How to buy the best aluminum sheet metal .125?

The 3003 aluminum sheet with H14 temper has an unpolished (mill) surface and meets American Society for Testing and Materials International ASTM B209 specifications. The 3003 aluminum alloy provides good corrosion resistance, weldability, and formability, and is stronger than 1100 aluminum. This alloy is not heat treatable, but strength can be increased by cold working. It has an H14 temper, meaning it has been strain hardened to a 1/2 hard temper.

Aluminum and aluminum alloys are lightweight compared to steel, brass, and copper, and have high strength-to-weight ratios. They offer good corrosion resistance and conductivity of heat and electricity, as well as moderate formability and machinability.Aluminum alloys include elements that modify the aluminum to achieve specific properties such as better weldability or greater strength. All series of aluminum alloys are nonmagnetic. Aluminum alloys have temper designations, indicating that the material has undergone a process to achieve certain properties of strength and hardness.

Tensile strength, used to indicate the materials overall strength, is the peak stress it can withstand before it breaks. Corrosion resistance describes the material's ability to prevent deterioration caused by atmosphere, moisture, or other medium. Wear resistance indicates the ability to prevent surface damage caused by contact with other surfaces. Toughnessdescribes the material's ability to absorb energy before breaking, while hardness (commonly measured as indentation hardness) describes its resistance to permanent surface deformation. Formability indicates how easily the material can be permanently shaped. Machinability describes how easily it can be cut, shaped, finished, or otherwise machined, while weldability characterizes the ability to be welded.