- \n
- Copper<\/strong>: Increases strength and makes it easily heat treatable. Adding copper reduces toughness and corrosion resistance. <\/li>\n
- Manganese:<\/strong> Provides a slight increase in strength and a smaller decrease in ductility and corrosion resistance compared to copper as an addition. However, as the temperature of this alloy increases, its strength decreases. <\/li>\n
- Silicon:<\/strong> Added mainly to lower the melting temperature and make the aluminium suitable for casting.<\/li>\n
- Magnesium:<\/strong> This addition increases the strength and corrosion resistance of the material and is mainly used for sheet metal.<\/li>\n
- Magnesium and Silicon<\/strong>: This is a special combination, it provides higher strength and makes it very extrudable due to the silicon.<\/li>\n
- Zinc:<\/strong> Provides a significant increase in strength and is often combined with magnesium and silicon. This combination creates aluminum with the highest strength classification. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FI-Fotos_Mark-Meet-Profiel-300x187.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSecondary alloying elements include iron<\/strong> for increased strength, chromium<\/strong> for enhancing the crystal structure, nickel<\/strong> for increased hardness and strength, lithium<\/strong> for increasing the modulus of elasticity, and lead and bismuth<\/strong> for improving machinability. Fortunately, a designer doesn’t have to find the right mix of alloying elements every time to create the perfect material for their product. Alloys are largely standardized and can be specified through series and branches. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/FI_Fotos_Niels_Leest_Tijdschrift.original-300x188.jpg\")
\nEight series are currently specified. Combinations have been optimized with alloying elements, which distinguishes them from the other series. <\/p>\n- \n
- 1xxx series<\/strong>
\nThis virtually pure aluminum can be machined perfectly and has good corrosion resistance. Aluminum has low mechanical properties <\/li>\n- 2xxx series<\/strong>
\nCopper is the main alloying element here, making it a relatively strong alloy, where the corrosion resistance is lower than with pure aluminum.<\/li>\n- 3xxx series<\/strong>
\nUsing manganese increases the strength by about 20% compared to the 1xxx series.<\/li>\n- 4xxx series<\/strong>
\nSilicon can be added up to 12%, allowing the melting temperature to be determined quite accurately. This series is used in foundries. <\/li>\n- 5xxx series<\/strong>
\nWith magnesium as the main additive, seaworthy products can be made. The corrosion resistance, also in salty environments, is high. <\/li>\n- 6xxx series<\/strong>
\nWith added magnesium and silicon, several properties are improved without sacrificing much on other specifications. The special combination provides a higher strength and makes it very easy to extrude due to the silicon. <\/li>\n- 7xxx series<\/strong>
\nBy putting zinc in the aluminum, a very high-quality aluminum type is created that is characterized by its high strength properties.<\/li>\n- 8xxx series<\/strong>
\nAll other alloys.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nAs designers we are aware of the most common alloys and we thoroughly investigate which we specify for which type of product. This depends not only on the technical requirements, but also on the shape of the product or part to be designed. For example, not all series are common for extrusion and not every alloy is available as a plate. <\/p>\n
Do you want to know more about aluminum alloys or do you have another question? Please feel free to contact us. <\/p>\n
This article was written by Niels Schouten. Niels is an industrial designer, motion technologist and director at Fabrique Invent. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are many aluminum alloys available, each with unique properties. By using additional alloying elements, the strength or machinability properties of the material can be played with. Alloying elements are generally divided into main alloying elements and secondary elements. Main alloying elements Copper: Increases strength and makes it easily heat treatable. Adding copper reduces toughness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabrique-invent.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- 2xxx series<\/strong>
- Manganese:<\/strong> Provides a slight increase in strength and a smaller decrease in ductility and corrosion resistance compared to copper as an addition. However, as the temperature of this alloy increases, its strength decreases. <\/li>\n