**8. Conclusions**

Aluminum-cerium alloys are being rapidly developed as alternatives to Al-Si and Al-Cu alloys. These alloys have good fabrication characteristics and excellent corrosion performance. The alloys have superior performance at elevated temperatures and long exposure times. The use of the least expensive of the rare earth elements and standard processing methods makes the transition to use Al-Ce alloys available for lightweight high-performance applications in the automotive, trucking, aerospace, and other industrial sectors.

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**Author details**

ECK Industries, Inc. Manitowoc, WI, USA

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: david.weiss@eckindustries.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

David Weiss

*Composites and Alloys Based on the Al-Ce System DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89994*

*Composites and Alloys Based on the Al-Ce System DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89994*

*Aluminium Alloys and Composites*

facilitating layer-to-layer joining.

*Structural extrusion produced for the marine industry.*

**7. Economics of Al-Ce alloys**

space, and other industrial sectors.

The alloy system has been used for both the direct write and powder bed fusion. Manca [18] has reported high mechanical properties of Al-3Ce-7Cu in both hightemperature tension and compression testing via selective laser melting. Fine eutectic phases of Al11Ce3 and Al6.5CeCu6.5 were found in the microstructure. High hardness values were noted after annealing at 400°C due to the precipitation of nanosized particles. Kessler [19] used induction heated Al-Ce wire to take advantage of the inherent rheology of molten Al-Ce and the high enthalpy of fusion for the reactive Ce-containing intermetallic. This intermetallic phase enhances the surface energy and stabilizes the extruded filament, imparting shape stability and

As an alloying element used typically in the 1–10% weight range, cerium is relatively inexpensive. Its cost is in the range of \$4–5/lb. and is widely available. The as-alloyed cost of Al-Ce material is competitive with other high-performance aluminum alloy systems. Further cost reduction in Ce is enabled by direct metallothermic reduction of cerium oxide. Luna [20] directly reduced the oxide on a laboratory scale in aluminum alloys containing between 0.5 and 4.0 wt.% Mg. This

Aluminum-cerium alloys are being rapidly developed as alternatives to Al-Si and Al-Cu alloys. These alloys have good fabrication characteristics and excellent corrosion performance. The alloys have superior performance at elevated temperatures and long exposure times. The use of the least expensive of the rare earth elements and standard processing methods makes the transition to use Al-Ce alloys available for lightweight high-performance applications in the automotive, trucking, aero-

technique is now being developed on a commercial scale.

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**8. Conclusions**

**Figure 11.**
