Howmet's roots can be traced back to 1926 with the founding of Austenal, a company which manufactured raw materials and process for dental appliances. Austenal founders, Reiner Erdle and Charles Prange worked to improve investment chrome base castings using two separate investments: The first coating, named 'protective coat", giving a smooth finish, was smothered with alcohol binder investment to obtain a correct expansion. This technology replaced gold alloy with vitallium and was popular in depression time. During the 1930s, Austenal expanded into aircraft engine superchargers with superior castings when General Electric asked for help to improve manufacturing practices for wartime production demands. In 1958, Howe Sound Company, a metals and mining business, acquired Austenal. In 1959, Howe acquired Michigan Steel Casting Co., which provided the monolithic shell process, which uses a ceramic shell with thin, strong walls to increase control of the solidification process to produce a sounder casting. Howe became Howmet in 1965, marking a transition from a mining company to a manufacturer of precision metal products. Howmet was purchased in 1975 by Pechiney, a multinational aluminum company. In 1989, Pechiney purchased the Cercast group of companies, bringing Howmet into the aluminum casting industry. In 1995, Pechiney sold Howmet to a joint venture between Thiokol and The Carlyle Group. By late 1997 the ownership structure of Howmet had become Thiokol owning 62%, Carlyle 23%, and the public 15%. In 1998, Thiokol changed its name to Cordant Technologies Inc.; by February 1999, Cordant owned 84.7% of Howmet.
In 2000, Cordant sold its stake in Howmet Corp. to Alcoa, which put Howmet into its Alcoa Industrial Components unit. In 2004, Howmet was part of a merger that created Alcoa Investment Casting and Forged Products unit. In 2007, Howmet was renamed Alcoa Howmet as a division of the newly formed Alcoa Power and Propulsion unit. On November 1, 2016, Alcoa Inc. spun off its bauxite, alumina, and aluminum operations to a new company called Alcoa Corp. Alcoa Inc. was renamed Arconic Inc., and retained the operations in aluminum rolling, aluminum plate, precision castings, and aerospace and industrial fasteners. Its focus became turning aluminum and other lightweight metals into engineered products such as turbine blades for sectors including aerospace and automotive. On January 31, 2017, the hedge fundElliott Management Corporation launched a proxy contest against the company. Elliott publicly called for the firing of the company's CEO, Klaus Kleinfeld, citing the company's lackluster stock performance, missed profit forecasts and inefficient spending. On April 17, 2017, Kleinfeld resigned as chairman and CEO by mutual agreement with the board of Arconic, after sending an unauthorized letter to Elliott. On February 8, 2019, the company announced that it would split into two separate businesses. Arconic Inc. would be renamed Howmet Aerospace Inc. and a new company, Arconic Corporation, would be set up and spun out. Arconic Corporation will be focused on rolled aluminium products and Howmet Aerospace on engineered products. The separation was scheduled to become effective on April 1, 2020.
