Aluminum seems to be one of the most confusing and most commonly scrapped metals. It can be found in residential items like folding lawn chairs and commercial items like airplanes. As one of the softest and strongest metals, its use is widespread.
Let’s go into some of the names and grades of aluminum to help learn and explain it more.
What is Extruded Aluminum?
We have discussed the phrase extruded aluminum before, and it is important to know that it is a type and not a grade. Many scrappers get those wordings wrong when they talk about aluminum grades, and to their credit, many scrap yards do their classifications wrong as well.
Extruded aluminum is like making pasta from the dough; it pushes aluminum through a mold, forming or extruding it on the other side. There are dozens of different grades of aluminum, and the type determines the value, not the process (most of the time).
What is Cast Aluminum?
Cast aluminum is also a type, not a grade, of aluminum. It is sometimes made from multiple types of aluminum mixed and could contain iron or other non-aluminum inside the composition. Examples of casted aluminum pieces could be aluminum cooking grills, pots, pans, or even certain engine parts in cars or other gas-powered engines.
Scrap yards will ask you to sort and separate these types of aluminum even though the price grades will be similar to sheet aluminum.
What is Sheet Aluminum?
Sheet aluminum grading could range from scrap yard to scrap yard, but there will be many commonplace things. Many old items that could have slight contaminates, like nails, screws, rubber, or steel, could be included in the sheet aluminum prices. To get sheet pricing, these items must contain less than 2-3% of non-aluminum attachments or weights.
Sometimes, scrap aluminum items like cleaned lawn chairs with no debris could still be considered sheet aluminum as a default metal pricing option.
6061 Aluminum – Where It Comes From
6061 Aluminum contains other metals like magnesium and silicon inside its composition. These sub-items allow the metal to have a much stronger base property, meaning they will last longer. The longer items like window frames, car frames, and other applications last, the greater the overall product and experience.
Knowing what 6061 aluminum is is very important, but you also have to be able to look for different signs and uses to identify it better. Below are some of the common applications and products that 6061 is used for. One thing to keep in mind is that when 6061 is painted or has other contaminants like stickers or labels, its pricing will go down.
- Bicycles
- Automotive Parts
- Airplane parts such as fuel tanks
- Flashlights
- Welding materials to bond aluminum together.
6063 Aluminum – Where It Comes From
When it comes to aluminum 6063 (and other grades), there are always other elements involved in creating the metal. Just like in 6061, you will find magnesium and silicon traces inside Aluminum 6063 alloys (you may even find traces of iron, copper, or zinc in minimal percentage amounts). 6063’s properties allow it to be very easily extruded, and because of that, it is one of the most common metals used.
6063 aluminum should always be separated before being brought to the scrap yard so you can make more money with this metal. You should also separate any painted materials that may be mixed to get the best pricing possible. Below are a few examples of where you could find 6063 Aluminum being used.
- Door Frames
- Commercial Window Frames
- Electrical Conduits
- Medical Devices
- Aluminum Tubing
