Applications of Aluminum Extrusions in Transportation

Release time:2022-11-03

Aluminum can be extruded into intricate shapes (profiles), which allows designers to express their creativity. The transport sector adopts custom aluminum extrusion designs to maximize energy efficiency, safety, and performance.

Currently, extruded aluminum is a popular material across various sectors in the transportation industry, including mass transit, railway transport, aerospace engineering, marine industry, and much more.

Aluminum is employed in the construction of all kinds of vehicles, from bicycles to space crafts. People can travel at fast speeds, traverse oceans, fly through the air, and even go to space. All this is possible because of aluminum.

The transport industry accounts for the highest aluminum consumption, about 27%. This figure might seem small until you factor in aluminum used in architectural construction. Researchers believe that the figure will increase in the coming years.

By combining the benefits of the extrusion process and the unique traits of aluminum, fabrication shops can produce a variety of components, strategies, and parts to be applied in various transportation industries, as provided below.

Aviation and aerospace

Aluminum is popularly known as the material that turned flight from a dream to reality. Its blend of strength, flexibility, and lightweight properties allowed for the creation of heavier-than-air airplanes. These traits allowed aluminum to earn its coined name, the winged metal, rightfully.

Aluminum was initially utilized in flight before airplanes were conceived and constitute 75–80% of modern aircraft. Count Ferdinand Zeppelin used aluminum to construct the airship frames for his well-known craft.

Since then, aluminum has developed into a crucial component of aviation manufacturing. The alloy with the most utilization is 7075, which comprises aluminum, copper, zinc, and magnesium. It is the sturdiest of all aluminum alloys and is similar to steel in terms of strength; nevertheless, it weighs just one-third as much as steel. 

Aerospace has also benefited from using aluminum, where a lightweight and ultimate strength blend is much more crucial. About 50% to 90% of modern spacecraft's parts are aluminum alloys.

Automotive Aluminum Extrusions

Approximately 25% of carbon dioxide emission worldwide is caused by transportation, including vehicle use and construction. In the United States, transportation used 27% of the nation's energy in 2021. It is essential to significantly reduce the energy used for transportation and the associated greenhouse gas emissions.

Automobile engineers now have a crucial tool they can use to create a more fuel-efficient car of the future thanks to aluminum extrusions. Each tonne of aluminum that substitutes 2 tonnes of steel in standard gas vehicles can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 tonnes throughout the car's lifespan and save 3 gallons of fuel. The range of battery-powered automobiles or hybrid electric vehicles can be increased by reducing their weight.

However, using aluminum extrusions in transportation goes beyond only extending battery life or improving fuel economy. Extrusions allow auto designers to incorporate several functions into a single element, lowering production costs and complexity. Additionally, double the amount of collision energy can be absorbed by aluminum than by steel, protecting occupants and the car's internal components.

Railway transport

Soon after aluminum was produced in large quantities, train transportation began to employ aluminum. The growth in the construction of extruded aluminum profiles and alloy materials opened the door to upgrading and lighting railway machinery.

Huge integrated thin plates and hollow intricate thin wall profiles have been effectively created in the past few years due to the increasing demand for lightweight design concepts for railroad vehicles and the demand for streamlined maintenance and construction.

Marine transport

Aluminum is a great material with exceptional qualities for resisting corrosion. It is frequently chosen due to its simplicity and excellent fatigue strength. Aluminum is frequently used to construct ships, offshore parts, and drilling platforms.

Employing aluminum in marine applications can make yachts, boats, ships, and ferries faster and larger while also enhancing fuel efficiency, seaworthiness, durability, reliability, safety, and maintenance costs. Aluminum can reduce weight by 30 to 40% in a ship's hull and about 50 to 60% in superstructures when steel is swapped out.

This will benefit boat operators through Increased traffic volume because of faster vessel speeds and larger load capabilities.

The metal is almost as strong as steel, withstanding the torsional, compression flexural, and impact loads of fast-speed water transport.

Due to these factors, it is a crucial component in the building and interior design of military craft, huge shipping vessels, catamarans, speed boats, and fast ferries.

Conclusion

Along with its other distinctive qualities, aluminum's natural sustainability and recycling capabilities make it an environmentally friendly material with many uses. But aluminum's fascinating trait doesn't end there. More is yet to be uncovered about its benefits through different designs and extrusions.