Friday, 17 August 2012

Info About Aluminium Metal

By Christopher Eyres


Aluminum metal is the most common in the earth's crust but found only in mixture, mainly as an ore called bauxite. It also occurs in gemstones like topaz, garnet, ruby and sapphire. It is located combined in over 270 different minerals. The metal is very conductive and has great thermal properties and these properties are utilised for the diverse requirements of the industries. Aluminium is silvery-white in colour.

The metal is utilized in numerous industries like building and construction, power transmission lines, photoengraving plates, cookware and other consumer goods, tubes for ointments and pastes. Worldwide production of aluminium in the year 2005 was 31.9 million tonnes. This comes after iron consumption that was 837.5 million tonnes in the same year.

Pure aluminum has a low tensile strength, but if they are processed with proper heat and mechanics, they may be the strongest metal. Alloys formed with copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese and silicon are employed in numerous industries.

Aluminium metal is extensively used in transportation industry. The use in aircrafts and vehicles are well-known. A large range of household items ranging from cooking utensils to baseball bats and watches are made of aluminum and its alloys. The consumer electronics are enclosed in the shells made of aluminium as they would not add to the weight of the equipment. Aluminium is used for making drinking cans, foil wrappings, bottle tops and foil boxes that are extensively utilized in food and libation industry. This is more effective as the metal is non-toxic and aromaless.

Powdered aluminum is employed in paint and also forms a critical ingredient of the pyrotechnics like solid rocket fuels. The blend of properties light weight and great strength makes it of use in construction industry like window, doors, street lighting poles and sailing ship masts.

The highly conductive property of the metal makes it ideal to be utilized in electrical transmission lines for power distribution, heat sinks for electronic appliances like transistors and CPU. About 1 kilogram of aluminum conducts virtually twice as much electricity as one kilogram of copper. Nonetheless use of aluminium in household wiring has been discovered to be dangerous. Due to its plastic nature and corrosion resistance, the metal is utilized for electric applications like TV aerials, satellite dishes and is the standard base for bulbs.

Aluminium is a re-usable material and many products can be made of the old form. Even the silver helium balloons that are frequently seen in birthday parties are covered with a thin, evaporated coating of aluminum metal over the tough plastic.

It is nevertheless important to realise the fact that aluminum is a very reactive metal and in combination with some food acids may produce as much damage as good. Folk susceptible to aluminum are prone to ulcers in the mouth, seizures of the foodpipe, gut ulcers, slow progressive vision impairment, skin rash and itching, glandular dysfunctions or cancer.




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