Canadian aluminum-silicon carbide composite casting development

Late 1970s / early 1980s Canadian company that developed a cast aluminum-SiC composite. Used by Tom as the prototype example of a composite that traded property gains in strength for losses in toughness, formability, joinability, corrosion resistance, and cost.

Composites are fundamentally the marriage of several materials to get, what the composites people tell you, the benefits of both. The other side of that is to get the detriments of both, which they don't usually talk to you about. Thirty-five years ago, someone up in Canada developed a technique to mix silicon carbide in with aluminum and cast it. So you had a very inexpensive way of making aluminum silicon carbide composites. I can't remember the name of the company, but in the late seventies, early eighties, they were getting press all over the place. There was lots of interest in their material because they were good public relations people.