Subject: How to make Aluminum Foil

From: [email-masked] (C. Moon Mullins)
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 1995 18:33:59 GMT

Hi. I am curious about two things. Number one, how is aluminum foil made 
in a large-scale operation? Number 2, I would like to make my own 
aluminum foil. Can anybody offer advice? I imagine that the procedure 
would be to take an aluminum ingot and hammer repeatedly on both sides 
until it is the desired thickness. Buf if anyone has done this before, 
please let me know. 

Thanks!

			- C.W.M.M.

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From: [email-masked] (CONGREVE)
Date: 6 Jun 1995 16:23:18 -0400

Are you trying to foil us with a joke question?  If not as to #1 no idea. 
As to #2, gold is the only metal malleable enough---silver to a lesser
extent---to start with an ingot and pound down to foil, at least without
repeated annealing.  I think gold "leaf" is still made, in cheap-labor
countries, by essentially that method, and of course it's many times
thinner than foil.  I hope someone more knowledgeable than I am chimes in
here!
      
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Mark McDade (303) 673-6841)
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 19:04:46 GMT

C. Moon Mullins ([email-masked]) wrote:

: Hi. I am curious about two things. Number one, how is aluminum foil made 
: in a large-scale operation? Number 2, I would like to make my own 
: aluminum foil. Can anybody offer advice? I imagine that the procedure 
: would be to take an aluminum ingot and hammer repeatedly on both sides 
: until it is the desired thickness. Buf if anyone has done this before, 
: please let me know. 

: Thanks!

: 			- C.W.M.M.

Well, I'm no expert but I worked in a Kaiser mill for a year and saw a
lot of aluminum converted from ore through to can stock (somewhat thicker
than foil but not much).  The basic process is that the ingots are
formed from molten metal and, while hot, passed between rollers with
something on the order of 5 million psi of pressure and squished down
until they are about 1/4" thick (using motors of 1-5 thousand hp and
on stands that run as many as a half dozen rollers that go three stories
above the ground and the same below).  The 1/4" metal is rolled up and 
allowed to cool.  It is then put onto a "cold mill" where the rollers
are smaller, faster (about 3000 feet per minute) and lubricated with a
constant stream of oil/water mix.  That final mill takes the sheet down
to the desired final size.

I understand that modern "mini-mills" use less equipment and run more
rapidly and economically but don't produce the same high level of surface
finish and uniformity that the older processes can.

As for doing it yourself, I would guess that any fairly high pressure
roller system would work for small quantities of soft metal if you
aren't too picky about surface uniformity and finish.

Mark McDade

[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Howard Garner)
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 21:47:40 GMT

>until it is the desired thickness. Buf if anyone has done this before, 
Just like makeing sheet metal.  Keep on rolling it thinner and thinner.

With the real thin stuff the problem is keeping the tension correct so
as not to tear the sheet.

How much no you what to make, (and why?)

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From: [email-masked] (Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans)
Date: Wed, 07 Jun 95 17:00:53 CDT

In article <[email-masked]>
[email-masked] (Mark McDade (303) 673-6841) writes:
 
>  ...    The basic process is that the ingots are
>until they are about 1/4" thick ...
 
Is the 5 million psi correct?  I'm thinking of steels' 50,000 to
100,000 psi yield strengths and--assuming that yield strength has
anything to do with ability to withstand compression--am wondering
what these rollers are made of and what they use for bearings (or
whatever holds the rollers in place)?
 
Richard E+17

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From: [email-masked] (Barry Workman)
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 08:19:24 GMT

>			- C.W.M.M.

Saw it on Sesame Street.  Aluminum foil is rolled from Big D. bars of
pure stuff.  The manufacturing machine looks like a paper machine only 
with huge rolls of aluminum foil.  Most aluminum foil is between .001
and .002.
"How to Make Your Own Aluminum Foil"

Go to your local resturant supply house.  Purchase a large industrial
roll of aluminum foil.  Cut to desired width.  Roll on salaged paper
towel rolls.  Put in box, mark up acordingly, sell to suckers. <^_^>

-- 
    - Barry Workman