To some, aluminum is just another metal that plays a part in our lives and we don’t really need to know all that much about it. Even if it does happen to be the third most plentiful chemical element on Earth (after oxygen and silicon) and is the most abundant metal on the Earth’s crust. However, this does not mean that you can simply go outside and dig up a lump of aluminum.
Bauxite
100% pure aluminum reacts readily with other minerals. This has resulted in the 8% by weight of the Earth’s crust that is aluminum has the aluminum combined with something else. The most common aluminum containing ore is called bauxite and it is this that is mined to extract the aluminum.
Bauxite deposits are usually close to the surface so mining it can be relatively inexpensive. However, the process of extracting aluminum from that bauxite can be expensive. There may have been bronze and iron ages in mankind’s distant past but there was certainly no “accidental” production of aluminum. Prior to 1886, the method used to produce aluminum required such expensive “ingredients” that the aluminum produced was more expensive than gold. Later production methods were less expensive but do require huge amounts of electricity. About 5% of all electricity generated in the US is taken by the aluminum production plants (smelters).
Aluminum
Although the cost of running an aluminum smelter is high; the total production of the metal is great enough for a relatively affordable unit price for the finished metal. This has enabled it to be widely used in most aspects of today’s industrialized, consumer society. Aluminum is light in weight and, although reactive, it rapidly forms a skin of oxide on its surface which protects the underlying metal (unlike rust on iron which can go right through the metal). In construction, it will not bear as heavy a load as steel but is a more economic, longer lasting alternative where lighter loads are to be supported. Its light weight also makes it useful for the bodies of land and air transport (it is even used for the hulls of some sailboats).
Another of aluminum’s advantages is that it is very ductile and malleable which means that an ingot of aluminum can be readily squeezed (under hydraulic pressure) through a die at the exit from an extrusion press to produce a long length of aluminum of the dimension and design shape of the die. The smelting plants may be small in number; but the low costs involved in starting up Aluminum Extrusion Companies; coupled with the ready market for extruded aluminum products has resulted in mammoth growth in the number of Aluminum Extrusion Companies producing a near infinite variety of profile shapes.
Eagle Mouldings aluminum companies Specialty Aluminum Trims & Extrusions are only sourced from leading edge Aluminum Extrusion Companies to ensure the high quality of their extensive stock of profiled shapes.
