From aluminum plate to sheet and aluminum foil

The production of aluminum sheet or aluminum foil usually starts out the same way as aluminum plate, but the aluminum slab is further rolled through a continuous mill to reduce thickness and wound into a coil at the end of the line. These aluminum coils are subsequently cold rolled, from one to several passes at cold rolling mills. Aluminum coils may be heated in a furnace to soften it for further cold rolling or produce the desired mechanical properties. Cold rolling is the last step for some aluminum sheet, but other types (referred to as heat-treatable) are subjected to further elevated-temperature processing to increase their strength.

Some aluminum sheet and aluminum foil products may also be produced using the continuous casting process in which molten metal enters the caster, which produces a hot rolled coil, thus bypassing the ingot casting and hot rolling steps.