Replace plastic with aluminum in car manufacturing? This objective has long been limited by the difficulty of giving metal a wide variety of forms. In Sherbrooke, Verbom has taken up the challenge and now supplies big names in the automotive industry thanks to unique know-how.
It has been more than 10 years since Verbom turned to high speed thermoforming. This exclusive process allows the Sherbrooke company to heat an aluminum plate until it is as malleable as possible. When it is placed on a mold, an air pressure then comes to give it the desired shape. A cooling process then freezes the shape of the aluminum part. “We get shapes that are impossible to have with conventional stamping,” says Alexandre Gosselin, CEO of Verbom, which employs 300 people in three factories in Sherbrooke and Valcourt.
Indeed, the classic method of forming aluminum is cold, but this limits the possibilities, because the metal has a lesser capacity to take deformation, specifies the manager of Verbom. “Our thermoforming process will seek the maximum capacity of aluminum to stretch it and give it an attractive shape for the automotive industry, explains Alexandre Gosselin. Shapes can have bends six to eight times tighter than a bend radius in conventional mode. »
Verbom’s goal is to offer an alternative to plastic parts. “We manage to make curves and aluminum panels with shapes that only plastic could offer,” says Alexandre Gosselin, pointing out the possibility of recycling aluminum parts, unlike plastic.
From the beginning of the 2010s, orders from Quebec customers enabled Verbom to deploy and perfect its know-how. Bombardier Transport orders the railcars for the Société de transport de Montréal, while Prévost entrusts it with making parts for its coaches.
Verbom’s innovation quickly aroused the interest of Tesla. “They came, they believed in us, and they invested significant sums with us”, salutes Alexandre Gosselin. The automaker sees the possibility of pushing the aerodynamics of its Model X to the maximum while benefiting from the lightness of aluminum.
The Estrie company has been producing for Tesla for 10 years now, benefiting from both its own patents and the exclusivity of patents belonging to the automaker. Now it also supplies the manufacturer Rivian, and it works on boat body parts projects in the nautical industry.
According to Verbom’s CEO, the company’s success is based on the vision and determination expressed since the early 2010s. Verbom was also able to count on the research partnership with the University of Sherbrooke, a asset on which it relies to achieve its next goal: to move from niche market to high volume production. “The University of Sherbrooke gives us access to its professors and doctoral students who push our limits further in terms of the efficiency and speed of our process,” explains Alexandre Gosselin.
The progress of this work allows the Sherbrooke company to work closely with the biggest players in the automotive industry… and to see great prospects. “We have a lot of plans! “, welcomes the CEO of Verbom.
