Aluminium is second only to iron in worldwide usage. It is low in weight because of its low density, and it’s also very strong, malleable, easy to machine in manufacturing applications, good at resisting corrosion and great at conducting heat and electricity.
According to the Royal Society for Chemistry, although it was officially discovered in the 1820s, there is a strange occurrence of aluminium long before. An unusual metal ornament was found buried with a soldier from 3rd-century China. When they analysed the ornament to see what it was made of, it turned out – to everyone’s astonishment – to be 85 per cent aluminium. No one has any idea how it was produced.
Aluminium’s properties
Pure aluminium was first produced by a German chemist in 1827. Since then, it has found lots of uses in industry. One of its great benefits is that it is easily machined. Most manufacturing methods such as milling, cutting, punching, drilling and bending are easy to accomplish and don’t require large amounts of power to achieve. If the industrial process also requires joints, aluminium is easy to join using friction stir welding, bonding, taping or fusion welding.
It’s also easy to extrude aluminium because it is so malleable. This is why it can be used to produce very thin foils such as aluminium baking foil. It conducts both electricity and heat extremely efficiently. To achieve the same conductivity with a copper conductor, it would have to weigh twice as much as an aluminium conductor. Because it’s such a good conductor, it’s also good at warding off electromagnetic radiation.
Corrosion resistance ideal for a ductwork blast gate damper
One of aluminium’s key properties is its ability to resist corrosion. It does this by reacting with oxygen to make a very thin film of oxide to protect itself. The process of anodising is used to make the oxide layer thicker so that it’s even more corrosion-resistant, and this is often done when aluminium is going to be used outside.
These are ideal properties for a ductwork blast gate damper like those at https://www.dustspares.co.uk/Blast-Gate-Damper.html, and the main body of these is often cast from an aluminium alloy with blades made of steel.
The corrosion resistance of the aluminium helps keep the damper in good condition even if there is moisture or condensation in the air.