- Aluminum Manufacturing
- Technical Description of Aluminum
- Aluminum is the most abundant of all the P/M (Powder Metallurgy) products. In nature, it fails to appear in its pure form and therefore requires a production process to make it pure. In order to extract aluminum from its ores, there is a need to apply a lot of energy. Aluminum resists corrosion and it is easy to recycle. It is light in weight but depict to be tough. Aluminum is the most recommended P/M product used in industrial atmospheres and water without any necessary need of using protective coatings. However, one may need to use coatings for higher strengths of aluminum alloys.
- Aluminum has to go through the process of smelting and alloying while in form of alumina. The alumina is usually smelted while using an electric current. Aluminum is strong and therefore eligible to use in most industrial applications. It offers a significance unique combination of being light and having high strengths. Aluminum is appropriate for most of the applications that involve explosive materials. It can also be used in highly flammable environments. Aluminum does not acquire a magnetic charge and therefore eligible to use in most of the high-voltage applications. It does not burn even in high temperatures and it fails to produce toxic fumes. Engineers can join all the aluminum profiles by using various methods to create a number of manufacturing products.
- The Advantages of Choosing Aluminum Metal in Production
- Material Properties
- One of the metal properties that favor the production of production of aluminum is that it has low density. Comparing with other metals, aluminum seem to be the only having many strong alloys that are produced. The other advantage of aluminum metal is that it contains a high thermal and electrical conductivity. Because of this advantage, less amount of electricity is required during secondary production. Aluminum also is a non-magnetic metal and therefore most of the time does not attract other metal related particles especially during the process of production. Aluminum is also highly ductile and therefore eligible in many uses. Being ductile means that aluminum can be deformed into different structure without being fractured. The advantage of using aluminum metal is that it can be formed into wires has a strong metallic bond.
- Another reason why one would opt to chose aluminum as metal production in manufacturing is that its alloys can be turned into various different forms. The alloys can be cast, rolled, machined, and therefore able to make quite a significant number of materials. There is an advantage of making a number of materials while using Aluminum. The other advantage of using this type of metal product is that it is high corrosion resistance. Most of the aluminum alloy tends to high in the electromotive series and therefore ought to be active metals. However, they are resistance to widespread used because of being corrosion resistance. The facts that aluminum is corrosion resistance result in making it have less cost for normal storage. This is because the metal does not require any extra and special coatings.
- Comparing alumina with other metals, one of the advantages of aluminum is that it is has lower density. This makes the metal easy to translate into various types of properties that contribute to the processing and the economic benefit of the metal. Moreover, an individual may opt to go for aluminum because its lower density contributes to a lighter weight. This makes it possible to have a higher volume of parts that may cost less compared to other P/M alloys. The higher amounts of volume of parts also contribute into greater productivity in the sintering operation and therefore resulting to low shipping costs. In the manufacturing sector of aluminum, it has more advantage of finishing characteristics that are not available in other P/M products.
- There is an economic advantage while using aluminum especially in the fabrication area. All of the aluminum alloys exhibit an excellent compressibility. While using the alloys in the fabrication area, they depict a significant advantage as they yield a high density at low compaction and ejection pressures. The lower pressures make it possible for the use of smaller and faster press that helps in making of lager parts. In other cases use of aluminum helps in applying multiple cavity tooling.
- Another economic advantage of aluminum is that its lower compaction pressures offer a great advantage in designing. The metal has very little chance of damage because of the compaction pressures. Tool breakage is less likely to occur when operating with all aluminum alloys. While considering the sintering temperatures for aluminum parts, they depict to be much lower when comparing with other P/M parts. This means that there is less use of energy in the production process of aluminum. The gases used in the sintering process of aluminum tend to be more economical compared to those gases used in the same process of other P/M products.
- Another economic advantage of aluminum is that its atmosphere choice tends to be a low due point of nitrogen. Most of other P/M parts tend to combine both hydrogen and nitrogen. This indicates that most of other P/M products tend to be more costly when using compared to aluminum. The reason is that, hydrogen gas is more costly and the fact that they use both the hydrogen gas and nitrogen gas increases the cost. In aluminum, the use of nitrogen only depicts why it makes it possible to save costs. Other economic advantage is that, aluminum being resistance to corrosion means that there is no other cost needed to avoid rust. Most of other P/M metals require painting in order to avoid rust. This increases cost of storage of the metals. In most cases, extrusion tooling of aluminum is less costly and does not require long lead times. Most of the aluminum products are produced while using moderate expenses through short-run prototypes.
- Manufacturability of Aluminum
- One of the qualities that make aluminum have a significant advantage in manufacturability is that it is has numerous high volumes. Aluminum alloys also depict to be the best metals having a high quality in critical automotive applications. Some of the automotive applications that aluminum alloys manage to successfully make include casts and forged wheels. The alloys also manage to make extruded drive shafts and this depicts that the metal has an outstanding manufacturability quality. The fact that aluminum has a low density compared to other P/M products has made it possible for the manufacturing experts especially from the automotive industry to come up with various ways that it possible to manufacture aluminum. Most of the new technologies make it possible to assemble, join and even machine the products. It has become easy nowadays to operate on aluminum in all the production categories.
- Aluminum tends to be the best in the engineering field because it has a variety of unique characteristics. For example, it has extrusions, tubes, and a wide variety of cross-sections that are possible to bend. This makes most of the engineers to apply aluminum in various areas that steel tube would perform the same operations. Most of the aluminum producers contribute in providing quality and consistency products that meet the necessary requirements. In most cases, the producers are able to make the aluminum properties in a manner that they have tight dimensional tolerance and high mechanical properties. While in making of pipes, aluminum tends to have a significant manufacturability advantage in the fact that it makes inseparable connections of the pipes. This is achieved through the hard soldering of the aluminum alloys.
- Description of the Manufacturing Process
- The chief primary product used in the manufacturing of aluminum is bauxite. After removing bauxite ore from the mining areas, it is the taken into a crasher. This is a huge metal used to crash the huge pieces of bauxite ore into small particles. The process that follows is screening of the crashed bauxite after which it is stockpiled. From this process, now the bauxite is ready for delivery to a processing plant that is normally referred to as an alumina plant. Before the delivery takes place, some other minor activities like washing and size classification may take place.
- In the plant, the process of crashing the particles further takes place in order to have a successful extraction of the alumina. The alumina extracted at this point is in a state of a red mud. The other process that follows is precipitation of the alumina crystals. They are then calcined in a specific kiln in order to produce alumina. From this point, it is possible to get the primary aluminum by using the method of electrolytic reduction. In this method, an electric current is used to produce the required heat. The use electric current on the alumina through a certain simple process result into a clear alumina that is ready for smelting.
- One of the methods commonly used for aluminum smelting is the prebake technology. On this process of aluminum smelting, the process of production is now in the secondary level. Some of the processes that take place in secondary production include pretreatment of scrap by means of shredding. Scrap, chips and dross are one of the raw materials used in secondary production. The other main process involved in the secondary production is the smelting of the alumina. The smelting is done in various rotary kilns that use a lot of heat. Salt is also applied in this process and it forms a slag that can later be used during another melting process. In secondary aluminum production, there is use of less heat compared to the primary production. The other important factor that is of great importance to consider during second production is that there is a need to use an aluminum scrap in order to remove the elements that may be found in the aluminum-melt.
- Alternatives in the Manufacturing Process of Aluminum
- Most of the alternative processes have common methods such as those used in the above explanation of the manufacturing of aluminum. The primary inputs in the alternative process include alumina, electrical energy and carbon. In most of the time, other recyclable chemicals are used during the alternative processes. The out puts used in these processes include aluminum and considerable amount of carbon dioxide.
- Heat is one of the essential elements in these processes because all alternatives involve high temperatures. All the alternative process requires the right materials for key reactions. Most of the manufacturing industries abandon the alternative process because they fail to give the required economic advantage. The energy costs in the alternative methods tend to be higher and therefore resulting into more expenses. In most of the alternative processes, they involve heat reactors and they tend to associate with a significant loss of heat during production. The alternative process encounter challenges in material recycling and transfer needs. The intermediates associated with this processes involve reactor systems. Most of the alternative methods used include the following:
- Drained-cell Technology
- Oxygen evolution options
- Carbothermal processing
- Chloride process
- Sulfide process
- In most cases, the alternative methods tend to have various technical problems. The factor that might lead to applying of alternative methods includes less expensive hydro and coal power. The alternative methods tend to associate with a high range of environmental pollution and therefore most manufacturing industry fail to apply them in their operations. There is high level of carbon emissions in the environment while using these processes. Other atmospheric emissions associated with these processes include hydrogen chloride and fluorine compounds. However, even though most of the alternative processes tend to have more disadvantages, various manufacturing industries tend to use them especially in the developing countries.
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