Aluminium type

[Lance Reid]

Yello, I have a piece of Aluminium plate without any markings on, is there any way to get a rough idea of what grade it might be?
Cheers, Lance

[dpuch]

Grade... probably not.

I would suggest checking hardness, also cut a slice and check how it bends. possible how easily it corrodes. But turning that into a material series... I think not.

Dale

[bookwurm99]

take the metal to a scrap recycling yard and have them hit it with their alloy analysis gun.

bookwurm99

[Lance Reid]

Thanks for the replies, I didn't know about the alloy testing gun, I know someone in a scrapyard and will see if they have one, cheers

[bookwurm99]

i didnt either until i was selling some old copper from transformers and from a generator armature (sp?). this was back in jan or feb. then i saw a guy at work checking the alloy of some threaded studs that were made overseas some where. he had one made by Niton. i want to know the price of one because i might get one eventually. that purchase is probably at least 10 years away.

[cdlenterprises]

There is a chemical test that can be done that will tell you the alloy by the color that it changes. It's been a long time since I've seen it done but I know it exists. You might try to google "aluminum chemical test" or something and see what comes up. As far as I can remember it is a non-destructive test, similar to a Rockwell hardness test or a spark test.

[JonS]

if you were to try anodizing it then the impurities would result in colour which would give you some major hints as to what type of Alu it is... I guess this is similar to the chemical test.

quote from google - "Niton's handheld alloy analysers use x-ray fluorescence technology to allow inspectors to confirm the alloy composition of a wide range of metals, simply by pointing the detector gun at the metallic surface. Within seconds the gun displays a detailed readout of the composition of the alloy. Excellent for analysis of metal alloys for PMI, scrap metal recycling and QA/QC, as well as analysis of soils and sediments, environmental monitoring, lead in paint assessment, geochemical mapping, and more. "