If you are involved in any industry that requires heavy duty parts and components, you may want to know more about 2024 aluminum. As its specifications say, it offers good machinability and surface finish capabilities, and it is a high strength material. It is used for gears and shafts, aircraft fittings, bolts, computer and clock parts, couplings, fuse parts, missile parts, nuts, pistons, fastening devices, orthopedic and veterinary devices and structures among other things. However, where you might commonly see it is on the wings and fuselage areas of airplanes because it has such extreme fatigue resistance.
It is a form of aluminum that was first made in the 1930s and it has some of the strongest fatigue resistance available. It can be made in an amazing array of thicknesses, ranging from .250″ all of the way up to 6″. It is an allow with copper as its main alloying element, but it does have a somewhat complex chemical composition that includes iron, zinc, titanium and more. It is also typically aluminum clad because the metal itself can have poor corrosion resistance.
It has a tensile strength range of 47000psi to 68000psi and a bearing strength of around 11800psi. It is heat treatable and can be found in bars, plates and sheets. Though it is, as just stated, heat treatable, it is not a good idea to use this metal for hot working or hot forming. It can be welded, and the best approach is via resistance welding or inert gas consumable electrode arc methods. Yet, most would say that welding by any method is not a good choice as it can reduce its corrosion resistance, which is already a bit compromised. When welding is used, a repeat heat treatment should follow.
Cold working is one of the more conventional methods of handling it and it has a bend radii of around 1/2 to one time the thickness up to 1/4″ and less.
There are variations of 2024 aluminum, including the T351 that is ideal for automotive part production thanks to its machinability. 2024 aluminum is also capable of being put to use in custom aluminum extrusion shapes.
Do you think you require some form of 2024 aluminum for your project? If so, it is best to obtain it from a firm that specializes in aluminum products rather than a generalized metal supplier.
