Extruder Design & Innovation

Abhay Agarwal, Bhoruka Extrusions Private Limited, India 

India's rapid urbanization demands infrastructure components that are durable, sustainable, and quick to deploy. While aluminum extrusions effectively replace termite-prone wood, existing market solutions fail to unlock the metal's full potential, often resulting in heavy, expensive and poorly finished assemblies. This research redefines the role of aluminum in public infrastructure by treating the door frame not as a product, but as a value-added system. This is achieved by refining geometry to include integrated architraves, concealed fixings and optimizing weight. The objective is to develop streamlined fabrication and installation guidelines to empower local contractors for the Central Public Works Department, Government of India. By significantly optimizing consumption and improving aesthetics and joinery, this study enhances the economic and logistical viability of metal frames for expansive governmental deployment, creating a scalable model for sustainable public infrastructure. It proves that intelligent extrusion design can deliver superior value to the Indian state and serve as a template for global infrastructure projects. 

Sutanay Parida, National Aluminium Products Company S.A.O.G., Oman 

Billet unloading from shipping containers is a common but high-risk activity in aluminum extrusion plants. Traditional methods often require personnel to enter containers to install rollers or remove supports, exposing them to confined-space hazards and suspended loads. Although widely practiced, such methods typically carry high-severity risk ratings. At Napco, where multiple billet containers were unloaded daily, a structured risk assessment led to a complete redesign of the unloading process with the objective of eliminating human entry into the container. A simple mechanical lifting fixture was developed to engage the exposed end of a billet bundle, allowing secure extraction of the full bundle directly from outside the container using a 10-ton forklift. The new method fully removes personnel exposure to container-related hazards, reduces manpower requirements, shortens unloading time, and improves operational efficiency. This paper presents risk analysis, design concept, and practical results of implementing a safer billet unloading practice. 

Justin Clark, Shape Corp., USA

Extrusions are increasingly used in automotive side impact energy absorbing structures, rockers, side sills, battery sides, etc. These applications have loading conditions that require significant ductility, not accurately captured in a simple tensile test. It has been desired to have a materials level test that can predict how an extrusion will perform in this type of application. One common test method to predict performance is VDA-238-100 3-Point bending. This work reviews correlation observed between VDA Bend testing and component level testing that is representative of the real-world loading seen in side impact automotive structures. 

Jeffrey Victor and Michael Tozier, Hydro Extrusions USA, LLC, USA 

Extruded profile use continues to expand across automotive and nonautomotive applications, many having critical fit, form and functional requirements. Small variations in alloy selection, die design, press parameters, process flow, or dimensions can significantly affect part performance. Often, these effects cannot be fully understood through cross-sectional geometry or tensile properties alone. A comprehensive understanding of the entire extrusion process is essential for producing high sectional geometry or tensile properties. This understanding is required for producing high-performance profiles. This paper reviews key characterization methods, what they measure, and how they influence automotive part performance. The methods discussed include tensile testing, ductility control methods and testing, hardness testing, electrical conductivity testing, macro and microstructural analysis, chemical composition evaluation, flare testing, and dimensional inspection techniques. The paper also outlines the rationale for applying these methods, including critical nonautomotive profiles. 

Mads Iddberg, SINTEF; and Anders Nesse, Hydro Aluminium Extrusions, Norway 

Aluminum heat sinks enable lightweight, high-performance thermal management, but fin geometry that maximizes heat transfer can also increase extrusion difficulty, scrap risk, and cost. This paper presents a practical workflow for evaluating and optimizing aluminum heat-sink profile designs by quantifying the trade-offs in a product’s thermal performance vs. production cost. Candidate fin concepts are parameterized and assessed through a combination of analytical estimates and targeted finite-element (FE) simulations to quantify: i) thermal effectiveness; and ii) process and productivity limiting factors such as exit temperature and force/pressure trends. The approach supports systematic exploration of design space and identification of Pareto-optimal trade-offs between thermal performance, weight, and production cost. Case studies developed with Hydro Extrusion illustrate how the workflow screens large design sets efficiently and highlight design features that consistently drive thermal gains without disproportionate process penalties. 

Jiaxin LV, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China 

Wide-thin aluminum alloy profiles with complex cross-sections are increasingly required for lightweight structural applications. However, conventional extrusion is constrained by high extrusion force, limiting the achievable width to typically below 700mm. As a result, large components are often fabricated by welding multiple narrower extrusions, increasing cost and compromising structural integrity. To address this limitation, an advanced wide-thin extrusion approach is proposed to reduce extrusion load and enable significantly wider profiles. Results show that, for the same profile geometry, the extrusion force can be reduced by over 80% compared with conventional methods. Alternatively, under the same press capacity, the achievable profile width can be increased by approximately 3.5 times. This demonstrates strong potential for reducing manufacturing costs and enabling large-scale integrated aluminum components.