Aluminum powder is a large class of metal pigments due to its wide use, large demand and many varieties. The aluminum powder particles for pigments are scaly, and it is precisely because of this flaky particle state that aluminum powder has a metallic color and shielding function. The industrial production of metal aluminum powder has been a long time ago. The early production method was punching. The aluminum scraps were placed in the groove of the punching machine. Ductile aluminum gradually becomes flakes and breaks under impact. After the aluminum becomes very thin and fine, it is screened, and the qualified aluminum powder is taken out as a product. The punching method has low production efficiency, product quality is not easy to grasp, and there is a lot of dust in the production process, which is very easy to catch fire and explode. In 1894, Hamtag, Germany, used aluminum mills to produce aluminum powder. Steel balls, aluminum shavings, and lubricants were placed in the ball mill. The flying steel balls were used to crush the aluminum shavings and became scaly aluminum powder. Filled with inert gas, this method is still used and is called "dry production". In 1910, J. Hall of the United States invented adding a petroleum solvent in a ball mill instead of an inert gas, and the produced aluminum powder was mixed with the solvent into a slurry to become a slurry aluminum powder pigment. This method is simple in equipment and safe in process, and the product is very convenient to use. It will soon be adopted by countries around the world. Most modern aluminum powder pigments use this method, which is also called "wet method".
China's aluminum powder industry started in the 1950s and has a history of 50 years. The subsonic air atomization method of atomizing aluminum powder has been adopted, and the pressurized water atomization method has also begun to enter the production sequence. The product has both irregular shapes and spherical shapes. In the production of aluminum powder and aluminum powder slurry by ball milling, both dry and wet processes have been adopted by manufacturers. The products produced are floating aluminum powder and aluminum powder slurry, non-floating aluminum powder and aluminum powder slurry. Water-dispersed aluminum pastes suitable for water-based coatings have long been available. Aluminum powder pastes such as zinc-aluminum paste are also produced in alloy form.