29/08/2025
Aluminum foil production is a process that transforms aluminum and its alloys into thin sheets with a thickness of ≤0.2mm, primarily through rolling. It plays a vital role in packaging, electronics, construction, and other sectors.
The main raw materials are industrial pure aluminum (e.g., 1050, 1060, 1100 series) with a purity of 99.0%~99.9% or aluminum alloys containing small amounts of magnesium and manganese (e.g., 8011 series for food packaging), requiring low impurities and good uniformity.
The dominant production method, accounting for over 80%, is the twin-roll casting process. First, molten aluminum (around 700℃) is continuously cast between two rotating cooling rolls to form 6~10mm thick "cast-rolled coils" (blanks). Second, these coils go through multiple cold rolling passes to become 0.3~0.5mm thick "cold-rolled coils," with annealing (heating to 300~400℃) to reduce work hardening. Third, cold-rolled coils are fed into foil rolling mills (often "tandem rolling" two coils together) to produce aluminum foil under 0.2mm (e.g., 0.01~0.05mm for packaging). Finally, post-processing includes slitting, annealing, surface treatment (coating, printing), and inspection.
Aluminum foil boasts advantages like lightness, excellent barrier properties (against oxygen, moisture, light), high ductility, and easy recyclability, making it widely used.
