Aluminium sheets

Aluminum sheets

Aluminum sheets, also known as aluminium plates, are the result of basic raw-form aluminium being pressed and rolled into panel form under high pressure

Aluminium sheeting is characteristically manufactured to be very thin and lightweight, yet sturdy enough to offer extreme versatility alongside inherent ease of installation and maintenance. It also boasts numerous other unique and useful properties that make it very widely deployed today across an enormous variety of industrial, agricultural, home DIY and manufacturing/production applications.

A range of additional coatings applied to aluminium sheets can help create a long-lasting material for use in outdoor settings or other challenging environments, such as for exterior cladding. The extremely lightweight nature of very thin sheet aluminium makes it ideal for use in drinks cans, food containers and other everyday products suitable for high-volume storage, transport and retail.

 

Types Available

There are numerous types of aluminium sheets available to buy on todays market. In this section, well look briefly at some of the more common aluminium sheet products youll find for sale from various suppliers and manufacturers. The types we have available include: perforated sheet, Aluminium chequered plates, anodized sheets, composite and brushed aluminum sheets.

Properties

Aluminium sheets are arguably among the most widely used types of abrasives and engineering materials today. This is largely due to some key aluminium sheet metal properties which, when viewed in combination, set it apart from other metal plate types for ideal use in a broad array of environments and applications.

 

Its most valuable properties include:

Lightweight (around 1/3 the mass of steel by volume), so an extremely cost-effective solution in transport and logistics-based operations

Strong enough to be suitable for various building and structural applications

Resistant to corrosion in outdoor and moisture-exposed applications

Easily formable, with a relatively low melting point (**0 celsius) even at thicker gauges

Suitable for food-grade uses, including direct contact packaging, due to being non-reactive and completely impermeable to smells and flavours (even at extremely lightweight foil thicknesses)

Fireproof - will not burn except in very thin films, and releases no toxic gases when melted

Highly reflective, making it suitable for use in energy-efficient heating and lighting systems

Excellent conductive properties for both heat and electricity (roughly twice that of copper), again making it suitable for economical heat and power systems

Easily recyclable, with low loss rates during breakdown (around three-quarters of all the sheet aluminium ever made is still in active circulation today)

Long-lasting and low maintenance, for reduced replacement rates and lower environmental impact

Available in a practically unlimited range of thicknesses and sheet sizes

 

Sizes

There are a wide variety of aluminium sheet, plate and foil sizes sold around the world. Generally speaking, any aluminium panel between about 0.2mm to 6.5mm thick is usually considered an aluminium sheet, whereas thinner gauge products than this would typically be classified and sold as foils. Thicker gauges than 6.5mm (roughly a quarter of an inch) are most often referred to as aluminium plate.

The right choice for a given application will depend entirely on the degree of flexibility/rigidity required for the sheet to perform its intended function. 

 

 

Thickness (mm) Common uses

*9 3mm 3mm aluminium sheet is often found on slightly thicker panels, such as interior wall coverings or perforated privacy screens.

6 6mm Often selected for walkways and floor coverings intended for use in high traffic areas, particularly when sold as chequered or durbar plates.

***0 Thicknesses of *0mm and above is often manufactured to ***2 alloy specifications, making it suitable for more robust applications such as in heavy duty or military environments, panels for heavy machinery and large-scale transport, skips, construction and industrial waste management, or larger sterile/food-grade containers for the agricultural and production sectors.