Aluminium Uses in Real World
Aluminium is the most widely used non-ferrous metal.
Global production of aluminium in 2005 was 31.9 million tonnes. It exceeded
that of any other metal except iron (837.5 million tonnes).Forecast for
2012 is 42–45 million tonnes, driven by rising Chinese output.
Aluminium is almost always alloyed, which markedly improves
its mechanical properties, especially when tempered. For example, the common
aluminium foils and beverage cans are alloys of 92% to 99% aluminium. The main
alloying agents are copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and silicon (e.g.,
duralumin) and the levels of these other metals are in the range of a few
percent by weight.
1. Transportation
(automobiles, aircraft, trucks, railway cars, marine vessels, bicycles, etc.)
as sheet tube, castings, etc.
2. Packaging (cans, foil, etc.)
3. Construction (windows, doors, siding,
building wire, etc.).
4. A
wide range of household items, from cooking utensils to baseball bats,
watches.
5. Street lighting poles, sailing ship masts,
walking poles, etc.
6. Outer shells of
consumer electronics, also cases for equipment e.g. photographic equipment.
7. Electrical
transmission lines for power distribution
8. MKM steel and
Alnico magnets
9. Super purity
aluminium (SPA, 99.980% to 99.999% Al), used in electronics and CDs.
10. Heat sinks for
electronic appliances such as transistors and CPUs.
11. Substrate
material of metal-core copper clad laminates used in high brightness LED
lighting.
12. Powdered
aluminium is used in paint, and in pyrotechnics such as solid rocket fuels and
thermite.
13. Aluminium can be reacted
with hydrochloric acid or with sodium hydroxide to produce hydrogen gas.
14. A variety of
countries, including France, Italy, Poland, Finland, Romania, Israel, and the
former Yugoslavia, have issued coins struck in aluminium or aluminium-copper
alloys.
15. Some guitar
models sport aluminium diamond plates on the surface of the instruments,
usually either chrome or black. Kramer Guitars and Travis Bean are both known
for having produced guitars with necks made of aluminium, which gives the instrument
a very distinct sound.
Aluminium is usually alloyed – it is used as pure metal only
when corrosion resistance and/or workability is more important than strength or
hardness. A thin layer of aluminium can be deposited onto a flat surface by
physical vapour deposition or (very infrequently) chemical vapour deposition or
other chemical means to form optical coatings and mirrors
