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Aluminum is one of the most valuable industrial raw materials because of its versatility, low weight and high durability. It is used to produce castings for a large number of products and components. In this article, we will carefully study the history of aluminum production, the characteristics of aluminum, and why aluminum plays a vital role in light metal casting.

At present, the major players in the global aluminum industry include Russia's UC RUSAL, China Aluminum Corporation (CHALCO), Britain's Rio Tinto and the United States' Alcoa. China is undoubtedly the world's largest aluminum market. As China undergoes massive urbanization and industrial development, it is expected that they will remain the world's largest aluminum consumer and producer in the next few years. In addition to the increasing demand for aluminum in the Chinese market, global factors such as the rise of electric vehicles, the increase in solar panel production, and the demand for packaged food have also led to a sharp increase in aluminum consumption.

However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, recent industry growth has been hampered. Due to worker shortages and declining demand in the automotive and aerospace industries, output in many manufacturing industries has slowed. The introduction of stricter environmental regulations and stricter emission standards is also expected to limit future growth.

Optimism in the aluminum industry after COVID

Nevertheless, the demand for aluminum by packaging companies and the automotive industry looks set to remain strong. According to recent industry reports, by 2027, the value of aluminum per ton is expected to climb to US$1894.00, and the total value of the global aluminum industry is expected to reach US$242.44 billion.

Although humans used clay containing alumina in ancient times, it was not until the late 1800s that pure aluminum in the industrial sense was produced. Danish chemist Hans Christian Ørsted invented the first successful method of separating pure aluminum from ore in 1825. This process was subsequently further developed by the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler. However, these methods can only produce a small amount of aluminum, and by 1852 the price of aluminum was more than twice the cost of gold.

In 1886, American student Charles Hall and French engineer Paul Herrot independently designed a process for extracting aluminum from alumina through electrolysis. This method can produce a large amount of aluminum, but due to the large amount of electricity required, the output is limited.

The next breakthrough in the industrialization of aluminum production occurred when the Austrian engineer Karl Joseph Bayer created a chemical method for extracting natural alumina from bauxite. Bayer's chemical process and the electrolysis method designed by Hall and Herut form the basis of modern aluminum production.

Venezuela's primary aluminum industry

Most of the aluminum produced today comes from bauxite. The ore is first processed using Bayer's chemical methods to produce alumina (alumina). The aluminum oxide is then smelted using the electrolysis method developed by Hall and Herult. The final product is pure aluminum. Usually, it takes about five tons of bauxite to produce two tons of alumina, which can then be smelted into one ton of aluminum.

Aluminum production is extremely resource intensive. Mining bauxite and refining it into aluminum requires a lot of electricity and water. It takes approximately 14,000 kilowatt-hours to produce one ton of aluminum. If renewable energy is not used, aluminum production will have a significant negative impact on the environment. However, aluminum is very recyclable, which does offset the adverse effects of production to a certain extent.

In the past decade, global aluminum production has been steadily increasing. Recent data show that China is still the world's largest aluminum producer. India and Russia ranked second, followed by Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, becoming the largest aluminum producers. Although the United States has listed aluminum as a key metal, it produces less than half of its consumption.

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Aluminum is one of the most abundant metals on earth, accounting for 8% of the earth's crust. More than 300 compounds and minerals contain aluminum. After oxygen and silicon, aluminum is the third most common chemical element. Although its overall content is abundant, pure aluminum rarely occurs in nature.

The unique properties of aluminum make it such a useful and continuously demanding metal. Aluminum is the second most malleable metal and the sixth most malleable metal. It is very light, only one-third the weight of copper or steel. Compared with water, the density of aluminum measured by gravity is 2.70 g/cm3. Using the same comparison, the density of iron is 7.87 g/cm3.

On its own, pure aluminum is not particularly strong. However, the tensile strength can be improved by adding alloying elements such as manganese, copper or silicon. The tensile strength of pure aluminum is 90 MPa. Adding alloy can increase it to 690 MPa. The tensile strength of aluminum increases at lower temperatures, which is different from steel, which becomes brittle when exposed to cold weather for a long time.

When aluminum is exposed to air, a layer of aluminum oxide is formed. This oxidation makes aluminum highly resistant to corrosion. Aluminum also has excellent resistance to most acids, but poor resistance to many bases. The corrosion resistance of aluminum can be enhanced by painting or anodizing the surface.

Pure unalloyed aluminum has a melting point of 1220 °F and a boiling point of 4,478 °F. Compared with other metals, aluminum has a superior level of thermal conductivity, almost three times that of steel.

Aluminum is also non-toxic and completely odorless. Its high ductility and ductility means that it can be pressed very thin and easily bent into any shape.

The high conductivity of aluminum makes it an ideal conductor. Although aluminum is not as conductive as copper, its low density means that it can conduct twice as much electricity per weight as copper.

Aluminum has excellent reflective properties. It can reflect up to 80% of visible light and can also be used to reflect radiation.

Aluminum rheological casting: lighter and recyclable

Aluminum alloy castings are generally regarded as having a series of advantages. The versatility of aluminum allows it to be used in the production of various products and components.

The high ductility of aluminum makes it possible to produce aluminum castings that are close to net shape (NNS). Manufacturers can forge complex castings of various geometries with high dimensional accuracy.

Aluminum castings are much lighter than castings made of other metals. Despite its light weight, the alloying process ensures that the aluminum casting remains rigid and maintains a good strength-to-weight ratio. Many aluminum alloys are stronger than steel.

Compared with any other alloy, aluminum alloy castings can withstand the highest working temperature. Aluminum can quickly dissipate heat, thereby improving safety and speeding up production time.

Castings made of aluminum alloy are particularly resistant to corrosion. They provide excellent EMI (electromagnetic interference) and radio frequency interference (RFI) shielding. Aluminum castings also have high electrical conductivity.

The reflective properties of aluminum mean that aluminum alloy castings can be used to make high-end products with a clean surface finish. By anodizing the product or adding other coatings or finishes, the pleasing aesthetic characteristics of aluminum alloy castings can be further enhanced.

Although the use of aluminum alloy castings has many advantages, there are also some disadvantages. Aluminum does have some typical internal defects that may cause engineers or manufacturers to think twice when using it in the casting process.

The first disadvantage of using aluminum as a casting material is its cost. Although it is generally a cheap metal, aluminum is available in a variety of alloys, each with its own price point. For example, aluminum alloys are generally more expensive than carbon steel.

Aluminum quickly dissipates heat and has a low melting point. Although these attributes can be seen as bonus points, they can also be seen as negative. The low melting point means that the aluminum casting process may cause spillage and damage the equipment. Because aluminum shrinks when it cools, cracks and breakage may occur.

Improvement and Prevention of Aluminum HPDC Mould Welding

Another advantage and disadvantage of aluminum can be seen as its light weight. If aluminum castings are used as load-bearing products, they may have to be further designed after production to ensure they meet the requirements.

Although solid aluminum is not porous, liquid aluminum can hold a large amount of gas. This can cause bubbles to form in the metal during the cooling process. These bubbles will weaken the overall strength and reliability of the component or product.

Compared with other metals, the purest aluminum lacks hardness and strength. Even so, pure aluminum does have a range of applications, but alloys are usually added to increase its overall strength.

Aluminum alloy is made by adding other elements to pure aluminum. The most common elements used to make aluminum alloys are copper, silicon, manganese, magnesium, tin, and zinc. By weight, these elements can account for up to 15% of the alloy.

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Other elements that are not commonly added to aluminum include lithium (used in the aerospace industry), and small amounts of zirconium, chromium, titanium, boron, vanadium, bismuth, and lead. Iron may also be present in aluminum alloys, usually as an impurity.

Aluminum alloy is represented by four digits. The first number represents the alloy category to which they belong. There are nine types of aluminum alloys, and the ninth type is not currently in use.

The series of aluminum alloy grades are as follows:

Generally, the aluminum alloys used for industrial casting are 3xxx, 5xxx and 6xxx series.

The future of foundries is aluminum

The versatility and strength of aluminum and its alloys allow it to be cast using all current metal casting processes.

Mold casting is the most common form of casting used in foundries. It is the oldest form of cast metal and is generally considered the simplest. There are three common mold casting methods: sand casting, die casting and permanent casting.

Sand casting uses reusable patterns to make sand molds. The wet sand mold is composed of sand, clay and moisture, while the dry sand mold is composed of sand and synthetic binder. Pour the liquid aluminum into the sand mold. Once the aluminum cools and hardens, the sand mold will break. Sand casting is inexpensive and is usually used for smaller production runs.

In die casting, the mold is made of steel or cast iron. They are permanent, so once the aluminum cools, it won't be destroyed. Use pressure to inject liquid aluminum into the mold. There are many different die casting methods, including low pressure die casting, high pressure die casting, gravity die casting, vacuum die casting and squeeze casting. High pressure die casting accounts for about 50% of all aluminum alloy output. Only about 20% of aluminum castings use low pressure casting, but its usage is increasing. Since die-casting uses a pressurized injection process, it is the fastest casting method.

Permanent mold casting, like die casting, does not involve disassembling the mold at the end of the process. Instead, use reusable metal molds. These molds are usually larger than the molds used in die casting. The mold is filled with liquid aluminum by gravity injection. This process produces the highest strength product.

In order to increase production speed and product quality, we continue to develop new casting technologies. Although the basic premise of the process remains the same, engineers are creating new methods of injecting aluminum and improving existing casting techniques. Molds that allow computer equipment to be implanted in the forging process are now widely used. Hybrid casting and fiber integration processes now allow fiber composite materials to be combined with aluminum alloy products during the manufacturing process.

Other anticipated advancements in casting and foundry technology include the increasing use of autonomous systems and digital machinery. 3D metal printing technologies such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) have not yet occupied an important market share, but they are also becoming more and more popular. The markings on metal castings are traditionally made using barcodes or data matrix codes (DMC). There is a trend towards non-contact electronic radio frequency ID (RFID) technology. More environmentally conscious operating methods are also being developed, including the use of batteries to store electricity and more efficient molds to reduce waste.

There are a variety of post-treatments that can be used to improve the properties of aluminum castings. These treatments can be used to remove defects, enhance the surface of the product, or create internal characteristics that are not available in untreated products. There are four main categories of post-processing:

Burrs are small defects caused by the casting process. If the burrs are not removed during post-processing, the finished product will not have a smooth surface. There are many ways to remove aluminum burrs. Manual or manual deburring Use hand-held tools to remove burrs. Use vibration or sandpaper for grinding and deburring. You can use extremely hot or frozen metal to remove burrs. There are chemical deburring methods, high-pressure water methods, magnetic deburring, ultrasonic deburring, electrolysis and so on. The most common deburring method for aluminum is die deburring, which combines a special production die with a punch tool.

Heat treatment is used to harden the aluminum alloy or make it more ductile for further processing. Annealing is a process in which the product is heated to near the melting point and then slowly cooled to make it more flexible and not brittle. Similarly, solution heat treatment uses a rapid cooling process to make aluminum more flexible. To harden aluminum products, engineers use techniques such as quenching and natural or artificial age hardening. In order to avoid stress cracks in the finished structure, engineers usually use stress relief methods, that is, heating the product at a lower temperature and then allowing it to cool down slowly.

Vacuum treatment is used to avoid gas accumulation in aluminum castings. The cast product is placed in a vacuum impregnation chamber, where air is removed by a deep vacuum. Then seal the path formed by the vacuum, remove any unnecessary sealant, and harden the finished product.

Surface treatment can improve the corrosion resistance of aluminum, and can also be used to enhance its aesthetics, reflectivity and wear resistance. Common surface treatments include electrochemical methods (such as anodizing) and chemical treatments (such as degreasing or etching). Paint or powder coatings are usually added to provide protection of the elements or enhance the appearance of the finished product.

These smooth surfaces are more than just beautiful

Almost all industries in the world use aluminum. Since the 1940s, the construction industry, the pharmaceutical industry, defense contractors, the automotive industry, component manufacturers, packaging manufacturers, and power producers, as well as different end-user sectors such as shipbuilding, engineering, and industry, have had high demand for aluminum. Aerospace industry.

More than half of the components used in today's automobiles are made of aluminum castings. Aluminum is also widely used to make parts for trains, airplanes and ships. Cars and airplanes can reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by using aluminum components. Because aluminum is light, reflects radiation, and has high tensile strength under pressure, NASA uses aluminum components in its spacecraft.

The construction industry is the main consumer of aluminum casting products. The construction industry uses aluminum in the frames of homes, offices, industrial buildings, sports facilities, and skyscrapers. Aluminum is also used to make window frames, doors, pipes and fittings.

Research on molten aluminum material and/or surface treatment

Aluminum is widely used in the production of various consumer products and industrial machinery, from cookware to tableware, refrigerators, dryers, hand tools, lawn mowers and manufacturing equipment.

Due to its high conductivity, light weight, and shielding ability, aluminum is widely used in computing departments, as well as power producers and suppliers. Aluminum is used in high-voltage power lines, telecommunications lines, transformers, underground cables, and computer components and enclosures. Solar cell modules in the renewable energy industry rely on aluminum.

Aluminum is one of the most environmentally friendly materials used in industry today. It is 100% recyclable and retains its inherent characteristics forever. The aluminum industry proudly points out that more than 75% of the aluminum produced in the United States is still in use. In fact, more than 90% of the aluminum used in the construction and automotive industries is recycled.

The closed-loop recycling process is to recycle the product to make the same product, thereby retaining the original characteristics of the material. Open loop recycling converts recycled materials into raw materials for use in products other than the purpose for which the product was originally created. Open loop recycling involves more processing than closed loop recycling. Aluminum can be recycled in open-loop and closed-loop processes.

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