December 7th, 2009
David F.
Thanks for the question, David! Cast tool and jig plate usually gets a thermal stress relieving treatment that imparts thermal recyclability into the product. Typically, it can be heated repeatedly to temperatures as high as 800°F (427°C) and, when cooled, will return to its original dimension with a minimum of distortion, depending upon the extent of machining. Without knowing what forces are on your sealer plates, it would be hard to say if the heat resulted in the deformation. The plate is designed to take some heat, but you may want to check with your aluminum supplier. Since the composition of cast tool and jig products like MIC6 are proprietary, they would need to tell you if you particular product could have deformed under these circumstances.
December 4th, 2009
As an aluminum supplier, we can offer you nearly any alloy of aluminum sheet you need. We find that the vast majority of customers, though, use 6061-T6 or 3003-H14. These designations may look cryptic, but they’re really pretty simple. The first part, the four digit number, is the alloy. The part after the dash is the temper. Let’s break these down and look at them separately.
Alloy
The first of the four digits in the alloy indicates what the primary alloying element is. The chart below list some of the available series.
| Series |
Primary Alloying Elements |
| 1000 |
Aluminum |
| 2000 |
Copper |
| 3000 |
Manganese |
| 4000 |
Silicon |
| 5000 |
Magnesium |
| 6000 |
Magnesium & Silicon |
The second digit can indicate if there are impurity limits or other modifications to the alloying elements. Generally, the third and fourth digits identify the alloy or indicate the purity of the aluminum. In the 2000 through 8000 series, however, the last two of the four digits have no special significance but serve only to identify the different aluminum alloys in the group.
Temper
At Cut2SizeMetals.com, we offer 2 tempers: strain-hardened only (H14 temper) and solution heat-treated and then artificially aged (T6 temper). The number “4″ in H14 means that tensile strength is half way between the O temper and 8 temper, sometimes called half-hard. The combination of the 3003 alloy and the H14 temper makes for a softer, more formable aluminum. The 6061 alloy in the T6 temper is a stronger, stiffer aluminum that is used where strength, and not formability, is important. If you’d like to talk to us about your specific application, give us a call at 812.429.1634.
