Aluminum

Aluminium is found in anything ranging from the simplest soda cans to complicated airplanes. Aluminium is used widely for many reasons. Firstly, it is a low density metal, meaning it is very light. In fact, aluminium is the 5th lightest metal. Secondly, aluminium is the most abundant metal on the earth’s crust. Lastly, aluminium is 100% recyclable. This is due to aluminium’s extreme stability. Aluminium does not exist pure in nature. This is due to the fact that aluminium is a highly reactive metal, and would rapidly bond with oxygen if left exposed in air. Aluminium can be found bonded with many different elements, forming a variety of minerals. One of those ways aluminium exists is in its crystallized form, as sapphires.

Transportation Use:
The bodies of cars are made with aluminium alloys. This is due to its high weight to strength ratio. This makes the vehicle more fuel efficient. Aluminium is used in airplanes too. Airplanes are at constant stresses while flying and any failure would lead to a catastrophic failure. Aluminium is used as it is very light, and if a plane would be made up of steel, it would need 4 second stage space rockets to make that plane fly. Aluminium has a good ability to flex and bend, making it able to absorb the stresses of flight without snapping.

Food Industry Use:
As we all know, there is aluminium foil. The reason why aluminium is used is because, first, it does not rust, secondly, it is very abundant, and lastly, it can be recycled easily. The same reasons also made aluminium a good candidate for being made into beer cans. Beer cans need to hold high pressures of the drink. The pressure would be easily held by the miracle material, aluminium. Beer cans are made up from 2 parts, the cap, and the body. The body is made up of stretching a circular disk into a mould, creating the shape of the body, and giving the can a lot of strength.

Military Use
Bulletproof glass; what happens when bulletproof glass is not bulletproof? The 50 calibre bullet is one of the fastest and biggest round. It can easily pierce through bulletproof glass when fired through a sniper rifle. Now, current technology came up with bulletproof aluminium, and it is transparent. It can stop the 50 calibre as it is so hard and strong, allowing it to fracture upon impact without completely breaking through, and every crack and fracture would dissipate and absorb the shock. Bulletproof aluminium is called ALON, named after its elements, aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. One third of all American casualties in the war in the Middle East is caused by IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. Aluminium foam can now be used to protect soldiers from that threat. Aluminium foam is made by bubbling air through molten aluminium, and then cooling it rapidly. The size of the holes and the pattern of the holes can be manipulated by the rate of the air jets. When an IED explodes under a military vehicle, the aluminium foam would be crumpled and crushed, but with the breaking of every bubble, the shock is absorbed, making the shrapnel unable to penetrate through and cause casualties.

Security Use
Shipping containers might be filled with explosives or other harmful chemical weapons by terrorists, and scientists and engineers are trying to invent a laser that can literally see through the shipping containers. Aluminium was the answer. The crystallized form of aluminium is sapphires. Impurities in the crystallization process of the sapphire give it its colour. Scientists discovered that adding titanium into the aluminium, then crystallizing it, would give an end product of 100% clear sapphire and it would amplify the laser light so much that it is enough to see through the shipping containers. The special sapphires are called Ti-sapphires. There are made by placing sapphire seeds together with titanium, and then putting them into a special machine that exposes the titanium and sapphire seeds to high temperatures and pressures. This would make the sapphire and titanium bond together to make the Ti-sapphires.