16 January 2017
 Categories: , Blog

If part of your metal fabrication process includes making extruded products for your customers, you will be particular about the type of metal you choose, particularly if it's your first time venturing into this type of activity. The reason behind this is that every metal has its own properties that make it more suitable for certain applications. Fortunately, there are so many metals from which you can choose for your extrusion applications, which means selecting one might be challenging. For this reason, if you are looking for a one-fits-all type of metal, here are top reasons aluminium will offer you more than the other types of metal.

High Heat and Electric Conductivity

Compared to its counterparts, aluminium is an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity. This makes it highly efficient in a wide range of applications that require that kind of conductivity. Some of these applications include air conditioners, condenser tubes and radiators. With the efficient transfer of heat that comes with aluminium, you will have vast applications for your extrusion products in the cooling and heating devices of most electronics, video and audio systems, and even mainframe computers.

Lightweight

Aluminium is lighter than most of the other types of metals. This means that handling and shipping your aluminium raw materials and the finished extruded products will be much easier. This usually helps reduce your material handling and transportation costs.

Non-Sparking

Aluminium has non-sparking properties. Therefore, if you are working in an explosive or highly flammable environment, you don't have to worry about investing in protective clothing and equipment that can increase your overall production costs.

Ease of Fabrication

You can easily fabricate your aluminium metals into a variety of wires, sheets, tubes, rods and foils. In addition, aluminium offers a high sense of plasticity and machinability in drawing, bending and cutting. All these give you versatility in terms of the products you can extrude

Corrosion Resistance

Aluminium is a naturally corrosion-resistant material because of the oxide film that often forms on it. This means you don't need to spend a lot of money on coating or galvanisation procedures to make your aluminium extruded products (especially those intended for transportation and disposal of mined products and those for use in marine applications) resistant to corrosion.

While virtually any metal can be used for extrusion applications, the versatility of extruded products that you can make from aluminium gives it an edge over the other types of metals. Therefore, aluminium will simply give you the highest returns on your investment. Contact aluminium suppliers in your area to learn more.