Metal & Alloy Selection
What metals can be deep drawn? Professor Metal explores metal alloy selection for deep drawing, addressing tooling costs, finish, and deep draw percentages.
What Type of Metal?
Do you have a choice or does design call for a particular alloy?
Aluminum is a good material. It is light yet strong, It is easily worked (drawn); readily accepts a host of finishes; can be washed and shipped in an as-fabricated condition without rusting and has a pleasing appearance. Tooling for aluminum is less expensive than steel.
STEEL:
Mild low carbon steel in the annealed condition that is of good deep draw quality can be drawn quite easily (tensile in “O” temper 45000 PSI). There are an infinite variety of other steel alloys that can be drawn in their “O” temper then heat treated for strength:
THINGS TO CONSIDER:
- Tooling is expensive - you need extra hard steel to draw properly
- Rust is a problem during transit as well as I a final use if it is not finished properly or protected.
Other common metals that can be successfully drawn are: copper, brass and stainless steel?
- 1100-0 Alum. Weighs .0979 lb/cu. in.
- Brass = 3.1 x wgt 1100 Alum
- Copper = 3.3 x wgt 1100 Alum
- Steel = 2.89 x wgt. 1100 Alum
The same approximate draw percentages used for steel and aluminum can be used for these metals.
We Are Here to Help
Deep draw and hydroforming sales and support engineers are ready to answer your questions.
Why Do We Choose Amalco?
“Amalco offers a 'one-stop shop'. In the past, our combustion cones were shipped back and forth between several subcontractors to have them perform different production steps. Amalco performs each of these operations at one facility, thereby reducing our cone supplier base from three to one. Now, we coordinate inventory and communications with only one cone supplier, which saves us invaluable time and resources.”for a major manufacturer of waste oil burning heating systems
Design and Engineering Support for Hydroforming and Deep Drawn Metal Manufacturing
With 100 years and 4 generations of experience, Amalco offers design and engineering support for customers who need to manufacture deep drawn and hydroformed metal products and parts. Our team is ready to help you solve design challenges and answer your hydroforming process and deep drawing process questions. If you are new to metal forming and fabrication, Professor Metal is here help you get started.
