Ferreol Skis wins the Québec Aluminium-Scandium Challenge
Congratulations to team Ferreol Skis, made up of Étienne Boucher, Félix Lapointe, Jonathan Audet, Philippe Gosselin and Paul Gilbert, who won the ultimate honors of the Québec Aluminium-Scandium Challenge with their project “Aluminium-Scandium to revolutionize the ski industry”.
Launched in August 2021 by Rio Tinto in collaboration with AluQuébec, Québec’s aluminium Cluster, and the Réseau de la transformation métallique du Québec (RTMQ), the Québec Aluminium-Scandium Challenge had an objective to provide new applications aiming for the use of aluminium-scandium alloys.
Team Ferreol Skis achieved a considerable feat by surpassing properties of the most performing materials in the industry. The team will receive a bursary up to 100,000$ to finish the development of their project with this new alloy as part of a co-development accord to be negotiated.
It is important to acknowledge the very interesting results of the other two finalist teams. Indeed, Grant Emad-Quan’s team from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, made up of X. Grant Chen, Quan Shao and Emad Elgallad proposed a project of “Alloy Al-Sc-ZR for high thermic resistance conductors”. This team was able to produce electric wires with high resistance and conductivity of AT1 and AT4 grades by a skillful microdosing of Sc. For its part, team EV Technologies, lead by Vincent Darlix, offered to use the aluminium-scandium alloy to manufacture casings for high performing batteries. The obtained results for the alloys of 5xx.x series showed that by adding a small quantity of Sc, the mechanical resistance of this alloy could be significantly increased (up to 180%).
Bear in mind that during the first stage of the challenge, 15 teams from around Québec submitted innovative ideas for the use of Sc in aluminium. Following an evaluation of all the submitted concepts, three teams were selected, last January, to move on to the next stage of the challenge where the teams had to prove the feasibility of their concept. The three teams surely worked intensely to carry out in less than four months their concept to prove the advantages of scandium.
Rio Tinto, AluQuébec and the RTMQ thank and congratulate all teams that participated in the Québec Aluminium-Scandium Challenge. Their implication and innovative ideas allowed the challenge to be an immense success!