How do I establish the alloy and the EN-AW designation?

What you must concretely do

What is expected of you

The alloy designation and the EN-AW code form the technical identity of an aluminium semi-finished product. Without this data, a product passport is in fact an empty shell: the purchaser cannot then determine what material they have in hand. Article 10 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) stipulates that the digital product passport must contain the product data that are relevant for the product group-specific delegated act that is still to come for aluminium. Until that delegated act is published, the precise content of this section has not yet been determined, but the alloy designation is among the data that in practice will almost certainly recur, because it is already standard on certificates and accompanying documents.

Determine the EN-AW code correctly

A company with 10 to 100 employees typically works with a limited number of alloys that recur in their own production. The EN-AW designation (for example EN AW-6060 or EN AW-5052) follows from the chemical composition as determined by the manufacturer of the base material, and not from an independent assessment based on application. In practical terms, this means that the designation in the passport must correspond with what is on the material certificate — and that these two sources are aligned internally before anything goes to a customer or platform.

Support the chemical composition

In addition to the EN-AW code itself, it is about the composition behind it: the percentages of the alloying elements that within the standard determine which designation a batch belongs to. For a production company, this means that the spectrometer analysis or the certificate from the raw material supplier must not only be filed in an archive, but must also be traceable to the batch that eventually leaves the premises as the end product. At companies that alloy themselves or bundle together different batches, this is often the most difficult point: the designation on the passport must match the casting that was actually processed, not an average or an assumption.

Traceability between batch and passport

A third expectation, which is not separate from the previous two, is that the alloy designation in the passport can be traced back to a specific batch or production run. This touches on the question of how often data must be updated: at how often must I update the data in the product passport it is addressed when a change in composition or batch also requires an update to the passport. For the alloy itself, an incorrect or outdated designation is not automatically corrected; that requires a deliberate step in the process.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of situations recur repeatedly at companies that are systematising the alloy designation for the first time.

The trade name is confused with the EN-AW code. Alloys often also have a commercial or internal name, which does not automatically correspond to the official EN-AW designation. When the two are used interchangeably, there is a risk that the passport shows a non-existent or incorrect code.

Mixed batches are assigned the designation of the main raw material. When scrap, returned material and primary aluminium are combined, sometimes the designation of the largest or most well-known component is adopted, without the resulting composition actually falling within the tolerance of that standard.

Certificates from the raw material supplier are missing or not linked to the end batch. The EN-AW designation may be on paper somewhere, but no one can demonstrate at the time of recording which certificate belongs to which produced roll, sheet or profile.

Old designations remain in use after a change in the standard or composition. An alloy that was once registered as a particular EN-AW code sometimes changes composition without the designation being updated in internal systems.

Alloy and surface treatment are treated as a single piece of data. An anodising or coating layer does not change the underlying alloy, but in some internal records these two pieces of information become mixed up. What specifically must be done with the surface treatment is separate from the alloy designation and is detailed under must I report the surface treatment of aluminium.

What you can document now

• The material certificate from the raw material supplier, per batch, showing the chemical composition and the resulting EN-AW designation.
• An internal cross-reference table between trade names or internal material codes and the official EN-AW designation, to prevent confusion between commercial and normative names.
• A documented procedure for mixed batches: at what point and on the basis of which measurement a mixed batch receives its own EN-AW designation, and when that is not possible.
• The result of the in-house spectrometer analysis or laboratory test, including the date and the method used — this aligns with the question according to which method must I measure the values for the passport.
• A record of changes: when an alloy composition or the associated standards designation was amended, and from which batch onwards that applied.
• An overview of which of these pieces of data ultimately end up in the passport versus which remain only in the internal technical file — the distinction between them is explained under what is the difference between my technical file and the digital product passport.

As soon as the delegated act for aluminium is published, it will be indicated here which of these pieces of data must be mandatory in the passport and which can serve as supporting evidence.