Custom Aluminum Extrusion: Design Aluminum Extrusion Profiles

design custom extrusionAt Silver City Aluminum, we do many different types of extrusions for our customers. However, we specialize in the engineering and manufacture of custom aluminum products. You might think that it is difficult to design your own aluminum extrusion profiles, but we work with each customer from the early design phase to ensure the best possible results. As an aluminum extruder, we purchase quality billet from several different suppliers that is made up of 99.9 percent recyclable aluminum. There are many benefits to choosing extruded aluminum for production, including the many inherent qualities of the material itself. The process involved in custom aluminum extrusion adds other advantages as well, including increased strength, which can be beneficial to many different industries.

Extrusion Design Process

We take pride in our ability to get fully involved in the design process for every one of our customers’ projects. Our many years of knowledge and experience in working with custom aluminum extrusion is an asset that can help to improve quality control while ensuring exceptional customer service. We keep our focus on the application of the product itself, considering all aspects of its intended use. Who will be using it, where they will be using it, and why they will be using it are just some of the things that must be considered in order to get the best possible results. Through our many years of providing quality products, we have discovered that the more we are able to get involved in the process of product development, the more we are able to help our clients create a finished design that will meet or exceed their expectations.

We utilize a variety of different design file types and programs to assist our customers in the design of custom aluminum products. For 2D files, we can use .dxf or .dwg extensions with AutoCAD. For 3D files, including programs like Inventor and Solidworks, we can open extensions that include .stp and .iges. If our customer does not have the CAD software necessary to help us create their aluminum extrusion profiles, we can also open .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) files and scanned documents that include the necessary dimensions required to redraw the specific shape in CAD. We can do almost any shape that is within a 7-inch diameter circle size. A list of our standard aluminum tolerances, aluminum alloys that we use, and tips on specific design techniques can be found on our website in the ENGINEERING section.

Benefits of Custom Aluminum Extrusion

There are many reasons why our customers choose to create their own custom profiles rather than make changes to the parts, products, or components after the extrusion is complete. First, by designing a custom shape that does not require welding or joining to achieve the desired profile, you save a lot of time during production. Our lead times are some of the best in the business, and we are very proud of our ability to create custom aluminum products for our clients to meet their needs quickly. Eliminating these secondary operations for welding and joining will also save money, reducing the amount of extra professional services you will require to achieve your goals.

Custom shapes can create a better end product for your intended users. Instead of having smaller parts joined together through welding and other methods, a single part can be used to provide more dependable and consistent results. Every step we take throughout the process of creating your extruded aluminum is done with the idea of ensuring quality control. From pre-cutting the billets to minimize scrap and reduce costs to pre-heating the materials to ensure the best temperature for proper extrusion, we monitor every phase through the advancement of PLC control technology to see how the machine is functioning, the rate of speed, the extrusion recipe, and all other variables to provide dependable quality control for our customers.

Contact Silver City Aluminum

If you would like to learn more about designing custom aluminum extrusion to meet your production and manufacturing needs, give us a call at 508-824-8631. Located in Southeastern Massachusetts, we provide quality custom aluminum products to clients throughout New England, across the country, and around the globe. Call today to place an order, speak with our engineering and design team, or to learn more about the many different types of extruded aluminum products we can provide.