Aluminum extrusion quote requests, read off the print into a draft for your estimator.

A customer sends a section drawing, sometimes a sketch or an old part number, and a sentence about what they need. Someone at your desk pulls out the alloy, the temper, the shape class, length and finish, checks whether a die already exists and who owns it, and writes down what the customer left open before anyone can put a number on it.

For the test, AI works from copies of requests you answered in the past and fills that draft one field at a time, noting where on the print each value came from. Anything the customer did not state stays blank and goes on a list for your estimator. Your reviewer, the estimator who knows these requests best, lays each draft beside the quote that actually went back.

Alloy and temper can arrive in several shapes. Albuquerque Public Schools' storefront specification calls for ASTM B221 alloy 6063-T5 for extrusions and, in the same line, allows another alloy and temper the manufacturer recommends for the finish. Michigan State University's standard leaves alloy and temper to the manufacturer for the use and finish, and sends extruded bars, rods, profiles and tubes to ASTM B 221, structural pipe and tube to B 429 and structural profiles to B 308. Rutgers wants a door sensor housing in 6063-T52. The temper letter carries meaning of its own: the Aluminum Extruders Council describes T5 as cooled from an elevated temperature and artificially aged, T6 as solution heat-treated and artificially aged, and F as extruded with no mechanical property limits. So the draft copies what the print says and marks a missing temper as a decision.

Shape class is what the die question turns on. The council defines a solid profile as one with no enclosed void, a hollow as one whose cross section completely encloses one or more voids, and a semi-hollow as a partially enclosed void, where the die's tongue area is large against the gap. Porthole and pancake are its most common hollow dies, and the backer, bolster and sub-bolster behind a die may be charged separately on a complex shape. So die status on the draft is one plain field: found on the tooling list you send, new, or ask, with the shape class the print shows. Which die, whose die and what it costs stay with your estimator and your die shop.

Circle size and weight point at a press. The council's manual measures a shape by its circumscribing circle, the smallest circle that fully encloses the cross section. Its design page says extrusions are most economical inside a circle between one and ten inches, that keeping a shape under 8 inches at 3 pounds or less per foot generally improves the design, and that press availability depends on circle size, area and weight together. The draft copies a stated weight per foot and its units when the request gives one and never calculates it, because your estimator's own numbers are the ones that count.

A tolerance note can point at a book. The council's tolerances page sends readers to the Aluminum Association's Aluminum Standards and Data, where tables 11.5 through 11.14, 12.2 through 12.5 and 12.10 through 12.14 cover extrusions, and it separates industry standard tolerances from precision ones, with geometric dimensioning and tolerancing for complex parts. The association also sells ANSI H35.2, Dimensional Tolerances for Aluminum Mill Products, in a 2024 edition. The manual adds that a dimension across solid metal holds closer than one across a gap. So the draft names the standard and edition the print gives, records each callout as written, and lists any precision or GD&T note for your estimator. It does not set a tolerance.

Finish and fabrication add lines, and color may still be open. The manual tells designers to mark exposed surfaces on the drawing so the extruder can protect them, and the council's fabrication page starts with cutting from the as-extruded length, then punching, machining, bending or welding. Newberry County, South Carolina's storefront section names ASTM B221 and AAMA 2604 and leaves color for the architect to pick from the manufacturer's full range, so a request built from it can't yet say what color. Your reviewer, usually your lead estimator, checks each draft against the quote that went back: every callout read, die status answered, finish and fabrication lines, and the questions your team really asked. Standards appear here as words a print may use; this page is not engineering advice.

With your reviewer's yes, each new request gets the same draft for about 30 days.

Your estimator approves every quote, sets every price and die charge and decides what goes back to the customer. The same table scores the live month.