The early years of light metals programming at TMS

Abstract

The symposium “Extractive Metallurgy of Aluminum,” held in New York in 1962 under the auspices of The Metallurgical Society (TMS) of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers Inc. (AIME), was a groundbreaking event in the United States for the entire aluminum industry. As a result of two years of organizing, 55 contributors, 31 embracing the production of aluminum, freely shared results of research done within their companies or universities during this tentative opening up of communication and sharing of data and discoveries that had occurred previously only in a few conferences in Europe. The amicable interactions and success of this meeting led to the beginning of annual meetings organized by the Light Metals Committee of TMS. The consensus was emphatic that sharing non-competitive technology and discovering some of the trends in the strategies of competitors were all conducive to advancing competitiveness of the whole aluminum industry. Raising the awareness of the effectiveness of in-house R&D would enhance the innovations and creativity of all technologists. So in 1970, in Denver, the TMS Light Metals program began its series of annual symposia involving international industries, suppliers, and academia. This paper explores the inaugural TMS Light Metals symposia with the objective of commenting on how selected papers were “cutting edge” and how they influenced the electrolytic production of aluminum and inspired competitive research, improved funding, the attraction of future technologists, and “centers of excellence” for research into the Hall–Heroult process, novel processes, and advanced materials.