Benefits

Modern life is full of advantages brought about by the use of aluminium. So why aluminium? What are the major benefits of this unique metal:

Strength

Pure aluminium is soft enough to carve but mixed with small amounts of other metal to form alloys, it can provide the strength of steel, with only one-third of the weight. Without aluminium there would be no commercial air travel.

Durability

Aluminium sprayed on a polymer forms a thin insulating sheet that can keep a newborn baby warm or save the life of someone on an exposed mountaintop.

Flexibility

Its combination of properties ensure aluminium and its alloys can be easily shaped by any of the main industrial metalworking processes - rolling, extrusion, forging and casting.

Impermeability

Aluminium has excellent barrier function which makes it ideal for food and drink packaging and containers. It keeps out air, light and microorganisms while preserving the contents inside.

Lightweight

Aluminium used in transport reducing the weight of the vehicles, hence in providing fuel efficiency, reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Corrosion-resistant

The metal's natural coating of aluminium oxide provides a highly effective barrier to the ravages of air, temperature, moisture and chemical attack, making aluminium a useful construction material.

Recyclable

Once made, aluminium can be recycled again and again, using only a very small fraction of the energy required to make "new" metal. Recycling saves about 95% of the energy required for primary production.

Other

Aluminium is a superb conductor of electricity which has seen it replace copper in many electrical applications. It is also non-magnetic and non-combustible, properties invaluable in advanced industries such as electronics or in offshore structures.

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Why Aluminium?

The demand for aluminium products is increasing year by year for a myriad of reasons:

- Aluminium is a young material, and in the little more than a century since its first commercial production, it has become the world's second most used metal after steel.

- Aluminium is the metal of choice for leading designers, architects and engineers, who want a material that combines functionality and cost-effectiveness with innovative form and design potential.

- Aluminium is an extraordinarily versatile material. The range of forms it can take - from castings, extrusions, tubes, sheet & plate to foil, powder, and forgings - and the variety of surface finishes available - including coatings, anodizing and polishing - means can be used in many, many products, often those which we use every day.

- Aluminium is light (33% the weight of steel) and this, together with its numerous material qualities, makes it useful throughout modern life. It is a good conductor of electricity and most overhead and many underground transmission lines are made of aluminium. It transmits conducted heat and reflects radiant heat, making it an excellent medium from which to produce cooking utensils and foils, radiators and building insulation. Its strength, combined with its low density, makes it ideal for transport and packaging applications. Aluminium is a unique metal: strong, durable, flexible, impermeable, lightweight, corrosion-resistant and 100 percent recyclable.