[TheForge] foil, sheet and plate

[Eddie Hart]

The members of this list are such a trove of knowledge. Thank you so much
for sharing.

-Eddie

On Sun, Jul 2, 2017 at 12:33 AM, Dave Smucker <davesmucker at hotmail.com>
wrote:

> In my experience, the dividing line between plate and sheet is about 11
> gage (gauge) or about 1/8 inch.  In ferrous metal there is very little foil
> produced since it becomes so hard to roll at very light gauges.  There are
> some special products for which it is produced in foil gauges but very
> expensive.  The technical reason for this is that as the metal gets very
> thin the rolls flatten rather that the metal being rolled.  Special mills
> with very small rolls can deal with this but they are costly to run and
> maintain.  I would call the break point between sheet and foil at around
> .001 being foil.  Some would define the break point between sheet and plate
> as the point where it becomes difficult to coil the metal but today very
> heavy gauges are coiled.
>
> In the aluminum industry the break points are quite clear.  (Gauge numbers
> are not use in aluminum only inch thickness or mm thickness).  The break
> point for sheet to plate is 0.125 being sheet and thicker being plate.  The
> break point for sheet to foil is normally at 0.001 being foil and above
> being sheet.  When I was the division engineer for foil at Alcoa's
> Davenport Works we rolled lots of foil down to 0.00025 for packaging
> products.  We had even rolled, with great difficulty some 0.0001 foil for
> the Echo Satellite in the 1960's.  (before my time)  Light gauge foil is
> all pack rolled - rolled by placing two thickness together through the mill
> with a light film of oil between them to keep them from welding together.
> This is why when you look at your household foil it has one shinny side
> (next to the roll) and one matt side next to the other aluminum.  The
> reason that you can roll aluminum to foil much easier that steel is that
> pure aluminum it not near as strong as steel.
>    Almost all aluminum foil is 1100 or nearly pure aluminum.  Again roll
> flattening is an issue and all foil is run with the rolls "below face" in
> other words with no metal between the rolls the mill is still loaded.  The
> edges do pinch and the metal must be trimmed at each pass.
>
> The Davenport foil mill has been closed for many years now and foil is no
> longer produced at this site.
>
> Dave Smucker
> Brasstown, NC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:theforge-bounces@
> mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of terry l. ridder
> Sent: Sunday, July 2, 2017 6:31 AM
> To: theforge e-mail list <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [TheForge] foil, sheet and plate
>
> hello
>
> considering ferrous metals only.
>
> what defines the dividing line between foil and sheet?
> what defines the dividing line between sheet and plate?
>
> aluminium, copper, brass, etc will all have different criteria.
>
> --
> terry l. ridder ><>
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