Aluminum - Types of Aluminum Alloy

1.	Types of Aluminum Alloy

Aluminum with a purity of 99.00% or higher is called pure aluminum. Aluminum alloy is the combination of aluminum and various different types of elements in order to improve the strength and other characteristics.
Aluminum alloy can be categorized into two major types of rolled alloy and cast alloy, the type chosen depends on the application requirements. Rolled alloy is mainly used in a form of plates, pipes, sticks, wires, and some casting parts.
Cast alloy is mainly used for casting parts and die cast. They are also subcategorized into non heat-treatable and heat-treatable alloys.
Non heat-treatable alloy can achieve the specified strength by a cold work including rolling process, meanwhile heat-treatable alloy can achieve the specified strength by heat treatment including hardening and normalizing processes.

Rolling Alloy
Non heat-treatable alloy		Heat-treatable alloy
Types	Characteristics	Types	Characteristics
1000 type (pure aluminum)	Good in processability, corrosion resistance, electro/thermal conductivity. Poor in strength.	2000 type Al-Cu-Mg type alloy	Equivalent strength as steel panels. Known as duralumin.
3000 type Al-Mn type alloy	Good in processability, corrosion resistance and strength.	6000 type Al-Mg-Si type alloy	Good in strength and corrosion resistance. Suitable for extrusion processes.
4000 type Al-Si type alloy	Good in heat and wear resistance.	7000 type Al-Zn-Mg type alloy	The strongest alloy of all aluminum alloy.
5000 type Al-Mg type alloy	Good in corrosion resistance and welding capability. A wide variety of types are available offering wide range of application.