The Knight Group are key Aluminium, Stainless Steel and Nickel Alloy suppliers to Automotive manufacturers around the globe. The modern Automotive marketplace demands designs that combine safety, performance and increasingly environmental solutions. The Automotive market is expanding, and when creating vehicles of the future, material selection is a key factor in bringing design innovations to life.

Automotive manufacturers across the globe are increasingly under pressure to improve fuel economy and emissions to meet new standards and legislation. Whilst traditionally, steel was the material of choice, the beneficial properties of newer alloys provide superior material solutions for today’s manufacturers. Aluminium has been popular in luxury car manufacturing for over two decades, due to combining low density, corrosion resistance and malleability. Consequently, its use has expanded across the industry sector. Due to being significantly lighter in weight than Steel, Aluminum allows manufacturers to reduce overall vehicle weight, which in turn, increases fuel efficiency. Furthermore, Aluminium is highly malleable, and fabrication is both easier and faster, consequently reducing production costs. As a result, Aluminium is ideal for body panels, wheels and engines.

Performance Nickel Alloys equally provide invaluable material solutions. These alloys are able to withstand extreme stress and temperature conditions. These characteristics ultimately make them ideal for use not only in engine components but also in a wide range of vehicle components, including batteries. As the market for environmentally friendly electric vehicles and hybrids continues to grow, Nickel Alloy use is likely to increase.

Copper, a traditional workhorse material, is a key material in the manufacturing of both traditional combustion engines and their environmentally friendly counterpart, electric vehicles.