Aluminum Extrusion
Extruding aluminum is the preferred method to manufacture continuous complex profile shapes that are used in many industries including construction, aeronautics and automotive. In this process, a billet of aluminum is pushed by a ram through a die land that is the desired product shape. Mold designers typically face the challenge of ensuring that all the sections of the mold cavity are properly filled, no matter what the local temperature of the aluminum is or how narrow a flow section might be.
The high pressure and high temperatures involved in this process induce thermo-mechanical stresses in the solid die as well as small deformations. These stresses and deformations often adversely affect the specific dimensions required of the extruded profile. Using Fluent's software the die designer can gain insightful information about the behavior of the molten aluminum such as local pressure, temperature, velocity, residence time and description of the flow pattern when the molten aluminum is flowing through the die.
Fluent products provide advanced physics such as shear thinning and temperature dependence of the aluminum viscosity, fluid structure interaction between the solid die and the flowing metal and the deformation of the profile. Despite the complexity of the physics involved, the user friendliness of the software allows you to define a new process with minimum training and virtually no mathematical knowledge.
Learn more about aluminum extrusion with Hydro Aluminum
