Aluminum Sheet

Most suppliers where you can buy aluminum sheet metal online provide detailed gauge charts to help customers select the appropriate thickness for their needs. When searching for where can you buy aluminum sheets, look for vendors that offer precision-cut options and specify the gauge or decimal thickness to ensure you receive exactly what your project requires.

Benefits of Aluminum Sheet

What makes aluminum sheet an attractive option for consumers? It depends on which grade you choose, but some of the most common benefits include:

Lightweight but Strong

Aluminum sheet weighs approximately one-third as much as steel of equivalent dimensions, making it ideal for weight-sensitive applications like aerospace and automotive components. Despite its light weight, aluminum offers impressive strength-to-weight ratios, especially in hardened alloys.

Easily Formed or Cut

Aluminum sheet metal can be shaped using conventional fabrication methods, including bending, stamping, drawing, and roll forming, without compromising the material’s integrity. Its excellent malleability allows for complex geometries and tight radiuses that would be difficult to achieve with stiffer metals. Aluminum can also be machined at higher speeds than many other metals.

Reflect Heat and Light

Aluminum naturally reflects approximately 80% of visible light and 90% of the heat that strikes its surface, making it an excellent choice for energy-efficient building materials and heat shields. This reflective property helps reduce cooling costs in buildings and vehicles while providing effective thermal management in electronic applications. The reflectivity can be further enhanced through various finishing processes.

Excellent Thermal and Electrical Conductivity

Aluminum sheet metal conducts both heat and electricity exceptionally well, with thermal conductivity approximately three times that of steel and electrical conductivity about 60% that of copper at only one-third the weight. Aluminum’s conductivity also remains consistent across a wide temperature range. This makes aluminum sheet ideal for heat exchangers, electronic enclosures, LED light fixtures, and electrical bus bars.

Very Durable, Offering Corrosion Resistance

Unlike ferrous metals, aluminum doesn’t rust when exposed to moisture and naturally forms a protective oxide layer that prevents further oxidation. Aluminum’s corrosion resistance makes it ideal for outdoor applications and environments where exposure to water, chemicals, or atmospheric conditions would quickly deteriorate other materials. Even when scratched or damaged, aluminum’s oxide layer reforms immediately, providing long-term durability with minimal maintenance requirements.

When possible, avoid using stainless steel and aluminum sheets together. Putting these two metals in contact with one another can create a chemical reaction, leading to corrosion.

Aluminum sheet metal comes in many grades, including 1100, 2024, 3003, 5052, 6061 & 7075. Each grade offers benefits, depending on the demands of the application. When you buy aluminum sheet for your project, consider not only the grade but also the temper designation, which indicates how the metal has been processed to achieve certain mechanical properties.

Aluminum Sheet vs. Aluminum Plate

What is the difference between aluminum sheet and aluminum plate? In essence, they are the same, except for their respective thickness. Sheet metal is under .250”, while plate metal starts at .250″. This makes sheet aluminum ideal for lighter-duty applications such as packaging, cookware and vehicle bodies, while plate is used for heavy-duty tasks like interior ceilings, balconies and aerospace structures.

The manufacturing processes also differ—aluminum sheet is typically produced through rolling mills that can create very thin, consistent gauges, while plate requires more substantial equipment. When you buy an aluminum sheet for your project, you’ll typically find it’s more cost-effective and easier to work with than a plate for applications that don’t require additional thickness and strength.

Learn more about the differences between metal sheet and plate.

Aluminum Sheet Applications

Aluminum sheets are a versatile metal that’s used for many different purposes. In the construction industry, this material is found in:

• Roofing and siding applications
• Gutters
• Flashings
• Downspouts
• Soffit panels

In industrial applications, companies use aluminum sheets to manufacture products such as:

• Appliances
• Fuel tanks
• Boat hulls
• Automotive parts
• Signs
• Displays
• License plate frames
• Protective surface covering

Heat-treatable grades of aluminum sheet are commonly used in the transportation, food and aerospace industries due to their light weight and resistance to corrosion. The non-heat treatable grades of aluminum sheet metal are intended for situations where formability and weldability are the greatest priorities.

Where can you buy aluminum sheets online? Metal Supermarkets makes it easy to buy aluminum sheets online or in-store, with convenient locations across North America offering same-day service and quick turnaround times.