Aluminium Sections – The Future Of Smart Building

For shop fronts, windows, doors and much more, aluminium is one of the most popular construction materials available. In fact, you’d probably be hard pushed not to find extruded aluminium sections in most buildings today. You only have to look at some of the benefits of this amazing alloy to understand just why it’s so popular:

Recyclable

Aluminium is not only abundant, but it’s also 100 percent recyclable. This means when you use it for your building project, you lower your carbon footprint – without compromising on versatility or strength. Recycled aluminium is just as strong as new, so you get all the benefits while still being environmentally friendly.

Strong

Aluminium’s strength remains the same no matter what shape you construed it into. Aluminium sections can, therefore, be moulded into whatever shape you need while still retaining their inherent strength. This strength, coupled with the almost unlimited versatility of this amazing metal, means your window and door frames, and shopfronts, always look modern and sleek without the need for unsightly rivets or joins.

Economical

Because it’s such an abundant material, aluminium is inexpensive, particularly when compared to wood. It also has excellent thermal properties, so when combined with glass – such as for windows or doors, for example – it can reduce heat loss by as much as 60 percent, helping to maintain a comfortable internal temperature without the need for heating or cooling. This can significantly lower your energy bills. Aluminium is also easy to look after, requiring very little maintenance, which helps to reduce costs even further.

Versatile

Aluminium sections are easy to powder coat and spray paint. This means shop fronts can easily be custom designed to match your branding. Even if you change or update your logo or business colours, a simple repaint is all that’s required to ensure your frontage stays fresh and professional.

Durable

Aluminium shop fronts have to withstand long term exposure to rain, sun, wind and anything else the weather decides to throw at them. Fortunately, this incredible alloy is hugely corrosion resistant. It also doesn’t crack, split, warp or swell. All of which means your shop front could easily last 20 years or more before needing to be replaced.

Types Of Aluminium Sections

Aluminium sections come in pretty much any shape you can imagine, but these are a few of the most common:

• Bars – round or hexagonal
• Tubes – rectangular or square
• Angle channels
• Round rod
• Solid
• Hollow
• Window sections – sliding, openable, door-sliding
• Door partitions and glazing
• Curtain wall
• Sintex and grill

Aluminium Box Sections

Aluminium box sections are used extensively in both commercial and residential applications, including shelving supports, bracketing for cabinets, floor support structures, posts and fences. They can be machined, drilled, fabricated or cut, and can also be polished, powder-coated or anodised. This incredible versatility means sections can be designed with a wide variety of profiles to suit a huge range of end-user applications.

Ready For The Future

Solar Power

Aluminium sections are found extensively throughout the green power industry – particularly in solar energy. State of the art aluminium frames that are both strong and lightweight are frequent components of solar panel frames and support structures. The inherent strength of aluminium provides much-needed stability to solar panels in the field. The output of a panel relies heavily on its position, and any movement – from wind, for example – can shift it out of alignment. A shift of even only a couple of degrees significantly affects the power output of the panel. This is why aluminium is such a valuable material for solar panel frames – its strength, flexibility and corrosion resistance mean it has the stability to resist shifting and other stresses.

Aluminium frames are also exceptionally lightweight, making panels easy to transport and install – particularly in remote or challenging locations. This lightness also makes them ideal for solar panel installation on structures with limited weight-bearing tolerance, such as rooftops.

Vehicle Manufacture

Using aluminium instead of steel in car manufacture translates to a weight saving of at least 40 percent. This makes vehicles far more energy efficient, without compromising on looks or performance. Aluminium section manufacturers are investing heavily in research and development so as to provide a wider range of choices and better solutions to the changing demands of the vehicle industry.

Construction

As the demand for sustainable building materials grows, aluminium is fast becoming the number one choice for architects and developers when it comes to window and door frames, shop fronts and curtain walling. It’s recyclability, durability and eco-friendly properties make it a building material of the future.

At GHI, we specialise in the quality manufacture and supply of architectural glass hardware, wooden window and door hardware, and folding door hardware. We regularly update and improve our offerings to make sure we are always at the forefront of changing design trends and technical requirements.

Chat to us today about how our aluminium sections can be part of your next project.