Aluminum alloys are durable, lightweight and corrosion resistant, making them a natural choice for your laser cut projects, but why all the different grades? What can I do with that can&#;t be done with , or when should I spend for , and what benefits do I get over the lower grades?
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This article will give you a quick intro to our three most popular aluminum alloys, help you choose the right one for your application, and give some insight on how each service we offer will perform. So whether you&#;re building a fighting robot, yard art, a hobby airplane or any other laser cut part you can dream up, you get the right alloy every time. Let&#;s dig in!
The aluminum for the Common Man, with a great balance of durability and affordability, H32 is easily one of our most popular materials. The addition of magnesium and chromium to the pure aluminum give it superior strength and enhance corrosion resistance, while the H32 temper means that it is ductile enough to be cold worked (we&#;re looking at you, bending) without cracking. Here&#;s some more information on this alloy and how you can use aluminum in your projects. We offer H32 in 10 thicknesses ranging from 0.040&#; up to 0.500&#;.
The kid with great balance, is often used in structural components because of its superior strength-to-weight but is still relaxed enough to be cold workable and weldable. This alloy includes a little magnesium and silicon, and the T6 grade means it is heat treated and artificially aged, increasing both tensile and fatigue strength. We&#;ve written a deep dive into more uses and properties for aluminum. We offer T6 in eight thicknesses ranging from 0.040&#; up to 0.500&#;.
When you need the best in strength and toughness, call T6 aluminum. Significant amounts of Zinc, Magnesium and Copper mean this alloy exhibits durability closer to a Titanium alloy than pure aluminum. Like the we offer, T6 is thermally treated in solution, then aged, to maximize hardness and strength. We offer T6 in 0.125&#;, 0.190&#; and 0.250&#; thicknesses.
Now that you&#;re familiar with what aluminum alloys you have to work with, let&#;s get into how they compare to one another with some real-world criteria. For the TL;DR take a look at this excellent aluminum grade infographic.
Not a measure of who will win the arm wrestling contest; &#;strength&#; is a critical property that quantifies the ability of a material to resist an applied load without failure or plastic deformation.
When heated, will two pieces of the material stick together at a seam with as much strength as the base metal? See, the strength of a material really does come in handy!
All three grades of aluminum exhibit excellent resistance to the effects of air, water and many chemicals.
We talking about the bully at the playground? Not quite; toughness measures a material&#;s ability to absorb energy and resist fracture on impact. Toughness is distinct from strength, which refers to a material&#;s ability to resist an applied load without deforming or breaking.
The ease with which a material can be shaped without cracking or breaking, this is related to toughness, but really a subset of ductility. Basically, can I bend this material without it cracking?
All three grades of aluminum have good machinability, meaning they can be easily shaped using various techniques like drilling, turning, and milling without exotic tooling.
Even aluminum feels better after a little time relaxing in a warm place.
If you know the strength and the density, you have this number.
All of the aluminum alloys we offer are cut on our world-class fiber lasers which means the smallest kerf and highest accuracy possible. All but the thinnest grades of and are automatically deburred (unless you say otherwise) at no extra charge, which ensures the end product has a consistent, professional, finish.
Most of our other services are also available, but let&#;s looks at some of the finer points of each:
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Think of it as a protective case for your aluminum part: Anodizing aluminum creates a protective oxide layer on the surface which is hard, durable, and even more resistant to corrosion than the raw aluminum. Plus, it looks pretty fantastic in one of SendCutSend&#;s anodizing color choices of red, gold, blue, black and clear.
These services are offered on all grades with sufficient thickness. To check on eligibility for a specific service, scroll down to the Material Details on the Materials page for each alloy. Since we have set up tooling specifically for each aluminum grade, you can expect great results from SendCutSend countersinks and taps, but be aware of these general guidelines:
Not your average rattle can paint job, powder coating is a dry finishing process that creates a durable coating able to withstand scratches, abrasion, and weathering. It is also resistant to many chemicals and solvents.
We offer powder coating in several colors and finishes on all three alloys with great results.
We have it on good authority that press-fit fasteners are better than a Swiss army knife when it comes to versatility. Whether you need a nut, stud, or standoff, all three grades of aluminum can be ordered with fasteners.
Perfect for parts as small as 0.5&#; x 1.5&#;, tumbling aluminum parts knocks off burrs and sharp edges, while evening out the look and smoothness of the top and bottom surfaces. Check out our Guidelines for Tumbling for more info.
Have a killer part design, but it&#;s been sitting on the back burner because you don&#;t have the software (or the time) to convert it to digital and upload to our app? We have a service for that! Let our team convert your paper dimension drawing, or scan the physical template, and we&#;ll send you a link to order in whatever material works best for your application.
Known for its excellent corrosion resistance and formability. It is commonly used in marine applications, such as boat hulls, fittings, and piping. Although it doesn&#;t have the high strength of or , because of excellent weldability, it&#;s often found in aircraft components such as fuel tanks and cowlings. On the hobbyist end of the spectrum, that corrosion resistance means it can be used outdoors, even in salt water conditions, with minimal surface protection.
Also formable and weldable, but that heat treatment gives it 32% higher ultimate strength than , so you&#;ll find in more strength-critical applications such as bridges, aircraft frames, and machinery. If you&#;re looking for the goldilocks ratio of workability and strength for your parts, look no further than .
Best when you need strength that can compete with steel or titanium at a fraction of the weight. is common in aerospace applications, high end vehicle and bicycle frames, and sporting equipment. Consumer electronics like laptops and phones often use in the chassis and heat sink components where low weight and high strength/thermal conductivity are important.
Armed with this comparison info, and all the value-added services available for any one of these aluminum alloys, we hope you have everything you need to upload your next part file to our app and get started with that next build! If you have any specific questions, you can always contact our amazing support team any time.
Although is cold-workable, we don&#;t currently bend it because it requires special tooling with larger internal bend radius requirements and can be tricky at larger die ratios.
Alloy , particularly in the T6 heat treatment, was designed for maximum hardness, rather than workability, so it&#;s almost never a good idea to bend it at anything approaching a typical sheet metal bend radius.
is best for all-around, affordable fabrication, welding and corrosion resistance.
is very strong and is a great option when bending isn&#;t required but welding is.
is not really weldable, so it is great for individual components that require high strength.
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