Aluminium frames
(Para la versión en español de este artículo pulse aquí)
Aluminum is the third most common element in Earth’s crust. It is a light and corrosion resistant metal. Besides, if you mix it with other metals, you get a large number of alloys with specific characteristics that allow us to have innumerable applications of aluminum (from spacecrafts to cans, through the metal windows). The most common alloy for frames is AA6063 (American standard) or HE9 (British Standard).
The aluminum used in carpentry comes in profiles (bars) that fit together to make up the different works (windows, doors, mosquito screens, blinds, etc.).. To make the profiles, we extrude aluminum blanks. This means that the material is pushed or drawn through a die with a desired cross section. What best explains it, is the play-doh:
Amazingly, this is how you make the profiles. You just have to change the green dough for aluminum and make a bigger machine, but basically the same.
Once we have the profiles, we can start making what we want. For more information on the possibilities of aluminum, look at our post about thermal bridge coming soon (you can see it in spanish here). There are some photos with examples of aluminum in construction:
