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Aluminum extrusion

DRobs86

Plastic
Joined
Apr 26, 2019
Does anyone have any insight on when it might make sense to own an extrusion press? We own several extrusion dies and use two different custom extrusion companies plus one "off the shelf" extrusion company. We are spending sickening amounts of money on extrusion.

Has anyone looked at owning their own press? When does it start to make sense?
 
Does anyone have any insight on when it might make sense to own an extrusion press? We own several extrusion dies and use two different custom extrusion companies plus one "off the shelf" extrusion company. We are spending sickening amounts of money on extrusion.

Has anyone looked at owning their own press? When does it start to make sense?

I cant even imagine the cost involved.
Are you in a location where you can even get enough power/gas? Not sure how they heat the billet before pressing? Not to mention heat-treat.
This is not a simple process. There is a lot to it.

How much material are you really using? I am blowing through about 1500 lbs of custom extrusion/wk.
Small time I know. But, when I see the invoice all I can think is: "Damn, that is cheap!"
 
Has anyone looked at owning their own press? When does it start to make sense?
When you are buying in boxcar quantities, and have both the cash and the willingness to set up and operate a more-or-less independent subsidiary company to act as your mini-foundry and extruder.

Now, if you were buying in entire trainload quantities, you'd have no difficulty keeping your subsidiary busy. But for mere boxcar quantities, you probably need to think about drumming up some extra work for your extruder, otherwise you've got a loss-making business on your hands.

I'd recommend against this, unless you like the idea of getting into another business.
 
do you have a couple mil burning a hole in your pocket? its not just capital intensive it takes a sizeable amount of space as well. i doubt even most large companies could justify the cost....
 
Part of the issue is that there are EXTREMELY high "anti-dumping" tariffs on aluminum extrusions right now, so the domestic extruders can charge more or less whatever they want. I'm not interested in the politics of whether that is a good or a bad thing.
 
"Couple"? I think you are considerably low. Like, laughably low................

i don't think so. have family in this line of the business there is a wide array on the cost spectrum. there are extrusion lines out of china that you can find running here in the states obviously cost is much lower than some of the higher end stuff out of europe. in the process of extrusion i think the sky is the limit as to what you can fork out depending on needs but i don't think couple mil is far off especially in regards to the OP for something entry level to get rolling with.

wheelie you been looking into bringing this stuff in house as well? j/k
 
Once you buy the die, you pay a percentage over what the aluminum would cost
Been a while, but I think I used to pay 50 cents a pound or something higher than what I paid for buying bar stock from Yarde or whoever.

Now I am small potatoes but even with a lot of stock that would be a really long amortization for machinery
 
Not meaning to promote these folks, but this video gives a very good indication of the machines and processes needed.

Custom Aluminum: Extrusion - YouTube

A newer one

Aluminium Casting and Extrusion - How Is Aluminium Extruded? - YouTube

I've been to couple of plants. With many things industrial, you can have something state of the art with tremendous capacity or you can have something that suits your need. The aim of my question is to understand what range of capacity is available. As some have mentioned, the lines out of Asia don't seem that expensive.
 
Are you saying the Al is not melted it is just warmed up and almost melted? Then the semisolid is pushed through a die? I always thought it was more like continuous casting steel. Not at all like die casting I guess.
Bil lD
 
"Couple"? I think you are considerably low. Like, laughably low................

I'd think the learning curve alone could cost a mil.

The extrusions I've gotten always seemed to be fairly cheap compared to bar stock, so I don't see any advantage to owning an extruder. Heck they just built a plant near me to cast the logs for extruding. Relatively small plant and something like 120k tons per year.
 
I think it really depends on how much you need.
Can you keep it operating full time?
If yes then explore it.
If not then keep doing it how you do it now.

Go get the nickel tour from a small extruder you know the like you are shopping
 
Does anyone have any insight on when it might make sense to own an extrusion press? We own several extrusion dies and use two different custom extrusion companies plus one "off the shelf" extrusion company. We are spending sickening amounts of money on extrusion.

Has anyone looked at owning their own press? When does it start to make sense?

I seriously doubt the US bureaucrats or crony competition would even allow a new extrusion shop to be built in the usa.
 








 
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