Aluminum Bar Companies and Suppliers

Aluminum suppliers make many aluminum shapes available to their clients. Generally speaking, an aluminum bar is any simple aluminum shape that is characterized by a longer length than width. Such a shape can be round or polygonal. An aluminum bar’s shape depends on its intended application. For example, an aluminum bar that has just emerged from a primary supplier is not likely to be ready for use. Instead, it is likely to be shipped to a metalworking or forging operation, where it will be shaped into something usable. On the other hand, aluminum bars that have emerged from metal shaping processes can be useful. Such products are often used to make railings, stakes, and tines and are often referred to as rods.

The word "billet" is commonly used to refer to raw industrial ingredients. Billets made from aluminum, which are semi-finished bar stock, go through extrusion to become bar-shaped. They are heated to 900°F, placed in an extrusion press, and drawn. Drawing refers to pushing the billet through a steel die by a large, hard metal ram under pressure. Billets are often pushed through consecutively smaller dies multiple times in order to reduce their cross section a little at a time. Larger bars may only be extruded once, while smaller bars are often put through the process more than twice. Liquid nitrogen is usually poured after the bar is extruded to cool the material. Once the material has cooled, it can be shipped to customers or sent for further processing. Although many bars require no sort of cold working, those that do often exhibit an improved surface finish and dimensional tolerances.

 

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