USES FOR ALUMINIUM

Aluminium is the most plentiful metal in the earth's crust. It is found in the form of aluminium oxide in an ore called bauxite (so called because it was first discovered in les Baux de Provence in France). Bauxite also contains titanium, silicon and iron oxides, which give it its red colour.

Aluminium production is highly beneficial to us as consumers, providing strong but lightweight commodities for use in building and construction, transport, consumer durables, packaging, electrical, machinery and equipment.

Aluminium will play an increasingly important role in an environmentally aware economy. Some of the benefits are:

  • Weight reduction in vehicles. This helps reduce fuel consumption and, as a result, carbon dioxide emissions.
  • Recycling. This has led to the development of a whole recycling industry that mainly focuses on cast automotive parts. Unlike other materials, aluminium products are not dumped at the end of their life cycle.
  • Corrosion resistance. Experience of construction, civil engineering and shipbuilding applications over several decades has shown that aluminium is extremely resistant to atmospheric corrosion in a rural, urban or marine environment, even when uncoated.

Another major benefit in recycling aluminium is the saving that’s achieved in energy, with a 95% reduction in the energy that’s required to produce molten aluminium from bauxite. Each tonne of recycled aluminium represents a saving of up to seven tonnes in bauxite.

In Australia, around 10% of total aluminium consumption is derived from recycled material. Recycled aluminium is known as secondary aluminium.

Aluminium from Tomago's potlines is 99.8% pure, but most aluminium is alloyed with other products to obtain metals with particular properties, for example:

  • Copper increases the strength and hardness and makes the alloy heat-treatable
  • Magnesium increases tensile strength, resistance to marine corrosion, weld ability and hardness
  • Manganese increases strength and resistance to corrosion
  • Silicon lowers the melting point and improves castability
  • Zinc improves strength and hardness.

Aluminium and its alloys provide a very useful range of properties for use in industry and commerce.

No other metal can be fashioned into the myriad of shapes in a variety of processes required for its everyday use in industry and commerce, in the home, on the roads, in the air, and on the water.

Aluminium alloys are:

  • very lightweight (about 1/3 the mass of an equivalent volume of steel or copper) but with alloying can become very strong
  • excellent thermal conductors; excellent electrical conductors (on a weight-for-mass basis, aluminium will conduct more than twice as much electricity as copper)
  • highly reflective to radiant energy in the electromagnetic spectrum
  • highly corrosion resistant in air and water (including sea water)
  • highly workable and can be formed into almost any structural shape
  • non-magnetic
  • non-toxic
  • attractive.

Reflecting aluminium’s attractive properties in many diverse applications, Australian per capita consumption of aluminium has risen from around 10 kilos to just over 20 kilos since 1972.

SOME END USES OF ALUMINIUM

Building & Construction Industry:

  • door and window frames
  • wall cladding, roofing, awnings.

Manufacture of Electrical Products:

  • high tension power lines, wires, cables, busbars
  • components for television, radios, refrigerators and air-conditioners .

Packaging & Containers:

  • beverage cans, bottle tops
  • foil wrap, foil semi-rigid containers.

Cooking Utensils:

  • kettles and saucepans.

Aeronautical, Aviation & Automotive Industries:

  • propellers
  • aeroplane and vehicle body sheet
  • gearboxes, motor parts.

Leisure Goods:

  • tennis racquets, softball bats
  • indoor and outdoor furniture.