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01
Aluminum Extrusions All Around Us
2024-07-12
Extrusions are everywhere - at home in windows, doors, railings, appliances...on the road, on the water and in the air...at work or school...at the gym, the playground, the stadium, the supermarket, the doctor's office. You will find myriad uses for aluminum extrusions in a variety of markets.To learn more about the many attributes of aluminum extrusions, get a high-level overview of the aluminum extrusion process, discover some of the do's and don'ts of profile design and much more, visit the AEC Webinars page for a list of educational webinars AEC has conducted. And check out the AEC Library for other design and educational resources. Aluminum extrusions are common in many industries, including:
ALUMINUM EXTRUSIONS IN TRANSPORTATION
Around the globe, engineers are scrambling to design tomorrow’s vehicles – the autos, trucks, trailers, busses, rail cars and planes that will move people and goods more efficiently and with diminished impact on our world’s ecology.
Globally, transportation is responsible for nearly 25% of CO2 emissions, through both vehicle usage and construction. In the U.S., transportation consumed 27% of our energy in 2021. Substantially reducing transportation’s energy use, and attendant greenhouse gas emissions is an imperative.
Aluminum extrusions are giving vehicle engineers a critical tool for the development of the more efficient vehicles needed for tomorrow. In conventional gas- or diesel-powered vehicles, every pound of aluminum that replaces two pounds of steel can save 3.1 gallons of crude oil and 20 pounds of CO2 emissions over the vehicles lifetime. And in battery powered vehicles—or BEVs—that weight reduction can extend range.
But there is more to extrusions’ role in transportation than increasing fuel efficiency or battery range. Extrusions offer vehicle designers the ability to combine multiple functions in one part, reducing build cost and complexity. And their ability to absorb crash energy—twice as much as steel—provides protection for occupants … and batteries.
Aluminum extrusions provide corrosion-resistant components, helping to extend vehicle life and reduce maintenance cost, and at the end of that vehicle’s life, the extrusion-based components are fully recyclable, with studies showing that over 90% are, in fact, recycled. For all these reasons, extrusion usage has increased from an average of about 25 pounds per North American light vehicle 10 years ago to nearly 50 pounds in 2021. And usage is continuing to grow.
ALUMINUM EXTRUSIONS IN INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
Aluminum extrusions’ lightweight strength makes them ideal for robotics, linear motion devices and other automated applications, as the mass to be moved is minimized and precise complex shapes can be easily created. Precise extruded tubing is used in hydraulics, and aluminum’s high thermal conductivity makes extrusion-based heat sinks essential in removing heat from a variety of devices, from lighting to computers to cryogenics.
The extruded component assembly pictured at right is used in conjunction with a steam/water level gauge that replaces a prior stainless steel sheet metal enclosure. The new extruded design allowed for: Reduced lead times ,Elimination of welds,Increased surface area through incorporation of cooling fins at minimal cost,Cost reduction by 40% ,More aesthetically pleasing design.