Application of aluminum profile processing in aerospace and other industries

Hardware and material suppliers have seen the aerospace industry as an important target for their products, starting with aluminum extrusion inputs. Aircraft and drones, as highly complex systems with multiple parts, can benefit from cutting-edge developments in production tools and materials, especially those that can reduce weight or increase the strength of components.

Unfortunately, this does not mean that aerospace is adopting aluminum profile machining designs any faster than other industries. In fact, for obvious reasons, aircraft and drones and their myriad components must undergo the most rigorous certification and testing procedures, so aluminum profile machining aerospace components can actually take years or decades to go from concept to implementation. The technology is there, but the knowledge gained from years of testing and observation is not. .

However, while the implementation of aluminum extrusions for aerospace products has been slow, the components that have achieved results are already having a significant impact on the industry. From simple things like designing interior bulkheads from aluminum extrusions to absolutely critical components like additively manufactured metal engine components, it has gradually become the industry standard for customization.

Aluminum extrusion is useful in industries such as aerospace because it allows engineers to manufacture parts with partially hollow interiors that utilize complex geometric patterns to maximize their internal strength without adding weight. Because aluminum profile machining methods build parts from the 'bottom up', they can be used to create lattice-like structures within components such as metal engine components or plastic cabin bulkheads. This is not possible using traditional processes (such as filling the entire cavity with liquid material) or machining (since cutting tools cannot penetrate the inside but not the outside).

It is difficult to overstate the importance of these lattice structures. When building aircraft, weight per gram is a barrier to achieving maximum efficiency, but precision aluminum extrusion can significantly reduce the mass of components by using partially hollow lattice structure interior construction. The weave of the mesh, strong threads can be arranged in a mathematically optimized way to maximize strength and reduce stress, ensuring lightweight components are as strong as - if not stronger than - fully solid alternatives. What's more, the space between these threads is weightless, which means the overall mass of the part is reduced.

Aerospace companies will increasingly engage in additive manufacturing for lightweighting and strength optimization as researchers continue to explore the possibility of fabricating mesh structures from lightweight aluminum profiles.

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