The Extrusion Excellence Short Course, an important seminar on the theory and practice of aluminum extrusion, has become one of AEC's most popular educational events. Offered periodically, contact AEC for information about when the next course is scheduled.

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Course Description
This course offers a fundamental, engineering approach to the extrusion process and continues to be updated and modified based in part on feedback from past participants.

Extrusion Concepts
An overview of extrusion processes and the types of products that utilize aluminum profiles will be examined.

Aluminum Extrusion Alloys
A number of basic concepts involving aluminum alloys will be covered, including:
• Composition
• Mechanical properties
• Standards
• Quench sensitivity
• Aging practices (natural and artificial), and
• Tempers.

Aluminum Billet Metallurgy
The microstructure development from casting through homogenization will be addressed in layman’s terms but also in enough detail to establish the understanding needed to manufacture a product that meets mechanical property requirements. Other topics include:
• Deformation
• Quenching
• Aging and Over-aging.

Extrudability
The factors that control the term “extrudability” and decisions affecting output, quality, and scrap will be covered, including
• Definitions
• Extrusion limit diagrams
• Differences between soft and hard alloys
• Throughput and productivity
• Limiting factors of extrusion.

Metal Flow Analysis
The fundamentals of metal flow in container and die and their impact on butt discard scrap and product quality will be discussed. Topics include:
• Billet upset
• Container issues
• Roles of friction, temperature, and strain distribution.

Extrusion Dies
The concept of overall die cost, the basics of die design, and proper handling techniques will be discussed. Topics include:
• Preheating practice
• Deflection under load and temperature
• Die nitiriding
• Cost of tooling relative to productivity.

Quality Assurance
The basic tools of quality control will be reviewed and their relative importance and proper application will be described. Some of the quality tests that will be examined in this section include:
• Analysis of extrudates through microstructural evaluation and mechanical property testing
• Tensile tests covering elongation, yield strength, and tensile strength
• Hardness tests
• Microstructural gradients.

Trends on the Horizon
Take a look into the future of the aluminum extrusion process. Topics include:
No-contact temperature probes
Process monitoring and management
Numerical modeling packages.

Who should attend?
The Extrusion Excellence Course provides information that addresses the needs of aluminum extrusion production personnel including:

• Extrusion Managers
• Superintendents
• Supervisors
• Lead Extrusion Operators
• Die Shop Managers
• Process Engineers*
• Engineering Staff*

*Those who may be new to the industry