Aluminum Industry Information
About Aluminum Suppliers and Aluminum Supply Including: 6061 Aluminum, 7075 Aluminum, Aircraft Aluminum, Aluminum, Aluminum 1100, Aluminum Bars, Aluminum Coil, Aluminum
Pipe, Aluminum Plate, Aluminum Rods, Aluminum
Sheet & Aluminum
Tubing.
Aluminum
is a very common and useful metal because of its light weight,
resistance to corrosion, and its ability to become stronger under very
low temperatures. Refined from bauxite via the Bayer process, it is
non-toxic, non-magnetic and a good conductor of electricity. In its
pure form, aluminum is very soft and pliable but aluminum alloys, when
combined with such elements as copper, iron, zinc, silicon and
magnesium, are very strong and durable. Even in extremely cold
environments where other metals become brittle, aluminum alloys remain
strong. Aluminum scrap is very recyclable and doing so saves 90% of the
energy required to separate it from bauxite. Aluminum suppliers offer
several different grades of aluminum alloys, each with different
properties, strengths and applications. These include
6061 Aluminum, the most commonly used type,
7075 Aluminum, which produces
aircraft aluminum, and
Aluminum 1100,
which is the purest alloy. Aluminum suppliers produce many different
aluminum shapes that are used in the construction of a wide variety of
machinery, buildings, transportation vehicles and consumer products,
including
aluminum coils, aluminum strip,
aluminum tubing,
aluminum plates,
aluminum bars and
aluminum sheet. They also manufacture different aluminum products, such as
Aluminum pipes, >aluminum wire and
aluminum rods, all of which are components in industrial and commercial goods.
As far as aluminum supply, the element is plentiful in the earth`s
crust, but the metal is never found naturally in the pure state.
Aluminum is commonly extracted from bauxite ore and then separated from
the other elements to produce alumina, a white powder that is
essentially aluminum oxide. Further processing through smelting purifys
the aluminum to 99.97%. The aluminum oxide is almost always combined
with other metals to form alloys with different properties and
applications. The most frequently used is 6061 Aluminum, which contains
magnesium and silicon. It is a general purpose metal that is wieldable,
heat treatable, and may be cold worked or annealed. 6061 Aluminum is
used to make truck and marine components and pipelines. 7075 Aluminum
is very strong and corrosion resistant and alloyed with zinc. It has
good fatigue strength but because of this, is not wieldable. This
aluminum alloy is not common, and therefore costs more than others. It
is mainly used in aircraft construction, bicycle construction and to
manufacture sports equipment for rock climbers and lacrosse players.
Aluminum 1100 is a very soft alloy, and is the most pure. It has low
strength, and is therefore very wieldable and formable. It can't be
hardened by heat treatment, and is used to make chemical equipment and
railroad tank cars.
Aluminum can be made into a wide variety of shapes and materials that
are used in the automotive, aerospace, engineering, transportation,
marine, architectural and chemical industries and are components in the
production of many different commercial and industrial products. It is
used in construction to build windows, roofs, doors, and siding, and
provides building insulation. Aluminum is also used in packaging,
making soft drink and beer cans, in foil for food storage, and in a
large variety of consumer goods such as appliances, cooking utensils,
pots and pans. It is often an ingredient in antacids, in the form of
aluminum hydroxide. It is also used to make irrigation pipes, armor
protection for military vehicles and aircraft wings. Additionally,
aluminum conducts electricity almost as well as copper, and therefore
can be found in overhead power lines and transport cables. In
automobiles, aluminum is advantageous because it absorbs shock well and
does not rust.
Many methods exist to process aluminum. Aluminum suppliers can use
rolling
to produce aluminum coils, plates, strips and sheets. During the
rolling process, the aluminum becomes less brittle and more ductile.
Rolling is also capable of creating a very thin product, about the
thickness of a human hair. Roll forming can also produce hollow
products like aluminum tubing and pipes by using specially shaped
rollers.
Stamp pressing,
a process where flat aluminum sheets are shaped into parts by a die
cavity and enormous amounts of pressure, is also used to form some
aluminum shapes. In the extrusion method, aluminum billets are heated
and pushed through a metal die under great pressure to create shapes
such as bars and rods.
Further fabrication of the aluminum supply can be done upon completion, such as cutting to length, drilling and machining.
Forgings
are created by hammering, pounding or squeezing the aluminum into
parts. Casting involves two methods, either sand casting, in which a
temporary sand mold is created to make a part, or
die casting,
where the mold is permanent, usually cast iron or steel. This is the
most widely used method of aluminum forming, and it involves pouring
molten aluminum directly into the mold. Aluminum supply can also be
bent, made into a powder, joined by welding or milled, depending on the
desired product.