MICRO MACHINING | ARTICLE
Aluminium — A Versatile Material Aluminium alloy is the material of choice in a number of industrial applications due to the fact that it is corrosion resistant, light and strong. In this way, it exhibits many of the attributes of titanium, the strength-to-weight ratios of each metal being a key attribute. However, aluminium is significantly cheaper than titanium, this lower cost not so much being a product of its abundance and ease of production (it is in fact quite expensive to extract from the ore bauxite) so much as its recyclability. It is in fact suggested that within 20 years there will be no need to mine for more aluminium as enough will have been mined and will be continually recycled to meet demand.
Aluminium is also considerably less dense than titanium. Whereas titanium is stronger and more corrosion resistant than aluminium, it has a relatively low fatigue limit, which makes aluminium the material of choice in numerous aerospace applications, and the automotive, transportation and building sectors.
Its low density is the key, coupled with another characteristic, the fact that it is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, making it a preferred material for cabling and heat exchangers.
But this characteristic is also its Achilles heel when it comes to working the metal. For example, aluminium in the photochemical etching process reacts with the corrosive chemistry and becomes exothermic, releasing heat energy. This has a knock on effect to the efficiency and accuracy of the photochemical etching process.
>> Continued on page 18
COMPETENCE IN OPTICAL 3D METROLOGY
Cutting Edges
Micro Structure
3D Profi le, Evenness, Prints, Embossings, Accuracy & Quality Control for Laboratory, In-Line and Mobile
GFMesstechnik | Phone: +49 (0)3328 - 9360 - 0
www.gfm3d.com 17 | commercial micro manufacturing international Vol 7 No.4
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52