Aluminum manufacturing process improvements from bauxite to fabricated aluminum products
Aluminum is valued for its light weight, strength, durability, and resistance to oxidation—all characteristics that helped propel the use of aluminum alloys. It is malleable, ductile, and easily machined and cast, which makes it a favored manufacturing material.
We have worked with the aluminum manufacturing industry for decades and offer a portfolio of products to address your challenges in every stage of the production process, from ore and metal analysis to thickness and coating weight measurement to finished consumer materials. Our offerings comprise a complete range of solutions to help optimize the aluminum manufacturing process.
Bauxite is composed primarily of one or more aluminum hydroxide minerals, plus various mixtures of silica, iron oxide, titania, aluminosilicate, and other impurities in minor or trace amounts.
The primary source of aluminum is bauxite ore.
Powerful and efficient analysis
Our analyzers help you better understand the composition of your raw materials and give you more control over downstream production processes. Our product offerings have been developed specifically for aluminum manufacturers to reduce sample analysis cost, increase sample throughput, and deliver better reproducibility and higher quality results for your application.
The energy-intensive smelting process to obtain aluminum metal is achieved through electrolysis of a solution of alumina in a molten mixture of other materials such as cryolite and calcium fluoride. Liquid aluminum metal sinks to the bottom of the heated solution, and this is tapped off and usually cast into large ingots for further processing.
Aluminum smelting is an energy-intensive process
Process control and product characterization
We can help ensure that this resource-intensive process is as efficient as possible. Our instruments provide process control to help ensure high performance of the electrolysis process, along with other analytical options to deliver accurate characterization of the resultant product.
Learn about PGNAA/PFTNA technologies for electrolysis and metal production
Because aluminum is soft, it is often alloyed with copper, magnesium, zinc, and other elements to give it strength but keep it lightweight. Since aluminum is heavily used in airplanes, automobiles, ships, trains, and even bicycles, the aluminum alloys must meet customer specifications.
Meeting customer specifications
High performance elemental analysis
Our energy-dispersive and compact wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence models offer rapid non-destructive elemental analysis of solids, liquids and powders. Our optical emission spectrometers come with turn-key analytical solutions allowing fast and simultaneous determination of all the relevant elements in many metals and alloys. Analyzing with accuracy and precision from trace to percent element concentration levels, our instruments reliably fulfill all the analytical tasks required by aluminum companies.
Learn about Optical Emission Spectrometry technologies used in the aluminum production lab
Thermo Fisher Scientific offers a complete line of non-contact aluminum thickness gauges for hot- and cold-rolling mills that provide precise, real-time measurements that meet the tightest specifications of any application while maximizing raw material use.
Aluminum thickness and coating weight measurement applications
Optimize your production process
Whether you're producing aluminum from primary or secondary sources, and your end-product is several-inch thick plates or foils less than one thousandth of an inch, you can rely on us for accurate aluminum thickness or coating weight measurement and the highest quality finished products.
The verification of metal alloys for quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) has never been more important for product reliability and safety. From metal production through conversion coatings to final product assembly, the potential for material mix-ups is real. With all types of manufacturing operations facing increasingly stringent safety regulations, today’s best practices include testing 100% of critical materials before they move to each step of production.
Confirm materials throughout the production process
Lab results on the manufacturing floor
Our handheld XRF analyzers can dramatically increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve quality control of end products. Advances in technology and instrument design enable highly accurate, easy to use analysis with low limits of detection in a handheld system.
Our range of handheld XRF analyzers can be used for non-destructive grade ID and verification of the composition of all kinds of aluminum alloys on the shop floor; coat weight and coating thickness measurements in finished products; and a custom application to meet your process requirements.
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act is a comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. The EPA used this law to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants. In addition to emissions produced by the generation of electricity used throughout the production process, aluminum smelting also results in direct emissions of CO2 during the electrolysis process, resulting in a significant source of emissions.
Comply with US EPA guidelines
Verify the compliance of your emissions
As your partner in compliance, our systems are designed with the necessary protocols to ensure your monitoring reports are accurate and accessible.
Our systems possess unsurpassed sensitivity, accuracy and reliability, and they can be designed to help you comply with US EPA Part 60 or Part 75 performance standards, as well as other US and International ambient air and source gas monitoring standards.
Since the source of scrap aluminum can be anything from automobiles to appliances to beverage cans, processing companies must analyze, identify, sort and separate the aluminum from other materials. In addition, the material needs to be monitored for possible radiation contamination as many medical and industrial equipment contain radioactive materials.
Recycling aluminum scrap is more energy efficient than primary production
Reliable material identification
Our handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers provide fast, accurate, reliable elemental analysis and alloy grade identification to help efficiently sort incoming scrap metal. Rugged drive-through detectors and monitoring devices provide full vertical coverage of vehicle loads for highly sensitive radiation detection. For closer inspection of localized “hot” spots in the load, handheld radiation detectors allow for the confirmation of any contamination and isolate it before it enters the facility.
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.