23-03-2012, 03:34 PM
Aluminum foil
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Background
Aluminum foil is made from an aluminum alloy which contains between 92 and 99 percent aluminum. Usually between 0.00017 and 0.0059 inches thick, foil is produced in many widths and strengths for literally hundreds of applications. It is used to manufacture thermal insulation for the construction industry, fin stock for air conditioners, electrical coils for transformers, capacitors for radios and televisions, insulation for storage tanks, decorative products, and containers and packaging. The popularity of aluminum foil for so many applications is due to several major advantages, one of the foremost being that the raw materials necessary for its manufacture are plentiful. Aluminum foil is inexpensive, durable, non-toxic, and greaseproof. In addition, it resists chemical attack and provides excellent electrical and non-magnetic shielding.
Raw Materials
Aluminum numbers among the most abundant elements: after oxygen and silicon, it is the most plentiful element found in the earth's surface, making up over eight percent of the crust to a depth of ten miles and appearing in almost every common rock. However, aluminum does not occur in its pure, metallic form but rather as hydrated aluminum oxide (a mixture of water and alumina) combined with silica, iron oxide, and titania. The most significant aluminum ore is bauxite, named after the French town of Les Baux where it was discovered in 1821. Bauxite contains iron and hydrated aluminum oxide, with the latter representing its largest constituent material. At present, bauxite is plentiful enough so that only deposits with an aluminum oxide content of forty-five percent or more are mined to make aluminum. Concentrated deposits are found in both the northern and southern hemispheres, with most of the ore used in the United States coming from the West Indies, North America, and Australia.
The Manufacturing Process
Extracting pure aluminum from bauxite entails two processes. First, the ore is refined to eliminate impurities such as iron oxide, silica, titania, and water. Then, the resultant aluminum oxide is smelted to produce pure aluminum. After that, the aluminum is rolled to produce foil.
Smelting
• 5 Smelting, which separates the aluminum-oxygen compound (alumina) produced by the Bayer process, is the next step in extracting pure, metallic aluminum from bauxite. Although the procedure currently used derives from the electrolytic method invented contemporaneously by Charles Hall and Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult in the late nineteenth century, it has been modernized. First, the alumina is dissolved in a smelting cell, a deep steel mold lined with carbon and filled with a heated liquid conductor that consists mainly of the aluminum compound cryolite.
• 6 Next, an electric current is run through the cryolite, causing a crust to form over the top of the alumina melt. When additional alumina is periodically stirred into the mixture, this crust is broken and stirred in as well. As the alumina dissolves, it electrolytically decomposes to produce a layer of pure, molten aluminum on the bottom of the smelting cell. The oxygen merges with the carbon used to line the cell and escapes in the form of carbon dioxide.
• 7 Still in molten form, the purified aluminum is drawn from the smelting cells, transferred into crucibles, and emptied into furnaces. At this stage, other elements can be added to produce aluminum alloys with characteristics appropriate to the end product, though foil is generally made from 99.8 or 99.9 percent pure aluminum. The liquid is then poured into direct chill casting devices, where it cools into large slabs called "ingots" or "reroll stock." After being annealed—heat treated to improve workability—the ingots are suitable for rolling into foil.
Products and Applications
Plate is used in heavy-duty applications in the aerospace, machinery, and transportation markets.
Aluminum plate, machined to shape, forms the skins of jumbo jets and spacecraft fuel tanks. It is used for storage tanks and containers in many industries and, because many aluminum alloys actually gain strength at supercold temperatures, it is especially useful in holding cryogenic (very-low-temperature) materials.
Plate provides structural sections for rail cars and large ships, as well as armor protection for military vehicles and trucks that carry payroll.
Sheet, the most widely used form of aluminum, is found in all of the aluminum industry's major markets.
In packaging, sheet is used for cans and closures. In transportation, it provides panels for automobile bodies and for tractor trailer vehicles. Sheet is used in home appliances and cookware. In building and construction, it forms siding and gutters, downspouts and roofing, and awnings and carports.