Aerospace
Light weight, high strength, energy efficiency and extreme temperature resistance combine to make aluminum a superior choice for aerospace applications. For manufacturers of airplanes, helicopters and space and military equipment, aluminum plays a key role in enhancing product performance. Applications include jet engines, wings, fuselages, wheels, landing gear and fastening systems.
Aleris is a key supplier to all major aircraft manufacturers worldwide, either directly or through well-known service providers and aerospace metal distributors. With more than 60 years of experience, we supply innovative materials that meet the highest quality standards, as well as virtually any specification an individual customer may require.
Aleris supplies:
- Sheet and plate material for fuselage and wing structure components according to standard or customized specifications
- Extruded products, including drawn and extruded rods and bars, billets, seamless tubes, profiles,
- Hard alloys in round and flat bar shapes for complex machining and milling applications for products such as steering valves, landing gear parts (high-load structural components), fuel adaptors and heat exchanger parts
- Alloys traditionally used in aerospace applications are:
- 2xxx
- 5xxx
- 6xxx
- 7xxx
Plate and Sheet
Key advantages of Aleris’ damage-tolerant aluminum plate materials are:
- Thickness up to 280 mm (11 inches’)
- No significant porosity
- Excellent fatigue performance
- Extremely low level of residual stress
- Practically no distortion after machining
- High strength
- High ductility
- Excellent toughness
A state-of-the-art CNC sawing center permits a variety of plate cuts according to customized contours. Individually manufactured plate cuts can also be provided with fixing holes of 6 mm to 45 mm (0.24 inches to 0.177 inches) provided as passage holes or bag holes with or without thread. Plate pre-machining is also offered to optimize cost-savings and to minimize scrap handling at the customer's site.
Aleris offers the following sheet portfolio for light-weight fuselage and wing structures:
- Standard coil sheet
- Wide coil sheet up to 2,600 mm (102 inches) wide
- Wide sheet up to 3,460 mm (136 inches’) wide
High standards of quality, combined with unique, state-of-the-art equipment, leads to:
- A comprehensive size range
- Excellent surface properties (mill finished, bare, one side clad, both side clad, polished skin quality)
- High formability
- Best chemical milling quality
- MRS – quality
Extrusions
Aleris offers a wide range of hard-alloy extrusion products to meet aviation industry standards:
- Drawn and extruded rods
- Drawn and extruded bars
- Billets
- Seamless tubes
- Profiles (small and intermediate)*
- Heavy press extrusions*
*On request and pending of qualification
Extrusion alloys:
- 2024 (different temper)
- 2014 (different temper)
- 2618 (different temper)
- 5086 (different temper)
- 6061 (different temper)
- 7075 (different temper)
- 7175 (different temper)
Aleris facilities and manufacturing equipment are among the best in the industry. We have our own dedicated foundry to cast aircraft alloys with 100 percent ultrasonic testing of both billets and bars. A horizontal furnace provides high-quality solution heat treatment.
Perhaps even more importantly, we are able to develop specialties of various alloys -- like ultra-thick plates, and mill-finished and polished sheets, as well as segments in customized sizes and hard-alloy extrusions. Aleris holds several standards and customer-specific approvals and certifications.