Background

In one of our earlier case studies, we described some of the work we’d been doing with Xiashun Aluminium Foil Co., Ltd (Xiashun). Since then we’ve visited the site in Xiamen, China, several times. As a result, a successful partnership has grown between our two companies.

Xiashun is the largest manufacturer of high quality light-gauge aluminium foil in China and a global industry leader. Customers use their light-gauge aluminium foil in a wide variety of consumer products, from milk cartons to cigarette packaging, all over the world.

Towards the end of 2016, three of Innoval’s consultants visited Xiashun. The purpose was to undertake a series of training workshops in the plant where Xiashun produce high quality lithographic sheet. This training was to provide Xiashun’s technical team with a deeper understanding of their product and key aspects of its processing route.

How we were involved

Firstly, Dan Miller tackled the cold rolling process with several sessions from our Aluminium Rolling Technology Course. He covered mill vibration and flatness control amongst other topics. Gary Mahon provided product-specific training with lectures on the detailed metallurgy of lithographic sheet. Finally, Vicente Martin completed the training with a series of lectures and workshops covering surface quality, lubrication and product testing.

lithographic sheet
Light gauge aluminium foil at Xiashun

In addition to the above, the sessions also gave insights into the challenges posed by products not currently manufactured by Xiashun, but which they could make using their current equipment.

Product-specific courses, such as this one for lithographic sheet, help our clients to really understand material behaviour during fabrication. Furthermore, they learn more about how their product behaves in service. Metallurgy, surface treatment, corrosion and lubrication are some of the topics we cover in our product courses.

Services Involved

  • Aluminium training courses
  • Aluminium rolling

This case study appears as an article in the 2017 edition of ‘innform’; the newsletter of Innoval Technology.

Being able to tap into Innoval’s vast knowledge helps us to move ahead quicker than we would otherwise. We value that their consultants are able to share product expertise as well as process knowledge. The Innoval team are very approachable too and this helps greatly with the mentoring of our staff.

Jacky Wang, Manager, R&D and Technology Department at Xiashun Aluminium Foil Co., Ltd