Aluminum sheet selection is driven by four gates — alloy family, temper designation, thickness range, and the mill-cert standard (ASTM B209, EN 485-2, GB/T 3880) — and a wrong call at any one gate produces scrap, cracked weldments, or a failed forming trial [S1][S3].
Chinese mills such as MC Aluminum, Flait Aluminum, Haomei, and Trumony list full series-1 through series-8 inventories in coil, sheet, strip, plate, foil, and tread-plate forms, with declared export coverage of South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East [S1][S3][S5][S8]. Yantai Baodi and Zhengzhou Haomei additionally carry brass and copper plate/strip as cross-stock for fabricators sourcing non-ferrous packs together [S6][S7].
Alloy Family Map: 1xxx, 3xxx, 5xxx, 6xxx, 8xxx
Series 1 aluminum grades include 1050, 1060, 1070, and 1100, which are produced as pure aluminum and aluminum alloy plate, strip, and foil products, with 1060 HO/O and 1070 HO/O aluminum strip offered for transformer applications per Flait Aluminum's product listings [S3][S4]. Series 3 (3003, 3004, 3105, 8011) adds Mn for ~20% higher strength than 1xxx and is dominant in bottle caps, jacketing, air-conditioner foil, and brazing sheet (4343/3003/4343 clad) for automotive cooling [S1][S3][S8].
Series 5 (5052, 5083, 5086, 5182, 5252, 5454, 5754) is the Al-Mg family: 5454 carries 2.4–3.0% Mg and delivers roughly 20% higher strength than 5052, the canonical marine and tank-truck grade where weldability and salt-water corrosion resistance both matter [S3]. Series 6 (6061, 6063, 6082) is Al-Mg-Si, heat-treatable to T6, and is the structural pick for automotive frames, tooling plates, and curtain-wall brackets [S1][S3]. Series 8 (8011, 8079) is reserved for thin-gauge foil and HVAC fin stock [S3]. For a primer on how the same family logic plays out in profile form, see the aluminum alloy encyclopedia entry.
Temper Codes and What They Lock In
Tempers you will see on a mill test certificate are F (as-fabricated), O (annealed/soft), H (strain-hardened, with a second digit indicating the hardening degree), and T (solution heat-treated, optionally with a digit string such as T6 for artificial aging) [S1][S3]. MC Aluminum specifies transformer strip as A1060/A1050-O at 0.2–2.00 mm, where O is the soft state required for winding without cracking the conductor edge [S1].
For painted coil, 3003-H14 / 3003-H16 is the conventional painted-coil feed for roofing and cladding; for structural plate 6061-T651 is the dominant spec because the -T51 stress-relief stretch suppresses quench distortion in thick gauges [S3]. Flait lists 1100-O and 1070-O transformer strip as dedicated products, confirming the O-state practice for wound magnetics [S3]. If your downstream is bending rather than winding, drop the O and step to H32/H34 to avoid creep.
Thickness and Form: Sheet, Plate, Coil, Strip, Tread, Foil
By convention sheet covers roughly 0.2–6 mm, plate starts at ~6 mm and runs to 200 mm+ in 5083/5086 marine and tank-truck builds, coil is the as-rolled continuous strip (Flait publishes IDs and ODs for 1050, 1060, 3003, 3105, 5052, 5083, 5086, 5754, 6061, 8011) [S1][S3]. Strip is coil that has been slit — typical applications are transformer windings, fin stock, and brazing composites (Haomei advertises 4343/3003/4343 brazing sheet for automotive cooling) [S1][S8].
Checkered / tread plate (5-bar, diamond, rhombus) is a separate surface product on 3003, 5052, 5083, 5754, 6061 substrates and is the default for vessel flooring and truck beds where slip resistance matters more than flatness [S3][S8]. Foil is the sub-0.2 mm category — household 1100/1235 foil plus the rigid-container 8011, 8006, 8021, 8079 set — and is sold by Haomei, MC, and Flait as a parallel catalog to sheet [S1][S3][S4][S7]. For a worked example of how gauge selection drives downstream scrap, see the aluminum veneer panel reference.
Selection Criteria Comparison Across the Main Alloy Families
Use this four-criterion map to shortlist a family before you commit to a temper and thickness: formability, weldability, corrosion in marine/chemical service, and structural strength. Series 1xxx is the formability and conductivity winner but the structural loser; series 3xxx sits one step up on strength and is still non-heat-treatable; series 5xxx is the workhorse for welded marine and tank builds; series 6xxx is the only family in this set that is heat-treatable to T6 and is the structural default [S1][S3].
Concrete numbers from current Chinese mill catalogs: 5454 plate at 2.4–3.0% Mg delivers ~20% higher tensile strength than 5052 with retained weldability and superior corrosion in salt and alkaline environments, which is why it has become the preferred tank-truck barrel grade over 5083 in some weight-sensitive builds [S3]. 5754 plate — medium strength, good weldability, easy forming — is the auto-body sheet of choice for doors, moulds, and seals, and is offered in plain, patterned, and embossed variants [S3]. 5083 remains the marine and cryogenic default because of its higher Mg content (4.0–4.9%) and ASME-qualified weld performance.
Who 1xxx–6xxx Is For — and Who Should Walk Away
Choose 1xxx when the requirement is conductivity, deep drawing, or chemical resistance and the load is light; choose 3xxx when you need a paint base, HVAC fin, or brazed assembly and the strength of pure aluminum is not enough; choose 5xxx when the part is welded, exposed to salt, and must survive forming without heat treatment; choose 6xxx when the part is machined or loaded in compression and you can justify a T6 aging step [S1][S3].
Walk away from 5xxx for sustained service above ~65 °C — Mg-bearing alloys in the 3–6% range are susceptible to stress-corrosion cracking at elevated temperature under sustained load, so 5454/5754 tank trucks and 5083 marine deck plates are fine at ambient but should not be specified for hot process piping. Walk away from 6xxx-T6 if your part is going to be post-weld aged, because the HAZ will soften and you will not recover T6 properties without re-solution treatment. For thin-gauge formable foil stock, 8xxx (8011, 8079, 8021) is the correct call over 1xxx, which lacks the strength to survive container-forming tooling. For a comparative breakdown of how alloy choice feeds into the finished window/door system, see the aluminum window & door encyclopedia page.
Surface, Standards, and the Mill Certificate
Surface finish drives the next decision: mill finish (most common, cheapest), brushed, anodized, PVDF painted, stucco embossed, or checker/tread patterned — and the same alloy (e.g. 3003) ships in plain, painted, and tread variants from the same mill [S1][S3][S8]. Tread plate is typically sold on 5-bar or diamond geometry, with 1-bar and 2-bar options for lighter duty [S3].
Standards to put on the purchase order: ASTM B209 / B209M (sheet and plate, US), EN 485-2 (sheet and plate, EU), GB/T 3880 (China), plus the temper reference EN 515 / ASTM B557 for mechanical properties. Trumony and MC both publish their production capacity as 1xxx through 8xxx families covering plate, sheet, coil, strip, foil, and tread [S1][S4][S5]. Demand an actual mill test certificate (MTC) with chemistry per the named standard, mechanicals from the lot, and traceability to the heat number — a generic "Aluminum Sheet 6061" data sheet without an MTC is a red flag [S3][S5].
Sourcing Channels, MOQ, and Lead Time
Three channels dominate the current Chinese supply: factory-direct (MC Aluminum, Flait, Haomei, Trumony, Yantai Baodi) with the deepest alloy catalog and the longest lead time; trading platforms (OKorder, Made-in-China) that aggregate suppliers and typically enforce a 2-ton MOQ on stock sheet and coil items; and spot stockists in northern China (Yantai Baodi) for short-cycle brass/aluminum mixed packs [S1][S2][S3][S5][S6][S7][S8].
Concrete price points observed in mid-2026: Zhengzhou Haomei lists "Super Wide Aluminium Plate / Aluminum Alloy Thick Plates" at US$3,000–4,000 / ton with a 2-ton MOQ, and 1060 decoration coil at US$2,381–2,413 / ton on a 2-ton MOQ — wide plate and high-purity stock are the two price tiers to anchor your RFQ against [S7]. OKorder operates as a CNBM-funded one-stop quoting and cargo-tracking portal for sheet, coil, plate, foil, and circle, which makes it the fastest route to a multi-supplier comparison when you do not already have an audited vendor list [S2]. Cross-check any quoted mill by asking for the 4343/3003/4343 brazing composite or the 1060-O transformer strip as a litmus test — mills that ship those controlled-stock items tend to have the QA discipline for the structural plate order you actually need [S1][S3][S8]. For a complementary read on how plate specifications cascade into finished building products, see the aluminum veneer panel encyclopedia entry.
Trackable signals for the next sourcing cycle: the spread between Haomei's US$2,381–2,413 / ton 1060 coil and its US$3,000–4,000 / ton wide plate (a ~25–68% premium for gauge and width capability) [S7]; the continued addition of 5083 / 5454 tank-truck plate SKUs at Flait and Haomei versus 5052, which suggests fabricators are still migrating weight-sensitive builds up the Mg ladder [S3][S8]; and the 4343/3003/4343 brazing-sheet standard at Haomei, which sets a clear reference composite for thermal-management RFQs going into Q3 2026 [S8].
For related coverage, see Concrete Batching Plant Selection: Output, Mixer and Mobility Gates.