EditIn recent years mirror finished aluminum sheet is more and more widely used as home appliance panels owing to its light weight, good corrosion resistance and long durability.
Regular alloys for mirror finished aluminum sheet are 1050, 1060, 1070, 1100, 3003, 5005 and 5057. Tempers can be O, H14, H16, H18, H22, H24 and H26. 1000 series of aluminum is also called pure aluminum. They contain a large content of aluminium and prove to be the softest of the three series. They have corrosion resistance of a certain degree but not so good as 3000 and 5000 series. However, aluminum mirror sheets of 1000 series have better performance in resisting corrosion, because they have gone through special treatment steps such as anodizing and coating. 3003 aluminum mirror sheet contains a slight content of Manganese which is featured by good corrosion resisting ability, thus its anti-rust ability is substantially improved. 5057 and 5005 mirror finish aluminum sheets, however, beat all other alloys mentioned. They contain another corrosion resistant metal of Magnesium which is even lighter than aluminium. Magnesium has not been applied in large scales like aluminium because of its less satisfying working property. Aluminium, on the other hand, can be treated by various processing methods from punching to deep drawing and from polishing to anodizing. They can be as soft as paper or as strong as steel. Mirror finished aluminum lasts long as a raw material for home appliances.
