Aluminum is everywhere. From cars and other vehicles, doors and windows of houses and buildings, to the appliances used at home, and even for the food packaging such as food trays and drinking cans, aluminum is widely utilized. The extreme versatility that aluminum products provide makes them more popular.
Aluminum has been used as an alternative to steel for a long time. It can be manufactured into different shapes and sizes through casting, melting, forming, machining and extruding. With this, it is very useful and provides everyone with day-to-day conveniences because of its availability in a wide range of forms and uses.
This material is an ideal one for structural applications in the construction industry as well. The strength and the corrosion-resistance of the aluminum would make the structure last for even a decade, and proof can be seen everywhere. In terms of cars and other vehicles on the other hand, aluminum is considered as the second most-used material by automakers because of its cost-effectiveness and environmental-friendliness.
The aluminum’s lightweightness, strength, corrosion-resistance, availability and recyclability makes them one of the materials that people opt to choose. This article will break the notable advantages and benefits down and delve into them more. Read on.
Lightweightness
Aluminum is lighter when compared to any other material. It is about a third of the actual weight of steel, thus less expensive and difficult to transport than others. It is also an effective material in construction projects as it can stand up to a significant amount of weight without causing the entire building to be too heavy. Parts that are usually made with steel can use aluminum as an alternative, which means those parts can be made thicker and stronger while the total weight is reduced.
Though it is lightweight, aluminum is a strong, tough, and elastic material. And despite its relative strength, it can easily be shaped to various shapes and designs to your liking. Taking cookwares and pans as examples. Since aluminum pans are lighter and thinner than those made with stainless steel, they can conduct heat faster. They are easy to handle too because it is not as heavy as other cookwares. Also in some construction applications, windows made of aluminum are more preferred because of its long-lasting and lightweight elements.
Increased Tensile Strength at Low Temperatures
When exposed to very low temperatures, the properties of many metals change, especially in terms of its strength, toughness, brittleness, and durability. And what sets aluminum products apart from these metals is that it shows an increase in tensile strength as temperatures drop. They are an appropriate choice for things expected to reach the lowest natural temperature; up to -45 degrees celsius.
As proven by studies, aluminum was shown to keep its ductility at extremely low temperatures with no increase in brittleness. Actually, its corrosion-resistance is enhanced during these conditions, making it suitable for those places with snow and ice.
Corrosion-Resistant Material
One of the reasons why aluminum is a popular material is because of its ability to protect itself from corrosion. It naturally generates a thin protective coating when exposed to an oxidising environment, ensuring that it is protected from corrosion, as well as the effects of outdoor air. It also protects itself from various compounds, including water, which makes it one of the reasons why aluminum is a lot more beneficial in some environments than carbon and stainless steels.
If the aluminum is damaged, its thin protective layer can instantly restore itself. This is especially if the damaged area is re-exposed to oxygen. Its reaction to this will form more oxidation layer.
This corrosion-resistant material lasts for a lot of years in construction, industrial, and structural applications. With the protective coating it naturally forms, the material’s durability and long life span is ensured.
Readily Available
As mentioned above, aluminum is everywhere. It is considered as the most abundant metal in the world. This is proved by being a material that can be seen and used in several shapes, forms, and sizes. Most people find it very useful even after a term of usage, so it results in being reused. This reduces material consumption and saves people a good sum.
With a variety of aluminum products, most of the companies are using them as a permanent material. For instance, it became a great solution for food and beverage packaging because of its ability to protect it from contamination. It also became an alternative, replacing steel and plastic, in manufacturing electronics such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, and many other more. It can be shaped and designed up to one’s liking. Thus, aluminum evidently combines beauty and practicality by having the product look sophisticated and reliable.
Aluminum is also especially evident in vehicles. It is regarded as the most cost-effective and environmentally-friendly material for cars to increase performance, boost fuel economy, and reduce emissions. They are the “material of choice” for automakers for its strength and environmental advantages.
Various products with aluminum as their primary material have been thriving. This leads to an increase in aluminum usage among market-leading manufacturers. Its reusability makes it more efficient for companies. So, since aluminum can be found everywhere and much of it is readily available, they’re in a way, cheaper than less-common metals.
Recyclability
Aluminum is a sustainable material. Apart from the various products it can be applied to, it can also be recycled over and over again. During the recycling process, aluminum retains all of its initial properties. It can be endlessly reprocessed and reformed without losing any of its quality. Aluminum’s infinite recyclability makes it at the top of the recycling chain. With this, a huge advantage it provides is that it does not only become a cost-effective source material, but it is beneficial for the environment as well. Cost-effective in a way that it is less expensive than newly-manufactured and produced aluminum, which opts manufacturers to use this in their products.
Recycled aluminum can be formed into a wide range of products. Also, considering construction applications in particular, building owners that used aluminum as one of their buildings’ components prefer deconstruction over demolition. They believe it is more optimal since it would be possible to extract all recyclable materials, specifically the aluminum. Deconstruction can keep the material’s scrap value and reduce the environmental impact.
An aluminum would still be an aluminum even if it would undergo different processes. This makes it a much more cost-effective source material. They could be smelted down, reused in other applications, and recycled, without creating any waste.
Key Takeaway
With the aluminum products’ versatile qualities — its lightweightness, strength, corrosion-resistant; including its availability and recyclability, your product would most likely last for a very long time. This proves that no other metal can compare to aluminum when it comes to the variety of uses it can offer.