Month: July 2017

The production of aluminum first starts with the mining of bauxite, a clay-like soil found all around the Equator. Alumina, or aluminum oxide, is extracted from the bauxite during the refining process, after which it is smelted to form liquid aluminum. It is then cast into extrusion ingots, sheet ingots or foundry alloys, depending on the intended end use.

Aluminum Plate

The production of aluminum plate starts with large sheet ingots, weighing up to 20 tons each. These ingots are first heated to soften them enough for rolling, before being fed into a breakdown mill. Here they are rolled back and forth until they become just a few inches thick.

These slabs are then either cold rolled, or heat-treated to strengthen the metal. The highest strength alloys are cooled, then stretched and straightened to help relieve any internal stresses that may have built up during the process thus far. They are either left to age naturally at room temperature, or placed in a furnace to develop strength and corrosion resistance, before finally being cut into plates. All these different processes are defined by the temper designation of the material.

Types of Aluminum Plate

6061 aluminum plate is part of the family of heat treat alloys which is harder and more machinable than the common alloys like 5052 & 3003. 6061 is comprised of magnesium and silicon as its alloying elements. Of all the heat-treated aluminums, 6061 aluminum plate has the highest resistance to corrosion, but it is not as strong as some of the other heat treated alloys.

It has good forming properties, welds easily and has excellent joining characteristics. It can easily be cut, stamped, tapped, deep drawled or drilled using standard methods.

6061 is used in a wide variety of applications, including in the production of canoes, sailboats, trucks, buses, transmission towers, furniture, marine and chemical equipment, mine skips and hardware.

6061 T651 is an excellent, versatile alloy, suitable for all purposes. It has good weldability and strength, as well as good resistance to corrosion and good machinability. It has an ultimate tensile strength of at least 42,000 psi, an ultimate shear strength of 27,000 psi, and a yield strength of at least 35,000 psi.

Aluminum is the most widely used metal in the world after steel. When alloyed with one or more of a variety of other metals, it becomes a lightweight, strong and durable metal suitable for a wide range of products across numerous industries.

Aluminum comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, including rod, tubing, sheet and plate.

Aluminum Plate
The only difference between aluminum plate and sheet is their thickness. Aluminum that ranges in thickness from 0.008 inches to less than 0.25 inches is considered sheet. Anything thicker than this is plate, and anything thinner is foil.

Aluminum plate (and sheet) can be recycled continuously without losing any of its properties, or weakening in any way. Recycled aluminum is indistinguishable from primary aluminum, but requires only 10% of the energy to produce.

Military grade aluminum armor plate is highly valued for its impressive performance standards. It can, for example, deflect a .50 caliber round that would pierce other metals.

How It’s Made
Preheated ingots of aluminum (typically about six feet wide, 20 feet long and more than two feet thick) are passed between rollers under pressure. The ingots become thinner and longer in the direction in which they are moving.

They may be heat-treated to increase their strength, but generally, aluminum plate is at its strongest when it is at its coldest, which is why it is often used for storage tanks. However, it does also perform exceptionally well under extremely high temperatures, and is commonly found around the engine of commercial and military aircraft, where temperatures of up to 250°F (121°C) are frequent.

2024 Aluminium Plate
2024 aluminum is one of the most popular alloys in production today. It has copper as its main alloying element, and offers several desirable properties, including:

• Good resistance to pressure
• High strength-to-weight ratio
• Good weldability, but only through friction welding

Like all alloys in the 2000 series, 2024 aluminum is vulnerable to atmospheric corrosion, especially if being used in an industrial or coastal environment. Cladding these alloys is a highly effective way of solvng this problem, making the surface resistant to corrosion, while adding extra cathodic protection.