"A" for Aluminum

Alcoa, which has found uses for alu minum in everything from baseball bats to Chippendale chairs, last week an nounced development of an aluminum-based water-desalination system. Refusing to divulge technical details because it now has a patent pending, the Pittsburgh-based company said that its desalting system would be the first to utilize the waste hot water that is dis charged by plants in such industries as chemical processing and petroleum refining. As a result, Alcoa said, it is capable of producing fresh water for as little as 25-c- per 1,000 gal. -- at least 40% under the present operating cost of most existing systems.

Snap-Away Lids. Whatever the ultimate dollars-and-cents value of the in novation to Alcoa, the announcement reflects the thirst for new markets that has kept the $1.38 billion-a-year com pany on top of the industry as the world's largest aluminum producer.

Backed by massive annual research out lays of $20 million, Alcoa's scientists have developed such unlikely new products as aluminum "ice cubes," which have to be cooled in the refrigerator like ordinary ones but have the great ad vantage of being reusable. Alcoa has also come up with a host of innovations in manufacturing techniques. With new production processes paying off in lower costs, the company has doubled annual profits during the past four years to $107,366,000.

Alcoa's business has continued to spurt so far this year, which is no small accomplishment in view of the un certainty clouding such key aluminum users as the automobile and home-building industries. Part of the explanation is customer stockpiling as a precaution ary hedge against a possible aluminum strike this summer. The company has also benefited from the copper indus try's marathon strike, during which it has made headway in its efforts to substitute aluminum for copper in telephone cables. Although technological problems still have to be overcome before aluminum can compete with all other metal industries in a big way, Alcoa President John D. Harper, 58, maintains that his company's product has a "big economic advantage," since "it takes 2 Ibs. of copper to do what 1 Ib. of aluminum will do."

Harper, a Tennessee-born engineer who took over Alcoa's fortunes in 1965, is equally optimistic about packaging, which accounts for 9.5% of sales. Largely responsible is the company's development--and advertising promotion --of the snap-away aluminum lid for beverage and food cans. With most beer and soft-drink cans now sporting aluminum pop-tops, Alcoa and the rest of the industry have begun pushing sales of cans made entirely of aluminum. Another promising market is aerospace. Alcoa provided most of the 1,000,000 Ibs. of aluminum used in the Saturn V moon rocket, is also supplying 105-ft-long heat-treated aluminum plate for the wings of Boeing's new 747 jumbo jetliners.

Investments & Showcases. One of Alcoa's sidelines is real estate, and the company has gone into it on a large scale. It is the developer and principal owner of a number of high-rise urban projects, including Los Angeles' Century City, Pittsburgh's Allegheny Center and Manhattan's United Nations Plaza and Lincoln Towers. It is no accident that such projects often feature aluminum-and-glass buildings, thus double as showcases for Alcoa's favorite metal.

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