Aluminum Rods

Aluminum Rods

Aluminum rods are straight, uniform aluminum products that are usually circular. Their diameter is many times longer than width and they are used in the electrical and construction industries. Shafts, railings, stakes and tines are all made from aluminum rods. These simple shapes are made from heated aluminum billets by extrusion under high pressure through a die that has a round shape. Rods are similar to bars, but they differ in variety of shape. Rods are the basic round shape, while bars may be square, rectangular, triangular, flat and hexagonal.

Billets made from aluminum, which are semi-finished bar stock, go through extrusion to become rod-shaped. They are heated to 900 degrees F, placed in an extrusion press and drawn. Drawing refers to pushing the billet through a steel die by a large, hard metal ram under forced pressure. They are often pushed through consecutively smaller dies multiple times in order to reduce their cross section a little at a time. Larger rods may only be extruded once, while small rods are often put through the process more than twice. Liquid nitrogen is often poured after the rod is extruded to cool the temperature. Although many rods do not require cold working, those that do exhibit an improved surface finish and dimensional tolerances.