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Various Uses of Aluminum in Society At Home It is used for window frames, door knobs and to make utensils in the kitchen. There are various things that are made out of it at home, like the utensils and foils in which food is packed. It can even be used as a wrinkle remover from clothes; some of the uses also include home decor items like window frames, door knobs, railings, grills, curtain bars as well as artifacts made from aluminum. It is used in making golf clubs, indoor and outdoor furniture, tennis bats, refrigerators, toasters, saucepans, kettles, etc. Transportation Transportation includes air, water and road transport. A few parts of aircraft carriers are made from this metal as this is a light weight metal. In addition to it, it is widely used for making boats and ship construction. There are a several car parts that are also made using it. Railway carriages are also made out of it. In Cars The metal is widely used in cars. Aluminum car parts have good thermal and aesthetic properties. These car parts are quite cheap. Few car parts such as wheels, engine blocks, suspension components, hoods, transmission housings, wheel spacer bars are made of aluminum. Other parts such as carburetors housings, handles, few ornaments and logos, brackets, mirrors, air filler adapters, alternator housings, impellers and fan clutch parts also involve its use. Valve covers are also made of it. Packaging Packaging is one of the most common uses of aluminum. Drink cans, bottle caps, foils, trays, etc. are all made out of it. Other uses for packaging are storage boxes, utensil lids, thermos, etc. In Construction Aluminum is widely used for construction. Most of the construction material uses it. Aluminum scrap, casting, fabricating, pipes, sheets, tubing, tanks, bars, wire, stampings, windows, pins, doors, rods, railings, ladders, shutters, building bridges, skylights, etc. also used in commercial buildings. Staircases are also made from it. It is also used for many industrial appliances. Properties of Aluminum
The use of aluminum in transportation is giving new meaning to the expression "put the pedal to the metal." Transportation's 33.9 percent share of total 2005 North American aluminum shipments made it the largest user of aluminum as measured by net shipments (8.7 billion pounds). This market has grown steadily over the last decade, with passenger vehicles and light trucks responsible for most of the increase. Aluminum's use in vehicles is rapidly increasing due to a heightened need for fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles. Automakers appreciate that the use of lightweight aluminum body structures permits them to downsize other parts of the car. Aluminum can provide a weight savings of up to 55 percent compared to an equivalent steel structure, while matching or exceeding crashworthiness standards of similarly sized steel structures. The lifetime fuel savings of these vehicles can amount to 500 - 700 gallons of gasoline. Aluminium is used excessively in the modern world, and the uses of the metal are extremely diverse due to its many unusual combinations of properties. No other metallic element can be used in so many ways across such a variety of domains, like in the home, in transport, on land, sea and in air, and in industry and commerce. Aluminium's uses are not always as obvious as they may seem, with sizeable proportions of manufactured aluminium and aluminium oxide going into other separate processes, like the manufacture of glass, rather than towards the common consumer products that we most readily associate Aluminium with. Packaging One of the most common end uses of aluminium is packaging, including drinks cans, foil wrappings, bottle tops and foil containers. Each of these relies on aluminium to provide a way of containing the food cleanly, and to protect it from changes in the local environment outside the packaging. Aluminium's natural resistance to corrosion aids it in its role in packaging (and many other areas), as unlike in iron, aluminium oxide forms a protective and not destructive layer. Aluminium is also completely impermeable, (even when rolled into extremely thin foil), and also doesn't let the aroma or taste out of food packaging, the metal is non-toxic and aromaless itself too, making it perfect for packaging. Used in Aeroplanes. Aluminium's unbeatable strength to weight ratio1 gives it many uses in the transport industry. Transport is all about moving things around and to do so a force is always required. As force = mass x acceleration (Newton's Second Law of Motion), less force is needed to move a lighter object to a certain acceleration than is needed to get a heavier object to the same acceleration. As aluminium is so lightweight this means that less energy needs to be used to move a vehicle made with aluminium than one made from a heavier metal, say steel. Although aluminium isn't the strongest of metals its alloys use other elements to pin dislocations in its structure to increase its strength. With trains, boats and cars aluminium is useful for this lightweight property (which gives fuel efficiency) but not essential, in planes however maintaining a relatively low weight is vital (in order to level the ground), and aluminium allows planes to have to this. In modern planes aluminium makes up 80% of their (unladen) weight, and a normal Boeing 747 contains about 75 000 kg of the metal. Its corrosion resistance is an advantage in transport (as well as packaging) as it makes painting planes unnecessary saving some hundreds of kilograms of further weight. Aluminium in powerlines. Weight is also important in aluminium's electrical uses, where it's low density2 makes it the first choice for long distance powerlines despite having just 63% of the electrical conductivity of (much denser) copper. In fact 1 kg of aluminium conducts almost twice as much electricity as 1 Kg of copper. Since 1945 aluminium has been used in high voltage electrical transmission, in place of copper as it is the most cost efficient power line material. With copper many heavy, and expensive support structures needed to be used, yet using aluminium fewer lighter and cheaper supports have to be used. This saves huge amount of money, despite a wastage in electricity due to lower conductivity. Aluminium is also more ductile than copper, so it is easier to draw it into wires to produce these power lines, its corrosion resistance completes aluminium's profile as the perfect choice for long-distance electricity distribution. Aluminium has other electrical applications too including TV aerials, satellite dishes, and being the standard base for bulbs. Buildings made with aluminium are virtually maintenance free due to the strength of aluminium's corrosion resistance. Due to this and its light weight it is used in cladding, windows, skylights, gutters, door frames, and roofing. Insulated aluminium cladding is also very thermally efficient, keeping homes warm in winter, and cool in summer. One layer of insulated aluminium cladding is as effective as four inches of brick or ten of stone. Aluminium can also be painted and used with other material to achieve a particular effect on the appearance of a building. The metal is extremely versatile and it can be curved, tapered, welded, bonded and cut to any shape to be used for a certain job. Ideal in construction. Aluminium also has further end uses in products used more readily around the home. Like all the other uses they relate specifically back to the properties of the metal. The material is used to make saucepans, kitchen utensils, golf clubs, tennis bats, indoor and outdoor furniture, fridges, and toasters. Summary: Aluminium has a huge number of uses. These range from all sorts of packaging, through to aeroplanes, cars and train carriages. Aluminium is also vital in powerlines, the building and construction industry and commonplace household objects. The key features that lend aluminium to these uses are corrosion resistance, low density, ductility, electrical conductivity and strength in alloys. |