Aluminium Foil for Food Packing and Containers

Aluminum foil has a wide range of application, among which the most widely one is food keeping. It was first applied to wrap candies by the Swedish company, which marked the beginning of an era when it is used as a packaging material. Nowadays aluminium foil food containers and aluminium foil for food packaging has become its two biggest application area.

Generally speaking, either food packing aluminum rolls or aluminium foil containers can be made of 8011 alloy. In addition to aluminum, 8011 also contains elements of Fe and Si. The latter two takes up a content of 1% and above, making the alloy perform much better than pure aluminum as foil rolls. As a matter of fact, 8011 is rarely made into sheets or plates, but mostly foil or strips (slit foil). It has a tensile strength between 125 and 165, yield strength 110 and elongation from 2 to 5. Another candidate alloy proves to be 3003, which is an AL-Mn alloy, most widely used in corrosion resistance. The strength of this alloy is not high (slightly higher than industrial pure aluminum) and cannot be heat-treated. Therefore, cold working is used to improve its mechanical properties. It has high plasticity in the annealed state, paving way to the making of aluminium foil containers. It’s resistant against air, fresh water, sea water, food, organic acid, gasoline, neutral inorganic salt solution etc. Because of this, 3003 aluminum foil becomes an excellent material for food packing.