With the increased use of aluminum, repairability will become an issue. While aluminum in some cases is easy to repair, its incompatibility with steel’s repair procedures is evident.

Two considerations are required for cost effective repair: proper equipment and properly trained repair personnel, often not taken seriously when a vehicle is launched with aluminum applications. The aluminum industry and automakers have tried to develop a thorough understanding of the technical requirements of repair and are working with organizations such as the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) to prepare instructional materials for training current repair technicians and those in vocational schools. Young students trained in this field are being taught that aluminum repair, “is not difficult, just different”. Different means Expensive in reality.

The aluminum and automotive industries have attempted development of the necessary repair technologies in the following areas:

• Aluminum joining methods include MIG and TIG welding, mechanical fastening such as riveting and clinching, adhesive bonding, and combinations such as weld bonding.
• Steel joining methods are both economical and easily repairable.
• The current dealer and insurance infrastructure have adapted and optimized Steel repair and replacement.

• Aluminum is usually cut with woodworking tools rather than with arc or gas equipment. Optimal techniques and tools for grinding, sanding, and filling are all being researched, but are found to add many additional costs when compared to the current steel designed methodologies.
• Steel metalworking techniques have been optimized to minimize cost.
  

• Cleaning, pretreating and refinishing products for aluminum (cleaners, primers, paints, etc.) are commercially available, but again adding additional costs.
• Suitable sealants and isolation techniques are available where dissimilar metal separation is required, but again at heavy cost penalties to automakers. For example, mylar isolation materials, separating the steel from aluminum contact – thus preventing the galvanic reaction, can add up to $4/vehicle. 
• Steel finishing methods have been optimized to minimize cost.
   

These new approaches have been pioneered at Audi AG in Germany with enormous financial backing, but are slow to be accepted in North America. Changing the extensive existing dealer networks throughout the United States and the automotive repair industry infrastructure as a whole, is more of a challenge than originally anticipated for the North American aluminum proponents. Thus, Steel is the clear choice when a vehicles reparability is considered.

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