Is it just marketing or is there an actual structural difference?
In: 807
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.
The main difference is the quality of the material and the process methods used to make it. Aerospace grade has less impurities meaning that it has better mechanical properties, mostly under fatigue loading or other dynamic load conditions. For some materials there are other property benefits as well, but that is it in a nut shell.
Edit: aluminium can have many grades eg 2014, 2024, 6061, 7050 etc, and each one can have different specifications to different international standards depending on their designed use. These are commonly BS Lxxx (British standard) or AMS xxx (aerospace materials standard). Where xxx are the identifying numbers of the specific standard eg AMS7050 or BS L167
Most of the time it is just used as a marketing ploy in non aerospace items. Though it does show that the materials used in production are of a specific standard, rather than any old rubbish. For static household objects, it’s really not a big deal. For things like downhill mountain bikes, then it can actually help.
Hope that’s useful.
Source: I am a metallurgist/materials engineer in the aerospace industry.
Don’t get me started on MIL-SPEC materials 🤣
The real question is what’s the difference between aluminum and aluminium?
Also, can someone help me decide between ketchup and catsup?
Space grade is a mispronunciation of space age.
Space age literally just meant the 50s and 60s since it was the era of the space race and all the technology and brands are coming out that had something to do with the space race.
But it’s nothing more than a buzzword and it’s pretty funny when modern day ads use the word space age not realizing it actually just means back when we’re putting people on the moon.
Marketing.
We dont use some super secret, 20% gold – aluminum alloy for stuff that goes into space. We use the same stuff we have for earthbound applications. Certain alloys might be more dominant in the space industry, but they arent “better”, rather, they have certain properties that are useful in space.
Even if the marketing was honest, it would just be a quality metric; you cant tolerate as much variability on a spacecraft as you can on a cooking pot. So “real” space grade aluminum might have X ultimate tensile strength plus or minus 0.001%, whereas the common industry grade might be X plus or minus 5%. In ordinary applications this variability makes no discernable difference, so there is no point to controlling it as precisely.
Aluminum= chemical element, or family of alloys that all contain it. Engineers would never specify just “aluminum” but rather a specific standardized alloy: 6061, 7075, 2024, A380, A356, etc. Most grades come from the AISI, but some from SAE, DIN, JIS or ISO.
“Space Grade Aluminum” is a meaningless term made to market something that has aluminum in it.
What I picked up working in general aviation.
What is the manufacturing/milling process between a piece of aluminum, space grade aluminum, and certified spacegrade aluminum? Nothing, it is all the same raw stock.
Being certified material means everything in the aviation and spacecraft industries. It means that the mill has tested the material for proper ratios of alloy materials and for tensil and ductile strength. It is then issued a certificate that can be used for traceability, if there is a faulure if a manufactured part. This adds a huge increase to the raw stock and handling prices (each piece of stock had the cert number engraved into it).
I was an Aerospace Engineering student. You just reminded me about my Material Science course. I’m about to cry. Thank you
Pure aluminum is rare to encounter, because adding a tiny percentage of alloys can cheaply make it better in a variety of ways.
6000-series aluminum (6061 is popular). It has a tiny amount of Magnesium and Silicon. This alloy welds, cuts, and drills easily. It can be readily found as plate, bar, rod, etc. If you go into a store that carries any kind of aluminum, they will have 6061
7000-series has some Zinc added. 7075 is popular and it is as structurally as strong as mild steel, while being lighter, but more expensive.
8000-series has a tiny amount of iron and silicon. 8176 is used for high-voltage electrical wire all over the US.
The Germans in WWII developed a very strong alloy they named “Duralumin” specifically for their aircraft. Its alloyed with 4% copper, 1.5% Magnesium, 0.6% manganese, 0.5% iron, 0.5% silicon, and some other smaller portions of stuff…it’s called Aluminum 2024.
“SPACE AGE TECHNOLOGY!”
So…from the 1960’s then?
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