Английская Википедия:Aluminium foil
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use British English
Aluminium foil (or aluminum foil in American English; often informally called tin foil) is aluminium prepared in thin metal leaves. The foil is pliable, and can be readily bent or wrapped around objects. Thin foils are fragile and are sometimes laminated with other materials such as plastics or paper to make them stronger and more useful.
Annual production of aluminium foil was approximately Шаблон:Convert in Europe[1] and Шаблон:Convert in the U.S.[2] in 2003. Approximately 75% of aluminium foil is used for packaging of foods, cosmetics, and chemical products, and 25% is used for industrial applications (e.g., thermal insulation, electrical cables, and electronics).[2] It can be easily recycled.
Aluminium foil supplanted tin foil in the mid 20th century. In the United Kingdom and United States it is often informally called "tin foil", just as steel cans are often still called "tin cans". Metallised films are sometimes mistaken for aluminium foil, but are actually polymer films coated with a thin layer of aluminium.
History
Precursors
Foil made from a thin leaf of tin was commercially available before its aluminium counterpart. Tin foil was marketed commercially from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century. The term "tin foil" survives in the English language as a term for the newer aluminium foil. Tin foil is less malleable than aluminium foil and tends to give a slight tin taste to food wrapped in it. Tin foil has been supplanted by aluminium and other materials for wrapping food.[3]
The first audio recordings on phonograph cylinders were made on tin foil.[4]
Invention
Tin was first replaced by aluminium in 1910, when the first aluminium foil rolling plant, Dr. Lauber, Neher & Cie. was opened in Emmishofen, Switzerland. The plant, owned by J.G. Neher & Sons, the aluminium manufacturers, was founded in 1886 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, at the foot of the Rhine Falls, whose energy powered the process. In December 1907, Neher's sons, along with Dr. Lauber, had invented the endless rolling process, by which they discovered that aluminium foil could be used as a protective barrier.[5]
In 1911, Bern-based Tobler began wrapping its chocolate bars in aluminium foil, including the unique triangular chocolate bar, Toblerone.[6]
The first use of foil in the United States was in 1913 for wrapping Life Savers, candy bars, and gum.[7]
Properties
Aluminium foil has a thickness less than Шаблон:Convert; thinner gauges down to Шаблон:Convert are also commonly used.[1] Standard household foil is typically Шаблон:Convert thick, and heavy duty household foil is typically Шаблон:Convert
Foil may have a non-stick coating on only one side.[8]
Although aluminium is non-magnetic, it is a good conductor, so even a thin sheet reflects almost all of an incident electric wave. At frequencies more than 100 MHz, the transmitted electric field is attenuated by more than 80 decibels (dB) (less than 10−8 = 0.00000001 of the power gets through).[9]
Thin sheets of aluminium are not very effective at attenuating low-frequency magnetic fields. The shielding effectiveness is dependent upon the skin depth. A field travelling through one skin depth will lose about 63 per cent of its energy (it is attenuated to 1/e = 1/2.718... of its original energy). Thin shields also have internal reflections that reduce the shielding effectiveness.[10]
Manufacture
The continuous casting method is much less energy intensive and has become the preferred process.[11] It is difficult to produce rollers with a gap fine enough to cope with the foil gauge, and to avoid this, as well as reducing tearing, increasing production rates, and controlling thickness,[12] for the final pass when producing thicknesses below Шаблон:Convert, two sheets are rolled at the same time, doubling the thickness of the gauge at entry to the rollers. After the rollers, the two sheets are separated which produces foil with one shiny side and one matte side.
The two sides in contact with each other are matte and the exterior sides become shiny. The reflectivity of dull aluminium foil is 80% while shiny embossed foil is about 88%.[7] The difference in thermal properties between the two sides is imperceptible without instrumentation. Increased reflectivity decreases both absorption and emission of radiation.Шаблон:Cn
Uses
Aluminium foil is widely sold into the consumer market, often in rolls of Шаблон:Convert width and several metres in length.[13]
Aluminium foil is also used for barbecuing delicate foods.[14]
As with all metallic items, aluminium foil reacts to being placed in a microwave oven. This is because of the electromagnetic fields of the microwaves inducing electric currents in the foil and high potentials at the sharp points of the foil sheet; if the potential is sufficiently high, it will cause electric arcing to areas with lower potential, even to the air surrounding the sheet. Modern microwave ovens have been designed to prevent damage to the cavity magnetron tube from microwave energy reflection, and aluminium packages designed for microwave heating are available.[15]
Environmental issues
Some aluminium foil products can be recycled at around 5% of the original energy cost.[16]
See also
References
External links
- European Aluminium Foil Association
- Aluminium Association (USA)
- Aluminium Foil from How Products Are Made, vol. 1, Thomson Gale (2005).
- How It's Made: Aluminium Foil - HowItsMadeEpisodes channel on YouTube.
Шаблон:Packaging Шаблон:Authority control Шаблон:Portal bar
- ↑ 1,0 1,1 Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ 2,0 2,1 "Foil & Packaging". Шаблон:Webarchive. The Aluminum Association (USA).
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ 7,0 7,1 Hanlon, J. (1992). 1st ed. Handbook of Package Engineering, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Technomic Publishing: Шаблон:ISBN. Chapter 3 Films and Foils.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Citation. Шаблон:Harvtxt graphs reflection loss for copper, and shows electric field and plane wave losses at greater than 90 dB.
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb
- ↑ Robertson, G. (2006). 2nd ed. Food Packaging, Principles and Practise, Boca Raton, FL, Taylor & Francis Group: Шаблон:ISBN. Chapter 7 Metal Packaging Materials.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Examples of products Шаблон:Webarchive
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Huss, G. (1997) Microwaveable Packaging and Dual-Ovenable Materials in The Wiley Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology, 2nd ed., edited by Brody, A. and Marsch, K. New York, John Wiley and Sons
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web