FlowMarket
Where to source aluminium products: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the material — alloy and temper, product form, dimensions and tolerances, surface finish and its intended treatment, tooling status for extrusions, and annual quantity — and the AI agent matches you with verified extruders, rolling mills and stockholders, then requests prices, tooling costs and lead times from every match at once. Getting matched is free for buyers.
Sourcing aluminium products
Aluminium is specified by two things that must always travel together: the alloy and the temper. The alloy sets what the metal can do — strength, corrosion resistance, weldability, how it takes an anodized finish — and the temper sets the condition it arrives in. Either alone is an incomplete specification.
For extrusions there is a third factor that dominates the economics entirely, and it is not the metal price. It is the die.
What you can source
Extruded profiles
Standard profiles — angles, channels, tubes, framing systems — are held in stock and priced by the kilo. Custom profiles are pressed through a die made to your cross-section, which unlocks almost any shape but introduces a tooling cost and a minimum order per press run. The 6000-series alloys dominate here: 6060 extrudes into fine detail and anodizes beautifully, 6082 is considerably stronger where the profile is structural.
Sheet, plate and coil
Rolled products from thin sheet to thick plate. The 5000-series alloys such as 5754 and 5083 offer excellent weldability and marine corrosion resistance, 3003 is the workhorse for formed and drawn parts, and 6082 plate is the common choice for machined components. Specified by alloy, temper, thickness and dimensions, with surface quality stated where appearance matters.
Bar, tube and further processing
- Round, flat & hex bar — for machined parts, usually 6082 or 2007 for free machining.
- Drawn & extruded tube — structural, hydraulic and decorative, in a wide size range.
- Cut-to-length & fabrication — sawing, machining, punching and bending at the supplier.
- Surface treatment — anodizing or powder coating supplied as part of the package.
What to specify when sourcing
These details decide both the price and the lead time:
- Alloy & temper — both, always: 6060 T66, 5754 H111, 6082 T6.
- Product form — extruded profile, sheet, plate, bar or tube.
- Dimensions & tolerances — with a drawing for any custom profile, and the tolerance standard.
- Tooling status — whether a die exists, is to be made, or the profile can be adapted to a stock die.
- Surface requirement — mill finish, anodizing quality, or a specified visual class.
- Downstream treatment — anodizing, powder coating, welding or machining, which constrains the alloy.
- Lengths & cutting — mill lengths or cut to size, and packing for transport.
- Quantity — per order and per year; extrusion minimums are per die and per run.
- Certification — EN 10204 certificates, alloy analysis, or industry approvals.
- Commercial terms — price basis including any LME linkage, Incoterms and price validity.
The die, the minimum order and the alloy you anodize
For a custom extrusion, the first question is not price per kilo but whether a die exists. A new die is a one-off cost, and every press run carries a minimum quantity because the press has to be set up, heated and purged regardless of how much you want. That combination means a modest annual requirement can be far more expensive per metre than the metal cost suggests, and it is why two suppliers can quote wildly different numbers for the same drawing — one already owns a die close to your section. Always ask for tooling and minimum order to be quoted separately from the material, and ask whether a small change to your cross-section would let an existing die be used. Adjusting a wall thickness by a fraction of a millimetre often costs nothing and removes the tooling line entirely. The second trap concerns appearance. If the profile is going to be anodized, the alloy must be chosen for it and stated as anodizing quality, because the alloy and even the billet batch determine the final colour. Parts pressed from different batches can anodize to visibly different shades despite identical processing — so if a frame and its cover must match, keep them to one batch and say so at the order stage. Where strength matters more than looks, 6082 outperforms 6060 substantially, but it extrudes less crisply and anodizes less evenly. Describe what the part has to do and let the supplier propose the alloy rather than specifying one from habit.