Aluminium Extrusions
Aluminium shaped by forcing heated metal through a shaped die, widely used for window frames, structural framing, and automotive and industrial components.
Covered in 1 MetalsCost.com News Intelligence article, most recently on August 20, 2026.
Overview
Aluminium extrusions are the finished profiles that come off an extrusion press — long, uniform-cross-section lengths of aluminium, cut to size and often finished with anodizing, powder coating or paint before shipment to a fabricator. They're one of the most flexible aluminium product forms available, because a die can be custom-cut to almost any cross-section, letting designers build a structural or aesthetic function directly into the metal's shape rather than machining it afterward.
How It's Manufactured
Production starts with a cast aluminium billet, heated until plastic, then forced through a die under high pressure on a horizontal hydraulic press — the die shape sets the extrusion's cross-section. After extrusion, profiles are stretched to remove twist, cut to length, and heat-treated to reach the alloy's rated strength, a step called aging. Many extrusions then go through finishing: anodizing builds a hard, corrosion-resistant oxide layer, while powder coating adds color and extra protection for architectural and consumer-facing parts.
Byproducts
Extrusion produces relatively little waste for the volume made: the main byproducts are the discard butt left in the press after each billet, cropped ends trimmed to length, and scrap generated during die setup and changeovers. Because the alloy composition is known and consistent, this scrap has high recycling value and is typically remelted in-house or sold straight back into the billet supply chain, making extrusion one of the more circular segments of the aluminium industry.
Who Consumes It
Building and construction fabricators are the largest customer base, buying extrusions to assemble into windows, doors, curtain walls and structural framing systems. Automotive and rail manufacturers buy structural and crash-management extrusions directly or through Tier 1 suppliers, and industrial equipment builders use standard profiles for machine frames and enclosures. Metal service centers and distributors also stock standard architectural and structural profiles for smaller fabricators and contractors buying in lower volumes.
Everyday Uses
Window and door frames are the extrusion most people interact with daily, along with sliding-door tracks, shower enclosures and stair railings in homes and offices. Consumer products built from extruded aluminium include laptop and monitor stands, camera tripods, furniture frames and modular shelving rails — all benefiting from extrusion's combination of strength, light weight and a clean finished appearance in one part.
Industrial Uses
In construction, extrusions form the structural skeleton of curtain wall systems and thermally broken window frames used in commercial buildings. Manufacturing and automation industries rely heavily on modular T-slot aluminium extrusion to build machine guarding, workstations and conveyor frames without custom welding. In transportation, extrusions form crash-management structures and, increasingly, the side-rail frames of electric vehicle battery enclosures, where they help protect the pack in a collision.
