A Comprehensive Guide to Non-Ferrous Metals and Alloys: Understanding Their Importance and Applications

The designation of wrought aluminium and aluminium alloys can be in one or two parts.
One part based on a numerical designation system.
The second part based on a designation system based on chemical symbols.
The latter is mainly intended to complement the four-digit designation of the numerical designation.
I am thinking of doing a feature article on aluminium, how it is produced,
in which industries it is used, how to weld it. For the time being, I will provide you with some explanatory links on the subject.
Wikipedia about aluminium

Numerical designation system.

IN AW - 1 X X X A
The Prefix EN followed by a space,
The letter 1 indicates aluminium and the letter W indicates a wrought product.
After the hyphen, four numbers indicating the chemical composition followed by a letter.

Unalloyed aluminium: 1.0.70.A

The first number (always 1) indicates the aluminium group, it corresponds to an aluminium content > 99%, then the second number indicates the number of impurities for which controls are envisaged.
The next two numbers indicate the minimum percentage of aluminium above 99%. For example here it is 99.80%.
Finally, the letter indicates a slight variation in the basic composition (e.g. depending on the country).

Aluminium alloy: 2.6.18.A

The first digit gives the main alloying element and takes values from 2 to 8 depending on the alloy group.
The second number indicates the number of modifications made to the alloy. 0 corresponds to the original alloy.
1 to 9 indicate the successive modifications of the alloy. The last two numbers identify the alloy without any particular significance.
Meaning identical to that given for unalloyed aluminium.

Designation system based on chemical symbols.

Coding NF EN 573-1
EN AW-3103 numerical designation system or EN AW-3103[Al Mn1].
- The chemical symbols (Al, Cu, Mg...) complement or specify the definition of the aluminium and the desired aluminium alloys. They are followed by numbers indicating the purity of the aluminium or the content of the element concerned.
- The limits of the chemical composition are given in EN 573-3
- These symbols are defined by an international nomenclature.