5083, 5054, and 5454 aluminum alloy surfboards

West Aluminum - West Aluminum Industry Telecom: Surfing is a popular summer water sport. But do you know what material surfboards are made of? Surfboards are mostly made of aluminum matrix composite materials reinforced with glass fibers. Although this material has high strength, its price and recyclability are not yet satisfactory. There is one material that can be considered the best material for making surfboards - aluminum alloy. Currently, foreign companies are developing all aluminum surfboards.

According to foreign media reports, a surfboard company based in Utopik, Brittany, France has been designing and manufacturing aluminum sandwich surfboards since 2020. The company's head stated that its bridge core hull box board products are made of aluminum alloy and wood. The wood among them is an eco-friendly material, sourced from non-invasive and fast-growing trees, with a high rate of carbon dioxide absorption. And this type of surfboard can be recycled in a closed loop manner, with a recycling capacity much higher than the current recycling rate of polymer surfboards. The aluminum alloy surfboard entered the testing and production phase in June 2021. It can be foreseen that the entry of aluminum alloys will bring significant changes to the future of the surfing industry.

However, the aluminum alloy used to manufacture surfboards also has special requirements. Surfing is often carried out along the coast, and seawater is a highly corrosive medium, which places high demands on the corrosion resistance of materials. Aluminum and its alloys have an oxide film on their surface, which gives the material high corrosion resistance. Anything that can improve the density of the oxide film, increase the thickness of the oxide film, and improve the insulation performance of the oxide film can help improve the corrosion resistance of aluminum and its alloys. On the contrary, any factor that reduces the effectiveness of the oxide film, whether mechanical or chemical, will cause a sharp decrease in the corrosion resistance of aluminum and its alloys.

The corrosion resistance of aluminum alloys in alkaline solutions and seawater decreases in the following order: Al Mg alloy, industrial pure aluminum, Al Mn alloy, Al Mg Si alloy, Al Zn Mg alloy, Al Si alloy, Al Zn Cu Mg alloy, Al Cu Mg alloy, Al Cu Mg alloy, and Al Cu alloy. However, the above order of corrosion resistance can be established only after the alloys sensitive to exfoliation corrosion, intergranular corrosion or stress corrosion cracking have been heat treated and these sensitivities have been removed. At the same time, this order is not precise. According to this rough ranking, the Al Mg series alloy, i.e. the 5000 series alloy, has the strongest corrosion resistance to seawater. Therefore, the author recommends using 5083, 5054, and 5454 alloys to manufacture surfboards.

Among them, it is best to use 5454 type alloy, whose typical physical properties at room temperature in various states are; Density 2.69g/cm3, melting temperature 602 ℃~646 ℃, conductivity 34% IACS, thermal conductivity 134W/m ℃, specific heat 900J/kg ℃, (20 ℃~100 ℃) linear expansion coefficient 23.7 × 10-6。 Physical properties of 5083-0 type alloy: density 2.66g/cm3, melting temperature 579 ℃~641 ℃, conductivity 29% IACS, thermal conductivity 117W/m ℃, specific heat 900J/kg ℃, linear expansion coefficient 23.8 (20 ℃~100 ℃) × 10-6。

(Chongqing Xialu Xinda Aluminum Industry Co., Ltd. Publicity Department collates contributions)

Source: Network

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