Andrew Johnston | 10/03/2011 19:53:48 |
![]() 7061 forum posts 719 photos | Posted by Keith Wardill on 10/03/2011 15:04:27: I have read somewhere about allout alloying with copper - I experimented with this by dropping small chunks of copper pipe in the melt - they do 'disappear' - they are not left behind in the cannister. I assume the mechanism for this is the same as for stainless (i don't know for sure). I don't know how to go about any scientific testing of this, but the resulting castings did seem to be harder - it turned more like Dural than aluminium. Errr, that's because basically it is duralumin! The main alloying elements of duralumin are aluminium and copper, although it normally also contains maganese and magnesium. More generally the 2xxx series of alloys are based on aluminium and copper. These alloys were widely used in the aircraft industry, and also have the useful property of age hardening. A downside is that the copper makes the alloys prone to exfoliation corrosion. The 2xxx series are generally being replaced by the 7xxx series in the aircraft industry, as they are less prone to corrosion. Regards, Andrew |
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