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More Aluminum Metal

By Christopher Eyres


Aluminium metal is the most common in the earth's crust but found only in combination, mainly as an ore called bauxite. It also happens in gems like topaz, garnet, ruby and sapphire. It is found mixed in over 270 different minerals. The metal is highly conductive and has great thermal properties and these properties are used for the diverse needs of the industries. Aluminum is silvery-white in colour.

The metal is utilized in various industries like building and construction, power transmission lines, photoengraving plates, cookware and other consumer stuff, tubes for ointments and pastes. Worldwide production of aluminum 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 technicians, they can be the strongest metal. Alloys formed with copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese and silicon are utilized in various industries.

Aluminum metal is extensively employed in transportation industry. The use in aircrafts and cars are well known. A large range of household items starting from cooking implements to baseball bats and watches are made from aluminum and its alloys. The consumer electronics are enveloped in the shells made of aluminum as they wouldn't add to the weight of the kit. Aluminum is used for making drinking cans, foil wrappings, bottle tops and foil boxes that are extensively used in food and beverage industry. This is better as the metal is non-toxic and aromaless.

Milled aluminium is used in paint and also forms a necessary ingredient of the pyrotechnics like solid rocket fuels. The mixture 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 employed in electrical transmission lines for power distribution, heat sinks for electronic appliances such as transistors and CPU. About 1 kilogram of aluminium conducts virtually two times as much electricity as 1 kilogram of copper. However , use of aluminium in household wiring has been revealed to be dangerous. Due to its ductile nature and corrosion resistance, the metal is employed for electric applications like Television aerials, satellite dishes and is the standard base for bulbs.

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

It is nonetheless urgent to realize the fact that aluminium is a really reactive metal and in combination with some food acids may produce as much damage as good. People receptive to aluminum are susceptible to ulcers in the mouth, seizures of the foodpipe, stomach ulcers, slow progressive vision impairment, skin rash and itching, glandular dysfunctions or cancer.




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