Aluminium is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust, but it is rarely found in its elemental state. It occurs in many minerals, but its primary commercial source is bauxite, a mixture of hydrated aluminium oxides and compounds of other elements such as iron. Before commercial extraction technology, aluminum was considered so precious that it was chosen over gold and silver to become the cap on the Washington Monument.
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The casting made to serve as the tip of the Washington monument is the 1st credited construction application using cast aluminum. Prior to the Hall'Héroult commercial extraction process, elemental aluminium was made by heating bauxite ore along with elemental sodium or potassium in a vacuum. This laboratory method was complicated and consumed materials that were in themselves expensive in these earlier times (early 19th century). This meant that the cost to produce the small amount of aluminium made in the lab setting was very high, higher than for gold or platinum. Historical records indicate how valuable the element was: bars of aluminium were exhibited alongside the French crown jewels at the Exposition Universelle of . Even Emperor Napoleon III of France was said to have reserved his few sets of aluminium dinner plates and eating utensils for his most honored guests. By , when aluminum was still being chemically extracted in a laboratory environment, just 1 ounce of aluminum cost about as much as the daily wage of a common worker.
In , the Pittsburgh Reduction Company was established, with the necessary electricity being supplied using steam generators. The electrolysis process used to extract the aluminum is known as the 'Hall-Héroult Process'.
This same company is now known as Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America).
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After commercialization with electricity in , Aluminum became part of everyday life with many uses ' from teakettles & cookware in the early days, to aircraft, power lines, building materials, and beverage containers. It continues to have tremendous usage today because of automotive applications.
PHOTO CREDIT:
Horydczak, Theodor, photographer.
'Horydczak on Top of the Washington Monument,' ca. -.
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number LC-H824-T01--001.
Images copyright to Paul Johnson, made available at: http://www.historicracing.com/galleries.cfm?galleryID=4&subGallery=46
Indy 500 race had an aluminum intensive vehicle (Harvey Aluminum Special), where Mickey Thompson built the new rear engine chassis for Dan Gurney to drive. Harvey Aluminum was an aluminum fabricator serving Aerospace, Automotive and Beverage Container industries. After World War II, there was a tremendous infrastructure in place to roll and form aluminum for airplane production, but not much need for for it. So, the Harvey Aluminum company contracted with Mickey Thompson to build a set of cars to run on the high-speed track in Indianapolis. The marketing intent was for promoting aluminum use in motor vehicles.
One of the earliest automotive applications for aluminum was in the transmission. Ford Motor Company purchased die cast aluminum bell housings and tail-stock castings for reducing the weight in the Ford-o-matic transmission. This transmission was used from to in many Ford vehicles. Interestingly, for 3 months in this transmission was installed in Cadillac vehicles after a devastating fire at the GM Hydramatic Transmission plant in Livonia, MI. This transmission was also used in some International and Dodge trucks, as well as in Checker Cabs.
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n , Chrysler finally had an automatic transmission, after years of manuals and semi-automatics ' and just in time, too, as the average driver was now demanding one.
The new Powerflite was, like early Ford and GM automatics, a simple two-speed affair, combining a torque converter and a two-speed planetary gearbox. The company bragged that it was '100 pounds lighter than the heaviest competitive unit, and contains 110 fewer parts than the most complicated of these.' (Note they did not benchmark the best, but the worst. They would make up for this with the TorqueFlite, later.) Notice how the gear box is still made from Cast Iron, while the bell housing and tail-stock are made from an aluminum alloy.
Briggs & Stratton Aluminum EngineBriggs and Stratton introduced a die cast aluminum engine in as a means of having a lighter-weight engine for applications such as rotary lawn mowers. The lighter weight of this lawn mower engine helped to ease the burden of pushing and it lightened the ground pressure at the wheels. By this small aluminum engine line accounted for 80 percent of engines the company ships in the U.S. Building on the demand and addressing bore wear, in Briggs & Stratton started marketing engines with an all-aluminum cylinder bore (Kool-Bore) and also offered an aluminum engine design with a cast-in iron liner (Sleeve-Bore).
40 Hp Evinrude Lark IXSmall marine power units have used light weight aluminum alloys for their structural drive line housings and engine power heads from the early 's to the present time. Similar to the Briggs and Stratton introduction of die cast aluminum engines for lawn & garden, the Outboard Marine Corporation also transformed their aluminum casting process in the early 's High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC). The introduction of aluminum HPDC allowed the design engineers to incorporate many features into the casting designs, providing a cost effective process for light-weight, higher output designs that the post WW-II veterans were interested in buying. This post-war economy was strong all the way into , when he Nixon presidency was in question, the OPEC nations sanction an oil embargo and the US steel industry faltered from global competition. During the 's the US marine industry faced stiff competition from Japanese manufacturers and costly environmental remediation in the same communities where employees lived and worked.
The history of aluminum casting is an interesting and fascinating one, with the evolution of various technologies and processes dating back to the 18th century.
One of the first to try to cast aluminum was English chemist Henry Bessemer, who in developed a production process for aluminum based on pressure casting. However, his process required a very powerful energy source, which at the time was difficult to find.
In the years that followed, other inventors continued to work on aluminum production processes, such as French chemist Paul Hèroult, who in developed an electrolytic casting process for aluminum. This process, based on the electrolysis of an aluminum chloride solution in a fluorine bath, allowed for the production of large amounts of aluminum at low cost, and paved the way for large-scale aluminum production.
Another important contribution was that of Alexander Hall, who in developed a process for extracting aluminum from bauxite, a mineral that contains large amounts of aluminum. This process, based on the thermal decomposition of bauxite with caustic soda, made it possible to produce aluminum at even lower prices, making aluminum accessible to an ever-widening range of consumers.
In the 20th century, aluminum casting technology further progressed thanks to scientists such as Wilhelm Wilm, who in developed a pressure casting process for aluminum production. This process, based on the melting of aluminum in a closed container under pressure, allowed for the production of aluminum at an even faster rate, making it possible to produce large amounts of aluminum at even lower costs.
Today, aluminum casting is one of the most important industries in the world, with a production of over 60 million tons of aluminum per year. Thanks to continuous technological innovations, aluminum casting is able to produce aluminum at increasingly lower costs, making it an extremely versatile material used in many sectors, from automotive to aerospace, construction to electronics.
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