Cold-Drawn Precision Tubing

Aluminum Products

Discover infinite possibilities

As a leading aluminum supplier and manufacturer, Alfiniti offers a wide assortment of aluminum products for many industries. We are industry leaders in cold-drawn tubing, but also offer other types of aluminum products such as extrusion. We use our 9″ diameter extrusion press mainly to extrude bloom (drawn tube raw material) and we supplement what we extrude by buying bloom from other extruders.

Aluminum offers a wide variety of benefits: lightweight, high in strength-to-weight, corrosion resistant, excellent thermal and electrical conductors, sustainability, and more.

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Cold-Drawn Precision Tubing
Aluminum Extrusions
Aluminum Welded Tube
Aluminum Products FAQ
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Best Alloys for Bending
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The drawing process, after extrusion, allows reducing the outside diameter and the wall thickness of extruded tubes in order to enhance their mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy. Learn more about Cold Drawn Tubing.

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Cold-Drawn Precision Tubing

Aluminum extrusion is a process by which aluminum material is heated and forced through a die with a specific cross-sectional profile.

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Aluminum Extrusions

Welded tube is manufactured by forming a flat strip of aluminium into a tubular shape and then joining the edges by a high-frequency-welding process. Learn more about Welded Aluminum Tubing.

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Aluminum Welded Tube

What’s best for my application? (FAQS)

Do I want porthole or seamless: What’s the difference?

In porthole, metal is forced around a mandrel that matches the ID of the tube you want to extrude. The mandrel needs webs to hold it in place, and the metal must flow around them. That separates the metal as it extrudes, so a second die forces those sections back together. That forms a longitudinal seam running the length of the extrusion. This weld seam is somewhat weaker than the base metal.
Seamless tubes insert a mandrel into the rear of a billet and basically punch a hole through the billet until it’s very close to the opening in the die. The material flows through the gap between the mandrel and die, emerging with both internal and external dimensions fixed and without any seams. This process is slower and generates more scrap so it is more expensive. The tolerance on the wall thickness cannot be held as tightly as they are during the porthole extrusion process.If the application involves internal pressure or is in a life critical application, choose seamless tubing. If neither of those apply, however and if the highest priority is keeping the cost down, choose porthole.

Do I want cold drawn or extrusion: What’s the difference?

All drawn tubing starts as extruded tubing or pipe and a drawing step is added, making extruded tubing the cheaper option. However, the drawing process produces tighter tolerances, can produce thinner walls, and increases the strength of the tube. If your application calls for tight tolerances, enhanced surface appearance, thin walls( down to .025” thickness), incorporates robotic or automated processing where repeatability is important, machining, or requires significant bending, the added cost of the drawing operation may well result in lower overall costs.

Do I want tube or pipe: What’s the difference?

The terms often are used interchangeably but there are key differences. Pipes are generally used to transport fluids or gases, and the capacity is determined by the inner diameter of the pipe (ID). Tubes are often used in structural applications where the strength is determined by the outer diameter (OD) and wall thickness of the tube. Pipes are always round, but tubes can be round, square, rectangular, or other symmetrical shapes. In general, piping is larger than tubing but there is significant overlap.

The chart below shows the differences between all combinations of extruded, drawn, porthole, and seamless.

EXTRUDED

DRAWN

PORTHOLE

Extruded Porthole
  • Least expensive
  • Most readily available
  • Large dimensional tolerance
  • Largest selection of alloys
  • Thicker walls
  • Features can be extruded into the hollow
Drawn Porthole
  • More expensive than extrusion
  • Readily available
  • Tightest dimensional tolerances
  • Good resistance to failure in low pressure applications
  • Large selection of alloys

SEAMLESS

Extruded Seamless
  • More expensive than porthole extrusion
  • Readily available
  • Largest dimensional tolerances
  • Limited selection of alloys
  • Thickest walls
Drawn Seamless
  • Most expensive
  • Limited availability
  • Tight dimensional tolerances
  • Best resistance to failure in pressure applications
  • Limited selection of alloys
  • Thinner walls

Downloadable Resources