Fay Butler Fab/Metal Shaping

Fay's Ultimate Library

Welding Kaiser Aluminum
By Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Sales, Inc.
John W. Knight, Manager Technical Publications
1st edition, Copyright 1967
Printed in B&W with lots of illustrations and photographic pictures on glossy paper
9¾ inch by 12 inch
25 chapters with lots of charts, tables etc.

Charles Hall, a 21-year-old Ohio boy, recently graduating from Oberlin College, in 1886 discovered the commercial method of refining aluminum. He dissolved alumina in a hot liquid cryolite, using electricity in a plating process, plated pure aluminum out of solution, making aluminum commercially available. Eventually establishing Alcoa at the turn of the century, that monopoly continued till WWII. Being concerned that only one aluminum company was producing that material for airplanes, two additional refiners were created for the war effort. Coming out of WWII, Alcoa’s monopoly on aluminum ceased when the two government aluminum-refining facilities were auctioned to the public. Kaiser purchased one facility and Reynolds the other. As aluminum alloys and their usage increased considerably from that point on, the need for better information was desired. Kaiser published this book as a way of presenting good science based information on all aspects of aluminum, with an emphasis on welding. Although some of the information is not up to current technologies, I still consider it an important book. In principle, aluminum does not change and so is the relevance of most of this book. I highly recommend it for any comprehensive library. It is a good companion to the Aluminum Associations great book on welding aluminum called Welding Aluminum: theory and practice.