Talk:Duralumin

If 1908 is correct, the Wright brothers' engine must have been an earlier alloy. A book said that there was only one alloy available in 1903 but did not name it. I was assuming that it was duraluminum. It said that one large aluminum alloy casting made up most of the engine. Perhaps it doesn't take a very good alloy to be better than cast iron when heat conductivity and weight are both important. The engine Manly finished for Langley had much better power to weight (to try to compensate for poorer aerodynamics), but I have not read what the materials were.

As I remember, the name comes from the location of its discovery, which was Düren Germany, but I have not been able to check that on the Web. If anyone else has read that too we should put it in.


 * From the beginning this article has not been clear in seperating duralumium, a specific, patented alloy, from a lot of other aluminium alloys. Many others don't use copper as the primary alloying element, or don't respond to precipitation heat treatment - the discovery that made duraluminum useful. Meggar 05:17, 2005 September 11 (UTC)

About the origin of the material's name, a page in German Wikipedia mentions that the name came from Latin word "durus" (hard). This is the link of the page: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duralumin

The article also states that the name is obsolete, but it's still in use, as in the case of the Samsung Series 9 laptop (released Mar. 2011).

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP900X3A-A03US

which war ?
"Its composition and heat treatment were a wartime secret. "

Which war ? This sentence comes after the story about the Hindenburg. But it says the product use spread through the aircraft industry in 1930's.   Was it a secret in WW1 or 2 ?Eregli bob (talk) 11:24, 8 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Neither. It was a commercial secret before WW1 (which implied treatment as a state military secret), but it had already become known outside Germany before the outbreak of WW1. The alloy can be determined by inspection and the heat treatment is pretty simple - age-hardening behaviour (unlike Hiduminium) is just something that will happen automatically, once you happen across the right alloy. Yet during WW1 it was little used by the Allies. Again, it was handed over as part of post-WW1 reparations, along with some airships, and yet it was still little used by the Allies. The odd part isn't that Duralumin was unknown or unused, but that aluminium alloys just weren't used (outside airships) for the sort of rolled strip applications for which Duralumin was useful. When it was eventually used like this, Duralumin was known and used. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:07, 8 October 2011 (UTC)


 * A search of early Flight articles featuring Duralumin here:  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.24.215.105 (talk) 19:30, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Current use
Purchased a "Stronglight Dural 5083 9/10 Speed Chainring" AUG 2020 - they're using "Dural" to refer to products in their line made with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5083_aluminium_alloy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.146.26.182 (talk) 17:22, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Japanese use in WWII Zero fighter
it was also used in the wing spars of the a6m zero 2600:1700:6CC1:2A70:107F:8083:A806:C0B1 (talk) 17:39, 12 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Mitsubishi A6M Zero says most of the Zero was made of a new Extra Super Duralumin alloy (now 7075 aluminium alloy). - Rod57 (talk) 17:26, 23 December 2022 (UTC)

Anyone speak German? And was the US really involved in the origins?
... or maybe a smaller change would do. The article says "The term is a combination of Dürener and aluminium." where Dürener is a link to the town of Düren. No clue there that Dürener means "of or from Düren" in German. German Wikipedia has https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCrener_Metallwerke which is an article about the Düren metal works company, which is where the name actually comes from. Its version of the Duralumin article https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duraluminium make the link clear. It also makes no mention of the unsubstantiated claim in this article "Duralumin was developed in 1909 in the US." Number774 (talk) 09:35, 2 June 2023 (UTC)


 * The biography of Alfred Wilm says he was working for a German firm. I suspect there was no US involvement.
 * "Whilst working in military research NUTZ in Neubabelsberg in 1901, Wilm discovered age hardening, in particular age hardening of aluminium alloys." Quote is from the article Alfred_Wilm. -- 198.232.211.130 (talk) 16:41, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Dur
Although there might be reason to consider Dürener the origin of the prefix Dur i always thought it came from Dur like hard in latin. So it would be a "hard" alumin. 95.33.171.105 (talk) 12:57, 19 March 2024 (UTC) My grandfather was the chief commissioner for Duraliumin for the German Reich which he was trading via his company. There was always the idea it was for the use in the german airplane-wings, where durability and lightweight was necessary. I always thought Dur stood for "hard" and "durable".