Aluminum Casting & Fabrication

Before casting into ingot for fabricating, the molten aluminum is treated to ensure cleanliness and purity. Alloying ingredients are usually added to increase strength or provide special properties. Traditionally, the metal is then cast into ingots of various shapes, sizes and compositions for a number of uses.

Ingots are converted by Alcan or its customers into sheet, plate or foil products, as well as extruded shapes for engineering and architectural applications. Value-added foundry alloy ingots for shape castings and unalloyed ingots for remelting are sold mainly to third parties.

In an alternative technique, continuous casting, molten metal is cast directly into semi-finished form, bypassing the ingot stage. This fabrication method is becoming more widely used for sheet and foil products, and particularly for rod, which is subsequently drawn into many forms of electrical and mechanical wire.

The photograph at left shows an aluminum rolling mill run by Alcan in Germany.