China's aluminum foil production began in 1932, but did not begin to develop rapidly until the reform and opening up. Since the 1990s, aluminum foil production has entered an important period. Not only has a large amount of advanced equipment been introduced, but the level of production management and technology development has gradually become modernized and internationalized. Since the beginning of this century, aluminum foil production capacity has increased rapidly under the strong market demand. At present, there are more than 90 aluminum foil manufacturers in China, equipped with 66 modern aluminum foil mills, and 39 universal cold rolling mills with a total aluminum foil production capacity of 500,000 tons/year.
Aluminum foil packaging began in the early 20th century when aluminum foil was used as the most expensive packaging material for high-end packaging only. In 1911, the Swiss confectionery company began packaging chocolate with aluminum foil, which gradually became popular instead of tin foil. In 1913, the United States began to produce aluminum foil based on the success of aluminum smelting, mainly used for high-end goods, life-saving supplies and chewing gum packaging. In 1921, the United States successfully developed composite aluminum foil paperboard, which was mainly used as a decorative board and high-grade folding carton. In 1938, heat-sealable aluminum foil came out. During World War II, aluminum foil was rapidly developed as a military packaging material. In 1948, aluminum foil containers were used to package foods. In the 1950s, aluminum paper and aluminum-plastic composites began to develop. By the 1970s, with the maturity of color printing technology, aluminum foil and aluminum-plastic composite packaging entered a period of rapid popularity.
In the 21st century, the trend of market competition and product homogeneity has stimulated the rapid development of product packaging. In 2002, the global packaging market has exceeded US$500 billion. The development of aluminum foil packaging is basically synchronized with the development of the entire industry. In the Chinese market, the development of aluminum foil packaging is faster, mainly for two reasons: First, the gap between the development of China's flexible packaging market and developed countries is obvious, and the proportion of soft packaging for consumer goods and foods for daily use Small, developed countries have accounted for more than 65%, and some have exceeded 70%, while China accounts for about 15%, and the proportion has increased rapidly in the past two years. Second, the domestic aluminum-plastic composite and aluminum-paper composite technologies are maturing, and production costs are reduced. Promote the popularization and application of aluminum matrix composites in the Chinese packaging market.
