Aluminum is a miracle. Its reactivity is so high that our ability to purify it from its ore just stuns me, seriously stuns me every time that I think about it.
I warn you that this video is narrated by a British voice, so it does refer to aluminum as aluminium. Just thought you should know...
The video follows aluminum through the processing to take the ore into a somewhat finished form...
- refining of bauxite ore (grinding, mixing with caustic soda - NaOH, and heating) into alumina
- smelting the alumina in a bath of molten cryolite
- passing electrical current through the mixture
- processing of the ingots (at an ALCOA factory, of course) into plates
- casting
- homogenizing
- scalping (sawing & milling)
- heating & rolling
- shearing & cropping
- horizontal solution treating (5:15 - which seems to use water, not a solution)
- stretching
- precipitating/aging
- conductivity testing & ultrasonic inspection (both non-destructive testing methods)
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