Opening up new opportunities for aluminium

Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing produces aluminium tubing for heat transfer applications and is a major supplier of aluminium components for the automotive industry. The company recently started using this expertise to develop solutions for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). Joseph Altham spoke to Patrick Jansson, the company’s sales and business development manager, to find out more.

Aluminium precision tubing plays a hidden but essential role in several industries. All kinds of car parts are made of aluminium tubing, from power steering coolers to radiators. Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing, a division of the Norwegian aluminium giant, Hydro, is one of the most experienced manufacturers of aluminium tubing for car parts and employs 1200 people at 12 locations worldwide. Aluminium is a valuable material for making car parts because it is much lighter than steel or copper. At the same time, aluminium has good thermal conductivity, making it a very suitable material in cars for heat transfer components such as condensers and charge air coolers. “Much of the tubing inside a car needs to be absolutely impermeable, so some kind of metal is needed,” said Mr Jansson. “Multi-port extrusion (MPE) tubes for cars are probably our most common product, for things like the charge air cooler. In automotive, there has been even more of a focus in the past 10 years on lightweight materials to reduce fuel consumption.” As Mr Jansson emphasised, the automotive industry has very high expectations in terms of quality and durability. “One special development was our HYCOT™/® aluminium tubes for fuel lines. The HYCOT™/® tubes have a special coating to give them exceptional corrosion resistance.”

High performance aluminium for HVAC

A few years ago, as Mr Jansson explained, Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing took the decision to expand the scope of its activities beyond the automotive sector. “We wanted to bring our knowledge of aluminium heat exchangers to the HVAC industry.” Having built up considerable expertise in air conditioning systems for cars, Hydro Aluminium Preci-

sion Tubing now makes components for the air conditioning in buildings as well. Whereas for car parts, aluminium is valued for its low density, the key advantage of aluminium over copper in HVAC applications is that aluminium works out two or three times cheaper.

Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing offers a wide range of products for the HVAC industry, including precision drawn tubes, extruded tubes and multi-port extrusions. “Our most common HVAC product is round aluminium tubing for air-con. We offer precision drawn tubes that have excellent surface quality. Installation companies fear corrosion, but we have developed special alloys with superior corrosion resistance.”

The precision tubing is manufactured at Hydro’s factory in the Danish town of Tonder. Hydro also maintains a research centre nearby in Logumkloster. “Our research scientists have specialist knowledge of aluminium and investigate ways to improve resistance to corrosion in cooperation with universities. We used our knowledge of coatings for car fuel lines to develop a ground heat collector. This is a tube that is dug one metre down into the ground and collects the heat from the sun. It needs powerful protection from corrosion as the ground could be damp or even contain traces of fertiliser.”

Innovation award

Besides HVAC, another new departure for Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing is refrigeration. The company produces aluminium tubes for the heat exchangers in refrigerators, and its customers include firms in Italy and Turkey. Meanwhile, solar energy is also proving to be a growth area for the company, which offers a range of products for the solar thermal market. “We produce round tubing for the traditional design of solar absorbers. This is then built into the solar collector. Solar panels are being used increasingly in industrial settings like breweries and bakeries, as well as for heating hot water in the home.”

In 2011, Hydro and the Finnish company, Savosolar, won the prestigious Intersolar award for the all-aluminium MPE absorber they jointly developed. The completely new design is thinner than the traditional harp absorber and also more efficient. Hydro’s MPE tubes constitute the basis for this innovative design, since the MPE tubes contain heat transfer fluid over the absorber’s entire surface area, something that is not possible with a conventional tube and plate absorber. “Instead of welding round tubes to sheet material, the new absorber design uses MPE profiles. The MPE profiles enable a reduction in the average distance between the heatabsorbing surface of the panel and the heat transfer fluid in the absorber. The heat energy has less far to travel and the new panel is 10 per cent more efficient as a result.”

The big picture

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MIG/MAG/WIG/CMT - and laserwelding - adhesive- and foam applications - robotics- and special solutions - handling-/ press- and tolerance- compensating systems - modular production lines - linking assets - quality testing (leak proofing...) - visulisation and data capture - maintenance-/ test- and service center As the renewable energy sector searches for more efficient and cost-effective solutions, Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing has already proved it can achieve ground-breaking results and now sells tubing for solar panels to partner companies in Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Greece. In HVAC as a whole, Hydro’s big ambition is to promote the adoption of aluminium as a replacement for copper, in much the same way that, 30 years ago, the company pioneered the move from steel to aluminium in the automotive industry. Given Hydro’s high reputation in the European automotive market, the growth prospects for the company in HVAC and solar energy appear promising. n