How are aluminium sheets made?
aluminiumsheet > 04-24-2020, 03:38 AM
Aluminium is currently extracted exclusively from raw bauxite, an ore found in heavy clay-like soil types several metres below the surface of the ground. This ore is then refined in a hot lime and caustic soda solution, producing alumina, a white oxide powder. When combined with electricity and carbon (to create CO2) at high temperatures, this oxide produces the liquid metal we call aluminium.
This liquid metal is then formed into different sorts of ingots or alloys, depending on what its eventual application will be. Aluminium intended for tubes, rods, sheets and angles is usually formed into ingots which can measure up to 20 feet in length (and weigh up to 20 tons!), but which have extremely formable (ductile) properties. This makes it easy to roll or press them under varying temperatures and pressures to produce plates, sheets, foils and other forms of almost any useful thickness.