The Manufacturing Level of Aircraft Aluminum Sheet in China

 Aviation materials are the foundation for the development of the aviation industry and involve a large amount of global import and export trade. Due to the high demand for materials by aerospace parts manufacturers, the aerospace materials market in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America has huge potential.

The aviation material including aircraft aluminum sheet are important technical guarantees for realizing advanced aircraft with high performance, light weight, high reliability, long life, and low cost. Based on the importance of aircraft materials,the world's aviation powers attach great importance to the development of aircraft materials.

At present, China has basically formed a relatively complete aviation material research and development technology system and mass production capacity, and has the ability to supply key materials for major aviation equipment. There are some typical ones.

2024 Aluminum Sheet

2024 T3 aluminum sheet is the most common high-strength aluminum alloy. 2024-T3 aluminum plate is of super high strength and excellent fatigue resistance. Welding is generally not recommended. The typical use is for fuselage, wing shells and aircraft structure.

6061 T6 Aluminum

It has very good corrosion resistance and finishing ability, and good welding performance. The strength level of 6061-T6 aluminum plate is equivalent to that of low carbon steel. Its typical uses are aircraft landing pads, truck bodies and frames, structural parts, etc.

7075 Aluminum Alloy

Aircraft manufacturers use high-strength alloys, 7075 aluminum alloy to strengthen aluminum aircraft structures. 7075 aluminum sheet belong to Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy for ultimate strength, but the copper content makes it very difficult to weld. On the other hand, it has good anodizing effect. Aluminum 7075 has the best machining performance and can achieve very good results.

Original Source:https://www.aircraftaluminium.com/a/the-manufacturing-level-of-aircraft-aluminum-sheet-in-china.html

The Market Situation of Aircraft Aluminium Alloy

 For more than 100 years since the world’s first all-metal monoplane made of aluminum was developed in 1912, there has been no change that aircraft aluminum alloy has played a leading role in aircraft body materials.

Since the aircraft aluminium sheet is of high specific strength, good forming and processing properties, they are widely used in the manufacturing of wings, fuselage skins, upper and lower wing beams,seat slides, keel beams, vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer,etc.

A380-800 Airbus aluminum alloy material accounts for the largest proportion, reaching 61%, A350-900XWB Airbus aluminum alloy material accounts for 20%, and Boeing 787-8 Airbus aluminum alloy material accounts for 15%- 20%.

The main kinds of aircraft aluminum sheets used in large aircraft structures worldwide are 2xxx aircraft aluminum(2024, 2224, 2324,2424, 2524) and 7xxx aircraft aluminum(7055, 7075, 7085,etc.).

2xxxx aluminum ally, Al-Cu alloy is the most widely used structural aluminum alloy. Its main alloys and chemical elements are listed in the table.

The tensile strength of 2××× series aluminum alloy is 400~500 MPa, which is lower than the room temperature strength of 7××× series aluminum alloy, but the heat resistance, fatigue characteristics, especially fatigue crack growth resistance are all higher than 7×× × aircraft aluminum.

7xxx aluminum alloy, Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy, has high specific strength and hardness, good corrosion resistance, high toughness, and excellent processing performance.

The aircraft aluminum sheet has high technical requirements. The aircraft aluminum sheet manufacturer is not so much as that of the common aluminum alloy products. The foreign manufacturers have Alcoa, Alcan, Aleris,etc. In China, Haomei Aluminum is one of the aircraft aluminum suppliers. 2024 aluminum sheet and 7075 aluminum are are both its best selling products.
Original Source: https://www.alumhm.com/a/the-market-situation-of-aircraft-aluminium-alloy.html

The Main Kinds of Aircraft Aluminium Sheets

In 1906, German Wilm accidentally discovered that after a certain period of time at room temperature, the strength of aluminum alloy would gradually increase with the prolonged storage time. This phenomenon was later referred to as age hardening, and as one of the earliest core technologies to promote the development of the aircraft aluminum sheets.

In the following hundred years, aircraft aluminum sheet manufacturers has made many research on aluminum alloy composition and synthesis methods, and the aluminum alloy processing technology such as rolling, extrusion, forging, heat treatment,etc.

The aircraft aluminum plate has the advantages of high strength, good processing and formability, low cost and good maintainability. It is widely used in aircraft main structure materials. The improvement of the aircraft properties such as flight speed and structural weight reduction put forwards higher requirements for the aluminum alloys.

There are four main kinds of aircraft aluminum alloys: 2024,7075,7050 and 6061 aluminum sheet. 2024 aluminium sheet has high fracture toughness and low fatigue crack growth rate. It is the most commonly used aircraft fuselage and underwing material.

7075 aluminum plate was successfully developed in 1943. It was successfully applied to the B-29 bomber. The strength of 7075-T6 aluminum alloy is the highest, but but its resistance to stress corrosion is poor.

7050 aluminum plate is developed on the basis of 7075 aluminum alloy, which has better strength, anti-flaking corrosion and stress corrosion resistance, and is applied to the compression components of F-18 aircraft.

6061 aluminum sheet can also be used on the aircraft. It has good corrosion resistance and excellent welding performance, but the strength is moderately low.

Original Source: https://www.alumhm.com/a/the-main-kinds-of-aircraft-aluminium-sheets.html