Former ET chairman dies

The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) has announced the death of James Sanderson, a past chairman of AEC’s International Aluminum Extrusion Technology (ET) Seminar and longtime Kaiser Aluminum employee, on April 19, 2020.

Sanderson started his career with Kaiser Aluminum in 1970 as a hot mill metallurgist at the Ravenswood, W.V., rolling mill and held many key positions within the company. He spent the majority of his career as general manager at the Los Angeles and Sherman, Texas, extrusion facilities and continued as an industry consultant to Kaiser until recently.

Sanderson actively represented Kaiser Aluminum at the ASTM International Committee B07 on Light Metals and Alloys dating back to 1998. In 2014 he was presented with the ASTM Award of Merit and its accompanying title of fellow, ASTM's highest organizational recognition for individual contributions to standards activities. He also received three B07 Awards of Appreciation during his tenure.

As a longtime member of the AEC he served on the Technical Services Committee and he represented AEC on the ASTM B07 Committee on several technical issues involving detailed specifications that were critical to the soft alloy extruders in the industry. He was a longtime member of the ET Seminar Committee, which plans and organizes the ET Seminar every four years, serving as vice chairman for ET ’04 and chairman for ET ’08 and ET ’12. In 2012 Sanderson received the Maurice H. Roberts Award of Excellence, the highest honor awarded by the ET Seminar Committee, given to an aluminum extrusion industry professional who has demonstrated outstanding qualities that contribute to the advancement of the industry.