Many people who describe the aluminum extrusion manufacturing process use a child playing with Play-Doh as an analogy. It’s a good one. A child rolls a little ball of dough into a sphere, places it inside the machine, picks a geometry from the template, pushes down on the handle and the Play-Doh flows out of the machine in the geometry selected. Profile Precision uses the extrusion process to produce custom aluminum shapes and aluminum tubing. We think we bring a little more sophistication to the extrusion process than a child’s toy. However, sometimes with a challenging design, we just have to try and see what happens!
The process actually starts with a customer designing a shape and specifying the details they’d like to have. Things like alloy/temper, dimensions & tolerances, cut lengths, coating, and fabrication details are important to iron out prior to building an extrusion die. The die generally takes 2-3 weeks to build. During that time, Profile Precision develops a manufacturing plan for the order. We determine extrusion temperatures, extrusion speed, billet length, a method of cooling, run out length, amount of stretch, and cut length.
The actual extrusion process starts by putting the extrusion die into the die box and heating it up to 850 degrees Fahrenheit (F). Once the die is heated, it is placed into the extrusion press. Next, a billet of aluminum is heated to 880 degrees F using induction heating. Profile prefers induction heating for its uniformity of temperature, energy efficiency, and speed of heating. Once the billet is heated it is transferred to the extrusion press container, crushed, and forced into the extrusion die. As the aluminum flows through the extrusion die it is formed into the shape designed by the customer. The extrusion exits the press and is quickly cooled by forced air or mist to ensure the desired mechanical properties are achieved.
In hopes that a picture is worth 1000 words, please see the photos and descriptions that follow:
A 2-piece porthole die is used to produce this 3-void hollow 12mm OD tube.
The die is made up of 2 parts. Shown on the right is the Housing, the mandrel which forms the ID(s) is part of the Housing. The Die Plate is shown on the left and forms the outside of the tube. The two pieces are bolted together and placed into the extrusion press.
On the left side of the photo is the extrusion die, with the Housing shown. To the right is our starting stock which is called a billet. During extrusion, the billet is forced into the housing through the 3 openings.
This is a photo looking at the exit end of the Die. The 3 triangular mandrels of the Housing can be seen. These form the voids of the finished 12mm tube shown above.
The fully formed extruded tube exits the Die Plate. (we add the blue anodize later).
If you’d like to see a video of the extrusion process click here. Have questions? Contact us today to learn more.
