eli5, What is the difference between aluminum and space grade aluminum?

Question

Is it just marketing or is there an actual structural difference?

In: 807

Answer 1

All of the info here is basically right but essentially what we pay for when we’re buying to make spacecraft or aircraft is a performance guarantee, a composition guarantee, and a quality guarantee. I’m ordering a specific alloy, a specific temper, and that it’s compliant to a specific spec that lets me know exactly what I’m getting (usually ASTM standard). And that they have paperwork they’ll give me that proves it. We expend a lot of effort to make reliable, predictable structures with no surprises in performance.

I suspect the consumer goods don’t require the paperwork or the pedigree.