Aluminium foil Tin foil has been supplanted by aluminium and other materials for wrapping food. The first audio recordings on phonograph cylinders were made on tin foil. Tin was first replaced by aluminium in 1910, when the first aluminium foil rolling plant, "Dr. Lauber, Neher & Cie." was opened in Emmishofen, Switzerland. The plant, owned by J.G. Neher & Sons, the aluminium manufacturers, started in 1886 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, at the foot of the Rhine Falls, capturing the falls' energy to process aluminium. Neher's sons, together with Dr. Lauber, discovered the endless rolling process and the use of aluminium foil as a
Cold foil printing spools from an unwind and is nipped to a substrate. Foil sticks to the tacky adhesive on the substrate, and an image with a bright foil surface is created. Foil that does not adhere to the adhesive remains on a thin polyester liner, and waste is directed to a rewind spool. Because the adhesive is applied on press like a conventional ink, no expensive stamping die has to be created. Once printed, the surface of cold foil images may be varnished, laminated, or encapsulated in order to provide a hard-wearing, durable surface. Some printing substrates are unsuitable for cold foil