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- Material
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- Aluminium 63
- Brass 1
- Stainless Steel 8
- Galvanised Steel 1
- Mild Steel 1
Strong, lightweight, and corrosion-resistant, aluminium is one of the most widely used metals in the world. It first gained popularity in the late 19th century and can now be found in everything from packaging and gadgets to cars and buildings.
Even though we use aluminium all the time, most of us don't really know how it's made. Well, that's we at Clickmetal are here to change!
As one of the UK's leading suppliers of custom-cut metal, we're passionate about aluminium and its many uses. Below, we'll walk you through the entire process of how aluminium is made, step-by-step - from extracting the raw materials to turning it into the finished product. Let's get started!
The process of making aluminium begins with bauxite, a reddish-brown rock that's the main source of aluminium. Bauxite is mostly found in tropical and subtropical areas like Australia, Africa, and the Caribbean. It contains 30 - 60% aluminium oxide along with impurities like silica, iron oxide, and titanium dioxide.
The first step is mining this raw material, usually done through open-pit mining, where the top layers of soil and rock are cleared away to reveal the ore. Once the bauxite is mined, it's taken to a refinery where the real magic of turning it into aluminium starts!
The next step in making aluminium is refining bauxite into alumina, or aluminium oxide. This is done using the Bayer Process, developed by Karl Josef Bayer in 1886. Here's a simplified overview of how it works:
We're almost there, but the alumina still needs to go through one more important process to become aluminium.
To turn alumina into aluminium, it goes through a process called electrolytic reduction, better known as the Hall-Héroult process. This method was developed independently by Charles Martin Hall and Paul Héroult in the late 1880s. Here's a breakdown of how it works:
And that's how alumina becomes aluminium!
The liquid aluminium is usually mixed with other elements like silicon, magnesium, copper, manganese, or zinc to improve its strength, resistance to corrosion, and how easily it can be shaped or worked with. The specific elements added depend on what the aluminium will be used for.
Once the liquid aluminium has been purified and mixed with other elements, it's shaped into different forms depending on what the final product will be. Some common ways to shape aluminium include:
After casting, the aluminium cools and hardens. The speed at which it cools can affect its properties: faster cooling can make the metal stronger, while slower cooling allows for more flexibility.
Once the aluminium has hardened, it can be shaped into products using different techniques:
Heat treatment processes like annealing, quenching, or ageing can be used to change the structure of aluminium and make it stronger, harder, or more flexible, depending on what it's needed for. These treatments help improve the metal's overall performance for different applications.
After aluminium products are shaped, they often get surface treatments to improve how they look and perform. These treatments include:
Now for the final step: putting the aluminium parts together to make finished products! This can involve machining, welding, bending, and other techniques to create everything from car and aeroplane parts to building materials and everyday items.
One of the best things about aluminium is that it can be recycled over and over without losing its quality. While making new aluminium uses a lot of energy, recycling it only takes about 5% of that energy. This is why more and more aluminium is being recycled after use, helping to make it last longer and reduce environmental impact.
Looking for high-quality aluminium products? Clickmetal has you covered. We specialise in precision-cut aluminium sheets, angles, bars, tubes, channels, plate, stair nosings, and more.
Need finishing or fabrication? We also offer a range of processing services (including anodising, polishing, and powder coating) to make your project a breeze.