As the cost of construction increases across many sectors, people have began to look for more cost effective manufacturing materials to replace their existing ones. Aluminium refrigerant pipes have been one such solution within the refrigeration and air conditioning industry.

We all know that traditionally copper has been the most commonly used material for refrigerated tubing. Costs have been rising at an alarming pace though. The cost increases of copper has meant that many manufacturers have deemed it too expensive to prove cost effective, thus turning to other materials as a replacement.

Any geologist will tell you that aluminium is one of the most commonly found materials on earth, no surprise then that it is massively cheaper than copper! Aluminium has many great characteristics as a material for manufacturing too. It is quite malleable at the same time as being extremely strong (when considering strength to weight ratios.) It is also light. Aluminium is an incredibly flexible material that can be used in many different ways. Traditionally the nature of air conditioning has at times been fixed by what can be done with copper pipes, with refrigerated aluminium pipes though they can be shaped to fit any requirement.

There is very little waste caused by the extrusion process involved in the manufacture of aluminium pipes. It is incredible to see how much cheaper the dies used during the casting process are to manufacture themselves. By using the dies on multiple occasions (rather than having to dispose of them after a single use as with copper piping) also saves manufacturers money. This makes aluminium look like a wonder material, its cheaper and wastes less. As well as benefiting the bottom line, aluminium also helps the environment.

Compared to copper of steel aluminium is really light, which is also the biggest advantage of manufacturing with aluminium. The extra weight of copper or steel piping makes building harder and adds weight to the structure. Aluminium offers a far superior strength to weight ratio, making it adaptable and malleable but also providing enough strength to be effective. As well as cylindrical shapes, it can also be moulded in to square shapes and more intricate shapes, this ability is particularly useful in the manufacturing of small parts. You can also achieve different inner and outer diameters of the aluminium pipes by using different alloys.

So we can see that aluminium is flexible enough to be used in many different applications. When it comes to heat exchangers it is a common material found in air conditioning (for buildings and for vehicles) as well as refrigeration units.