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Is "Military Grade Aluminum" the new billet aluminum?

Big B

Diamond
Joined
Jun 26, 2009
Location
Michigan, USA
I was watching some nascar racing yesterday and a Ford commercial came on advertising the new Ford trucks, made with "Military Grade Aluminum".

Did I miss something? It seems to me like the military (I assume they are talking about US military) likely uses about every kind of aluminum, depending upon the application.

Is this like the "Rich Corinthian Leather" that Chrysler used to advertise in the 70's?

Is "military grade aluminum" better than billet aluminum? Inquiring minds want to know.

Big B
 
When we were a job shop the customers wouldn't settle for anything less than AIRCRAFT aluminum.
"Military" aluminum makes me think of the "armor" on the M113 APC. Like Military Justice, an oxymoron.
 
Having worked in the firearms world a while, "military grade" is already so over-played, and I'm already so very jaded and cynical to the term.

But yes, it is exactly the same as "billet". There are a lot of shoddy firearm manufacturers who advertise their aluminum parts as using "military grade aluminum" or that it's "mil spec" even though it's a POS commercial doodad that no military has ever spec'd out. IME the only way someone can /accurately/ claim that their part has anything "mil spec" about it, is if they have their anodizers follow MIL-A-8625 for anodizing their parts (typically type 3 hard coat class 2) but that doesn't stop them from making it sound like their whole entire design and manufactured part is some "military grade" "piece of kit" for "operators operating in dynamic operations and non-permissive environments"

Seriously just try and work in the firearms business. The buzz words and slang will absolutely murder and rape any respect you had for commercial manufacturing sales/marketing (if you had any left in the first place)
 
Wasn't it FINE Corinthian Leather? One of my tasks as an engineering team leader is explaining to co-op students about the significance of Ricardo Montalban in this important contribution to the history of material science.

Truck commercials generally make me wince but the high point of dubious metallurgy for me was the spate of mid 90's CNC machined mountain bike doodads up to and including derailleurs (must have been a wave of early Haas buyers) who convinced always trend sensitive bike keeners that CNC was better than forged. Except the stuff was much more expensive and fragile than Shimano, the biggest component maker then and now. Shimano finally ran some magazine ads pointing out for their high end stuff they CNC their prototypes until they had optimized the design and then forged and machined the parts so they were stronger, cheaper and better finished. As we say today, LOL.
 
Wasn't it FINE Corinthian Leather? One of my tasks as an engineering team leader is explaining to co-op students about the significance of Ricardo Montalban in this important contribution to the history of material science.

Truck commercials generally make me wince but the high point of dubious metallurgy for me was the spate of mid 90's CNC machined mountain bike doodads up to and including derailleurs (must have been a wave of early Haas buyers) who convinced always trend sensitive bike keeners that CNC was better than forged. Except the stuff was much more expensive and fragile than Shimano, the biggest component maker then and now. Shimano finally ran some magazine ads pointing out for their high end stuff they CNC their prototypes until they had optimized the design and then forged and machined the parts so they were stronger, cheaper and better finished. As we say today, LOL.

Oh come on, we all know Paul Components made the BEST mountain bike derailleur on the planet until Shimano undercut them in purpose! :ack2::cheers:
 
I just bought a fly reel- I was a little disappointed that all they use is aircraft grade but hell, there's a war on,
Save the good stuff for our boys..

"All of our reels and spools are impeccably machined from T6 solid bar stock aircraft grade aluminum. T6 is a class of 6061 aluminum that is tempered to significantly increase its strength."

GALVAN FLY REELS 6061 - GALVAN FLY REELS

Really a thing of beauty- nice reel.

galvan.jpg
 
The only military spec for aluminum that I am aware of is MIL-DTL-46027 for aluminum armor plate. I'd be impressed if they used that.
 
Any shop that has ever built anything to meet a MIL spec knows the pounds of paper that are required and the documentation that is needed. Unless your aluminum comes with all the certs and documentation, it ain't mil-spec.
 
I find your question interesting and I honestly do not know. I do know the Military and the Space Program have used Aluminum a lot and as grades of Aluminum became more numerous they would specify things like 6061 . With the progress in Metals "Which is simply damn awesome!" there will be improved and better material selected. Things like Titanium and Inconel. I think There are different alloys used now 7075 which has some copper in it and made and used by the Japanese in their Zeros. I have noticed a lot of development and advances come to us through first use for the military or space programs and the R&D for a lot of progress comes from direct support of this from the Federal Government funding such. 6061 us used a lot in Aero Space and if a metal is developed by the government and is special we may only be told a little about the material if we even get the chance to touch it. Titanium was a good breakthrough and only more is to come as we live in interesting times. The best thing on metals I have discovered lately is actually science fiction based on Star Trek. Link....I do not know if this is real at all yet a lot comes from our imaginations and are made into reality. Enjoy Transparent Aluminum | Make:

I hate those Engineers at Ford for making this truck with the Aluminum body they are nit wits! Why do you ask? It is because now I want one so much!

I was watching some nascar racing yesterday and a Ford commercial came on advertising the new Ford trucks, made with "Military Grade Aluminum".

Did I miss something? It seems to me like the military (I assume they are talking about US military) likely uses about every kind of aluminum, depending upon the application.

Is this like the "Rich Corinthian Leather" that Chrysler used to advertise in the 70's?

Is "military grade aluminum" better than billet aluminum? Inquiring minds want to know.

Big B
 
I find your question interesting and I honestly do not know. I do know the Military and the Space Program have used Aluminum a lot and as grades of Aluminum became more numerous they would specify things like 6061 . With the progress in Metals "Which is simply damn awesome!" there will be improved and better material selected. Things like Titanium and Inconel. I think There are different alloys used now 7075 which has some copper in it and made and used by the Japanese in their Zeros. I have noticed a lot of development and advances come to us through first use for the military or space programs and the R&D for a lot of progress comes from direct support of this from the Federal Government funding such. 6061 us used a lot in Aero Space and if a metal is developed by the government and is special we may only be told a little about the material

The OP was ironic, not serious..."military" aluminum is a meaningless term that has indeed replaced "billet" aluminum as an overused buzzword. Any given military vehicle will contain the whole array of aluminum alloys used in their appropriate places, so it doesn't serve to identify anthing as superior. Just because a particular piece of 6061 has "QQ-A-something" or "WW-T-something" stenciled on it doesn't make it better than any other piece (would that it did; with all the Chinese crap being sold here we may soon have to adopt more extensive classification method--mechanical properties in addition to chemical--than we have at present).

All the main commercial alloys have been around for many years. Before the current numbering system, we had types 61, 24 and 75, with the 6 designating magnesium as the principal alloying element, 2 designating copper, and 7 zinc.

The Japanese didn't invent 7075, they just adopted Aluminum earlier. The Zero's claim to fame was that it was an all-metal aircraft when most of ours were still fabric. But in the end, Plutonium turned out to be more decisive metallurgy.
 








 
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