performance composites e.g. CFRP needs to be integrated not only in high-end , cars. We believe in the potential of our developed RTM process for serial production up to 35000 parts/year. The verification of a five minutes cycle time is reached, we are prepared. We are convinced that structural composite parts will play an important role for future cars because of weight and lower investment costs. In cooperation with automotive customers different structural parts were developed and weight savings of up to 50% were achieved. CFRP floor structure (single piece) Alcan Composite Structures supports and initiates activities of composite research. An entire floor structure of a passenger car which was developed within an European Community funded project was manufactured by Alcan Composite Structures. The carbon fibre reinforcement plastic floor was manufactured as a single piece using RTM technology. The part includes both monolithic CFRP and foam core sandwich construction and inserts for load introductions are integrated in the part manufacture.