Aluminum alloy is easily made with a combination of different and strong metals like silicon, manganese, magnesium, zinc, and many more with aluminum being the predominant metal. Popular aluminum alloys contain silica, copper, magnesium, tin, nickel, and zinc along with aluminum. Aluminum itself has made its name a brand with the evolving concern for the environment and the hazards happening worldwide i.e., the irregular change of temperature, tsunamis, earthquakes, and all the disasters. People are trying to turn their lifestyle and use of machinery more in an energy-efficient way. They are trying to find some metals which will make an effort to step into a green environment. Aluminum as a metal itself couldn’t do much of a change in making an environment less polluted. So, the advanced version of aluminum has been introduced in the market by researchers which is aluminum alloy. The question that has been asked in the title will find an answer by the end of the article as we will try to cover, the best aluminum alloys that have been used in different sectors of the industries. The advantages of aluminum alloy over steel and the pros that it attached along with it.
What is an aluminum alloy?
Alloy is formed by the combination of two or more metals together with one metal being the highest in quantity. Here, in aluminum alloy, other metals are nominal whereas, aluminum secures the highest position. This alloy is formed to bring out the best version of aluminum. As the features of aluminum as a single metal is not as strong as it is when mixed up with other metals. The aluminum alloy increases the strength of the metal aluminum. There are different metals with which aluminum is mixed up to increase the characteristic features of the metal. Metals like copper, magnesium, silicon, zinc, manganese, tin, and nickel.
There are two types of classification of alloy, one is casting alloy and the other is wrought alloy. Most of the aluminum is used in the form of wrought iron and that is divided into two. One is heat-treatable and the other is called the non-heat-treatable.
What is cast aluminum alloy?
Cast aluminum alloy is the process by which aluminum alloy or any other metal alloy is formed by the casting method. The process where a mold is formed which is a hollow cavity and in that mold the molten metal alloy is poured in order to get the shape of the desired complex metal. Cast aluminum alloy manufacture cost-efficient materials with a low melting point. Nevertheless, it has less tensile strength than wrought alloy. Out of all the aluminum alloys available which will be discussed in the other section, one of the most important and largely used aluminum is Al-Si, which contains all about 13% of silicon, thus, this addition of silicon helps to improve the features of aluminum which make it corrosion resistant and increases its tensile strength.
Some of the common aluminum alloys!
There are some famous aluminum alloys that should be taken into consideration when we are learning about cast aluminum alloys:
- 3105: This alloy is a non-treatable alloy that can be used during cold working.
- 1100: This alloy is very soft as it contains 99% of the aluminum metal which means it contains the pure form of the metal. It used has been discontinued lately.
- 3003: It is one of the commonly used alloys, it has 20% more strength than 1100. It is used in places where tools are formed with moderate strength.
- 3004: It is quite similar to 3003 but it has more strength than the former metal because of the presence of 1% of magnesium in it.
- 5052: It is one of the versatile alloys. It is the strongest of all the metals.
- 6061: This is a widely used alloy and very famous because of its being inexpensive and corrosive resistant. It has metals like silicon and magnesium which improves its tensile strength and makes it fit for the automobile industry.
We’ve focussed on a few of the alloys but there are many alloys and even new alloys are being introduced with time to improve the efficiency of aluminum alloy.
Advantages of aluminum alloy casting
In this section, we will be focussing on the advantages of these aluminum alloys in the sectors like automobile and marine.
Let’s first discuss the advantage of aluminum alloy in the automobile industry:
- It shrinks very less which makes it effective in good filling performances.
- The electrical conductivity and the thermal conductivity of aluminum alloys are good
- The cutting out of the metal is also good.
- Aluminum alloy has low density and high tensile strength, the ratio of density and tensile strength is also good. This ratio helps to have good mechanical properties.
Now, how aluminum alloys work for the marine industry. Well, the marine industry needs metal that is waterproof or has very high corrosion resistance. It should be kept in mind that aluminum itself has a feature of self-defense where it forms a thin layer of oxide. The combination of different metals with aluminum to make the alloy has made it more strong and resistant to corrosion. The clean and shiny finish of aluminum always helps it to be more protective against the germs that usually attack metals.
Unlike iron alloy, Aluminum alloy makes the finest combination to become fit for the marine industry. As it is resistant to corrosion, if the tools stay even underwater for the whole day, they still won’t harm much of the alloy.
Advantages of aluminum alloy vs Steel
Aluminum alloy is lightweight, consumes less energy, is environmentally friendly, and is inexpensive as compared to steel.
Aluminum parts can be recycled and reused which in turn helps to save a lot of energy, unlike steel.
Aluminum alloy has quite a high corrosive resistance as compared to any other alloy or metal present.
Summary
Aluminum die casting has been widely used in different industries. Aluminum alloy casting materials are used widely in automobile, marine, telecommunication, machinery, cookery, and furniture industries. This process produces high-quality, high-precision, and high-performance products. Now, one has got a clear view of the advantages and the importance of the aluminum alloy casting process, one must also be intrigued to know about the company or website which sells the best aluminum alloy which has been formed through the die casting process. Sunrise Metal is one of those sites which provide the best aluminum alloy out of all. One can get their hands on the best item there.