Solomon Alsberg selects Alcoa for expanding Russian forged alloy wheel market

Leading maker of forged aluminium wheels, Alcoa, is now supplying lightweight forgings for Solomon Alsberg's range of exclusive quality alloy wheels. Specialising in the niche vehicle tuning and customisation markets, Russia based Solomon Alsberg demanded high quality metallurgy, strength, style and lightness for its expanding customer base.

"Solomon Alsberg discovered that Alcoa offers the ideal mix of lightweight product with pricing, quality and flexibility," explains Razinkin Alexander, marketing director of Solomon Alsberg Ltd. "Alcoa is one of the only suppliers offering forged blanks up to a size of 19in. When machined to their final style, the lightweight wheels weigh just 8.2 kg."

The premium niche vehicle market that Solomon Alsberg serves prefers forged alloy wheels as they reduce unsprung weight on a car, providing more responsive steering and suspension input, increased strength while reducing weight of a comparable cast aluminium wheel by over 20 percent.

"We are delighted to be working with Solomon Alsberg, helping the company achieve significant growth and consumer satisfaction not only in Russia but also across Europe," explains David Yates, marketing manager for Alcoa Auto Wheels Europe. "Solomon Alsberg requires large size, high quality forged blanks from which they can style a range of wheels offering manufacturing flexibility to respond quickly to a competitive market. Our blanks allow them to create many designs from a single pattern forging."

Adds Alexander: "Our technologists are highly experienced in the aerospace and automotive industries and their demanding requests for a superior level of metallurgical and mechanical integrity have been met. Unlike other companies, Alcoa's range of tooling is vast and their quality system ensures smooth progress in meeting our clients' customisation needs."

Success with premium suppliers like Solomon Alsberg follows on from Alcoa's Sixtieth Anniversary of developing, producing and supplying alloy wheels to the global automotive industry.

[B]About Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products[/B]

Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, serves the commercial vehicle, automotive, and defence markets with products used in a range of applications including cast and forged aluminium wheels, aluminium space frames, specialized vacuum die cast products, niche products such as Dura-Bright and Dura-Flange wheels and M-SeriesTM medium truck wheels, as well as a variety of other aluminium components for these markets. AWTP is composed of three divisions: Transportation Products, Commercial Vehicle Wheels, and Automotive Wheels. It employs 2,800 people at 30 locations worldwide.

[B]About Alcoa[/B]

Alcoa is the world leader in the production and management of primary aluminium, fabricated aluminium and alumina combined through its active and growing participation in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses to customers. In addition to aluminium products and components including flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings, Alcoa also markets Alcoa wheels, fastening systems, precision and investment castings, structures and building systems. The Company has 97,000 employees in 34 countries and has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com

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Credits: JRC