Alcoa investing in Iowa rolling mill

Alcoa plans to invest $190 million at its Davenport Works rolling mill to expand production of aluminum and aluminum-lithium plate for the aerospace and industrial markets.

New York City-based Alcoa completed a $300 million expansion of the rolling mill in January 2014 to supply aluminum sheet products to the automotive industry. The investment created 150 full-time jobs in the plant as well as 150 positions during the construction phase.

The investment announced Monday will involve installation of a 'very thick plate stretcher.” The stretching process reduces stress introduced into the plate as part of the manufacturing process, resulting in a part that can be machined and processed more easily.

The advancement will enable the plant to produce the largest high-strength monolithic aircraft wing ribs in the industry. As composite wings get larger, one of the challenges is strength and stiffness, and the aluminum plate from the stretcher will enable Alcoa to make wing ribs to address that issue.

'This project is a key driver for our continued growth in the aerospace plate market,” said Mark Vrablec, president of Alcoa Aerospace Transportation & Industrial Products. 'New airplane designs feature thicker aluminum wing ribs - especially important to reinforce composite wings - and these enhancements will be possible with Alcoa thick plate products.”

Alcoa said the addition will enable it to serve the existing plate market while also providing airplane builders with the ability to make large wing ribs, fuselage frames and bulkheads using Alcoa thick plate.

Aluminum plate also can be used to make the molds for plastic product manufacturing, displacing steel as the incumbent material because of better thermal conductivity.

Construction on the project will begin in 2015, with first customer production expected to begin in 2017.

The Davenport Works employs about 2,100.