1050 is a high-purity aluminium alloy (at least 99.5% aluminium) from the 1000 series. It's non-heat treatable, meaning its strength comes from cold working rather than ageing or heat treatment. What it offers instead is high thermal and electrical conductivity alongside excellent corrosion resistance and formability, making it a natural choice for heat transfer and electrical applications rather than structural ones.
1050 is the right choice when thermal or electrical conductivity is a primary requirement, or when the profile needs significant forming after extrusion. Its combination of high purity, excellent corrosion resistance and formability is hard to replicate with alloyed alternatives.
It is less suited for applications with significant structural or mechanical demands. For those, 6060 or 6063 are the better starting points if surface finish matters, or 6082 if strength is the priority. If cutting machinability is important further down the production process, 1050's softness also makes precision cutting more challenging than with the 6xxx alloys.
1050's high electrical conductivity makes it one of the few aluminium alloys that is genuinely suited to conductor profiles and transformer applications.
Examples: Busbars, winding strips, switchgear components
High aluminium purity means excellent resistance to corrosive substances, which is often the deciding factor in chemical and process industry environments.
Examples: Storage tanks, pipework, handling equipment for acids and solvents
The combination of surface finish quality and purity gives 1050 great reflective properties that alloyed alternatives typically cannot match.
Examples: Lighting reflectors, solar reflectors
Where the profile needs to be formed extensively or where appearance matters more than load-bearing capacity.
Examples: Signage, trim profiles
1050 is the lowest-strength alloy in Hydro's standard extrusion range, and that's a deliberate trade-off rather than a limitation. Because it contains at least 99.5% aluminium, it delivers excellent corrosion resistance and genuinely high thermal and electrical conductivity. which are properties that alloyed alternatives cannot match at the same level.
Formability is excellent, making it well suited to profiles that need significant shaping after extrusion. Weldability is also very good. One of the areas where other alloys perform better is cutting machinability. The softness of the 1050 alloy creates challenges in precision cutting operations, so it is worth considering this early if machining is part of your downstream process. It is also non-heat treatable, meaning you will not get strength increases through ageing or heat treatment. Surface finishing is good and the alloy accepts anodizing, though the result has a different character to what you would get from a 6xxx alloy.
No. 1050 is non-heat treatable, and its strength is determined by temper and cold working rather than ageing or heat treatment.
It is most commonly used in extruded profiles for heat transfer applications, for instance automotive cooling systems and HVACR components, and in electrical profiles where conductivity is a primary requirement.
Yes. 1050 has excellent corrosion resistance, largely due to its high aluminium purity of at least 99.5%.
Yes, but the result looks different to what you would get from, for instance, a 6xxx alloy. The high aluminium purity of 1050 produces a cleaner, more transparent anodized layer, which suits certain applications.
