How does Alcoa select what standards and compositions to offer as catalog items?
A. While Alcoa offers one of the widest ranges of standards in the industry, it is impossible to produce standards for every existing alloy and alloy variation. We attempt to choose the alloys that are most widely used within the aluminum industry and then supplement them with range standards in an attempt to cover compositional variations. Our “SS” standards are generally near the nominal registered Aluminum Association composition for that alloy, with some modifications for elements not covered in the registration. For those who need highly specific standards, we offer Alcoa Specialty Standards.