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What material is aluminium foil made from?

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• What material is aluminium foil made from?

• What material is aluminium foil made from?

  aluminiumsheet > 08-27-2018, 06:42 AM

  Aluminium foil (or aluminum foil), often referred to with the misnomer tin foil, is aluminium prepared in thin metal leaves with a thickness less than 0.2 mm (7.9 mils); thinner gauges down to 6 micrometres (0.24 mils) are also commonly used.
  In the United States, foils are commonly gauged in thousandths of an inch or mils. Standard household foil is typically 0.016 mm (0.63 mils) thick, and heavy duty household foil is typically 0.024 mm (0.94 mils). The foil is pliable, and can be readily bent or wrapped around objects. Thin foils are fragile and are sometimes laminated to other materials such as plastics or paper to make them more useful. Aluminium foil supplanted tin foil in the mid 20th century.
  Annual production of aluminium foil was approximately 800,000 tonnes (880,000 tons) in Europe and 600,000 tonnes (660,000 tons) in the U.S. in 2003.
  Approximately 75% of aluminium foil is used for packaging of foods, cosmetics, and chemical products, and 25% used for industrial applications (e.g. thermal insulation, cables and electronics). It can be recycled.
  In North America, aluminium foil is known as aluminum foil. It was popularised by Reynolds Metals, the leading manufacturer in North America. In the United Kingdom and United States it is, informally, widely called tin foil, for historical reasons (similar to how aluminium cans are often still called “tin cans”). Metallised films are sometimes mistaken for aluminium foil, but are actually polymer films coated with a thin layer of aluminium. In Australia, aluminium foil is widely called alfoil.
  What is the production of thin aluminum foil?
  A sheet of aluminium foil
  Aluminium foil is produced by rolling sheet ingots cast from molten billet aluminium, then re-rolling on sheet and foil rolling mills to the desired thickness, or by continuously casting and cold rolling. To maintain a constant thickness in aluminium foil production, beta radiation is passed through the foil to a sensor on the other side. If the intensity becomes too high, then the rollers adjust, increasing the thickness. If the intensities become too low and the foil has become too thick, the rollers apply more pressure, causing the foil to be made thinner.
  The continuous casting method is much less energy intensive and has become the preferred process.
  For thicknesses below 0.025 mm (1 mil), two layers are usually put together for the final pass and afterwards separated which produces foil with one bright side and one matte side.
  The two sides in contact with each other are matte and the exterior sides become bright; this is done to reduce tearing, increase production rates, control thickness, and get around the need for a smaller diameter roller.
  Some lubrication is needed during the rolling stages; otherwise, the foil surface can become marked with a herringbone pattern. These lubricants are sprayed on the foil surface before passing through the mill rolls. Kerosene based lubricants are commonly used, although oils approved for food contact must be used for foil intended for food packaging.
  Aluminium becomes work hardened during the cold rolling process and is annealed for most purposes. The rolls of foil are heated until the degree of softness is reached, which may be up to 340 °C (644 °F) for 12 hours. During this heating, the lubricating oils are burned off, leaving a dry surface. Lubricant oils may not be completely burnt off for hard temper rolls, which can make subsequent coating or printing more difficult.
  The rolls of aluminium foil are then slit on slitter rewinding machines into smaller rolls. Roll slitting and rewinding is an essential part of the finishing process.
  Properties:
  Microscopic close-up of aluminium foil on the back of an intumescent rubber strip.
  Aluminium foils thicker than 25 μm (1 mil) are impermeable to oxygen and water. Foils thinner than this become slightly permeable due to minute pinholes caused by the production process.
  Aluminium foil has a shiny side and a matte side. The shiny side is produced when the aluminium is rolled during the final pass. It is difficult to produce rollers with a gap fine enough to cope with the foil gauge, therefore, for the final pass, two sheets are rolled at the same time, doubling the thickness of the gauge at entry to the rollers. When the aluminium sheets are later separated, the inside surface is dull, and the outside surface is shiny. This difference in the finish has led to the perception that favouring a side has an effect when cooking. While many believe (wrongly) that the different properties keep heat out when wrapped with the shiny finish facing out, and keep heat in with the shiny finish facing inwards, the actual difference is imperceptible without instrumentation. Increased reflectivity decreases both absorption and emission of radiation. Foil may have a non-stick coating on only one side.
  The reflectivity of bright aluminium foil is 88% while dull embossed foil is about 80%.

• RE: What material is aluminium foil made from?

  ZellaHyday > 08-27-2018, 06:44 AM

  Aluminum foil is made by 99.0% - 99.7% purity aluminum after many times’ rolling, The soft metal film is not only moisture-proof, airtight, shading, but also has the advantages of incense, avirulent insipidity, these advantage are unmatched by any other current packaging materials. This is a practical aspect of aluminum foil, it's gorgeous aspect is embodied in its luster with elegant silvery white, people can give full play to the imagination, to print characteristic, beautiful and colorful patterns on the surface. Just because the aluminum foil is super practical and colorful, the aluminum foil packing is more and more popular in the society , the market space is infinite. The aluminum foil has shiny metal luster, strong decorative performance,relatively light weight, only one-third of iron, copper, rich extensibility, thin thickness, low weight per unit area, good shading performance, reflective rate can reach 95%, high protective performance make packing materials susceptible to bacteria, fungi and insects. It is stable In the state of high temperature and low temperature, there are no shrinkage deformation when the temperature is 73 ~ 371 ℃. Barrier property is wonderful, moisture-proof, airtight, incense, can prevent the packing contents from moisture absorption, oxidation and volatilization metamorphism. Aluminum foil is easy to be processed, it can composite with all kinds of plastic film, and paper.

• RE: What material is aluminium foil made from?

  askaluadmin > 08-27-2018, 06:45 AM

  Aluminum foil is made from aluminum. Foil refers to its thickness and in metals foils are a specified thickness. Other measurements include strip and bar which also have specific meaning in a metal rolling mill. I do not know the grade of aluminum used to make foil.
  
  Foil is I believe the thinnest of the metals that are rolled and it occurs in other metals as well. For instance stainless steel foil is used to make razor blades and also a thin sheet which can be used to protect metals from oxidizing in some applications.
  
  An interesting fact about aluminum foil, it has a shiny and dull side. That is because it is rolled in multi layers and one side faces the equipment used to roll it and the other has a sheet of something in between 2 sheets of aluminum which allows the rolling equipment to make such a thin sheet. Otherwise it wants to just curl onto the equipment making it unusable.

• RE: What material is aluminium foil made from?

  tom > 08-29-2018, 03:55 AM

  Aluminum foil is a hot stamping material that can be directly rolled into aluminum sheets. Its hot stamping effect is similar to that of pure silver foil, so it is also called fake silver foil. Because of its soft texture, good ductility and silver-white luster, aluminum foil can also be printed if the calendered sheet is mounted on offset paper with sodium silicate and other materials. However, aluminum foil itself is easy to oxidize, color darkening, friction, touch, etc. will fade, so it is not suitable for long-term preservation of books and periodical covers, such as hot stamping.
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