Double-roll Casting and Rolling Method is Becoming the Mainstream Process Route of Aluminum Foil

Aluminum foil processing process is the aluminum product with the most processing processes, the smallest thickness and the greatest difficulty in the aluminum processing industry.

At present, there are two common processing routes in the industry: (1) ingot hot rolling method; (2) double roll rolling method.
(1)Ingot hot rolling method: first aluminum melt cast into flat ingot, and then after homogenization, hot rolling, cold rolling, intermediate annealing and other processes, continue to cold rolling into a thickness of about 0.4~1.0mm as foil billet (casting hot rolled billet cold rolled foil rolling).

(2)Double roll rolling method: compared with the ingot hot rolling method, the process of producing aluminum foil billet is relatively simple; without complicated process steps of ingot smelting, milling, homogenization and hot rolling, pour the aluminum melt directly into two rotating casting rolls (crystal), and complete the solidification and hot rolling process in 2~3s in the casting area, obtaining the thickness of 4~7mm. Similar to hot rolled aluminum foil billet, casting and rolling plate also need to go through a series of cold rolled and intermediate annealing process, and finally rolled into 0.3~0.7mm thick plate as aluminum foil billet.

The double roll casting and rolling method has simple equipment, less total investment and short production cycle, eliminating milling, homogenization and hot rolling, so the cost of producing aluminum foil billet is greatly reduced. However, due to the different cooling methods and hot processing conditions in the process, the internal organization of the rolling plate is segregation, uneven organization and grain size, the quality control is difficult, so it is relatively less used in high-quality aluminum foil products.

At present, the process of casting and rolling applied in aluminum foil billet is gradually mature. More and more enterprises begin to use the casting and rolling process to produce aluminum foil, and casting and rolling has become the mainstream front process of aluminum foil. After the aluminum foil billet is made, the aluminum foil billet goes through a series of rough, intermediate and refined rolled into different thicknesses, and then the finished product is annealed. Generally speaking, thick foil only needs to be rough rolled, single zero foil needs to be rough rolled and medium rolled, double zero foil and other aluminum foil with high precision requirements need to be rough rolled, middle rolled and refined rolled.

In general, the double-roll rolling method is becoming the mainstream process route of aluminum foil.