ALUMINIUM AND ITS

ALLOYS

Introduction

Aluminiumis achemical elementin

theboron groupwith
symbolAlandatomic number13.
It is a silvery white, soft, non-magnetic,
ductile metal.
8% of the earths crust by mass is
aluminium
The chieforeof aluminium isbauxite.

Manufacturing process

Bayers process

Hall Heroults process

Aluminium Alloy Groups

Aluminum Alloy
Designations

For unalloyed wroughtaluminium

alloysdesignated 1XXX, the last two
digits represent the purity of the metal.
The second digit indicates modifications
in impurity limits.
If the second digit is zero, it indicates
unalloyedaluminium having natural
impurity limits and 1 through 9, indicate
individual impurities or alloying elements.

Aluminum Alloy
Designations

For the 2XXX to 8XXX groups, the last two

digits identify differentaluminiumalloys
in the group.
The second digit indicates alloy
modifications.
A second digit of zero indicates the
original alloy and integers 1 to 9 indicate
consecutive alloy modifications.

Temper Designations

Densities (gm/cm3)
Gold 19.3
Sylver 10.5
Iron 7.8
Aluminium 2.8

One light alloy contains 92 per cent aluminium (melting point

660C) with 8 per cent copper (melting point 1,083C).
To manufacture this alloy it would be undesirable to melt the few
pounds of copper and add nearly twelve times the weight of
aluminium.
The metal would have to be heated so much to persuade the large
bulk of aluminium to dissolve that gases would be absorbed,
leading to unsoundness.
In this, as in many other cases, the alloying is done in two stages.
First an intermediate 'hardener alloy' is made, containing 50 per
cent copper and 50 per cent aluminium, which alloy has a melting
point considerably lower than that of copper and, in fact, below
that of aluminium.
Then the aluminium is melted and the correct amount of the
hardener alloy added; thus, to make l00lb of the aluminium-copper
alloy we should require 84lb. of aluminium to be melted first and
16lb of hardener alloy to be added to it.