The European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA) recently invited visitors to Germany to celebrate 100 years of alufoil. The whole production chain was observed: foil rolling and converting at Amcor Flexibles Singen, hot rolling at Alcan's Singen plant, filling of foil packaging at NestléMaggi, and finally the ScholzAlu recycling plant.
Amcor has its own hot rolling and cold rolling mills at the Singen plant, producing the coils of aluminium destined for its converting lines. The foil rolling process involves simultaneous rolling of two layers to obtain the very thinnest foil. The company has a new slitting and separating department, where reels are slit to customers’ requirements. Lacquering, laminating, extrusion and printing are all carried out on this site, and there is an eight-colour gravure printing press in operation. There are two separate slitting areas, one of pharma and the other for food and technical.
At the Nestlé Maggi factory, visitors learned that the famous Maggi liquid seasoning was invented in 1886 by Julius Maggi. Last year, 82,000 tonnes of seasonings, sauces, bouillons, meals in cans was produced at this site. Two SIG machines pack product into pouches made of an OPP, aluminium, and PE laminate. Alufoil is used in many other packaging applications at the factory, such as the bouillon cubes.
Alufoil is widely used today across a range of industries because of its protective yet lightweight properties, and its complete recyclability makes it a popular choice for environment-conscious customers. Its origins date back to 1910, when Robert Victor Neher applied for a patent for the continuous rolling process and opened the first plant in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Alufoil was first used to package chocolate, replacing tin foil, and from that applications burgeoned.
The fact that it is 100% recyclable endlessly, without loss of quality, is a big plus point. Also its combination of barrier, deadfold and formability make it an essential part of many flexible packaging and container applications. Currently, European recycling rates average 40%, and in Germany rates have recently passed the 80% mark.
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