Choosing Container Foil: 8011 vs 3003 vs 3004

Three alloys, three behaviours. Which one suits your press depends on the container shape, the wall thickness you are drawing to, and whether the tray goes in an oven.

Semi-rigid container foil is usually ordered in one of three alloys. They are not interchangeable, and the wrong choice shows up as torn walls, earing, or lids that will not seal.

Is 8011 the general purpose choice for container foil?

Most semi-rigid trays begin here, so it is worth knowing what 8011 does well and where it stops being the easy answer.

For chilled and ambient trays, plates and moderate-depth bowls, 8011 is usually the first choice, because it forms cleanly and costs less than the stronger alloys.

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8011 is the most common container alloy. It forms well, gives a clean surface, and costs less than 3003 or 3004. It suits smoothwall trays, plates and moderate-depth bowls for chilled and ambient use.

In practice the alloy behaves predictably in a standard draw press, which is why it appears in so many specifications for smoothwall trays and shallow plates. The grain is fine and uniform, so a drawn wall tends to thicken evenly rather than thin in patches, and the surface stays bright after forming. That surface matters more than it sounds, because a clean finish makes any later lacquering, printing or lidding step easier to control. How foil is rolled and finished in general is described in the Wikipedia entry on aluminium foil.

Where 8011 stops being the obvious answer is when the container must survive a deeper draw, a heavier fill, or a hot cabinet. None of those are impossible on 8011, but the press settings and the trim scrap become less forgiving, and that is usually the moment to consider a manganese-bearing alloy. For a straightforward chilled tray, the general-purpose alloy keeps tooling simple and the coil easy to source. Where the container is simple and the volumes are steady, that simplicity is worth more than a marginal gain in strength.

Does 3003 give more strength in container foil?

When a tray carries more weight or is drawn deeper, the alloy usually changes before the thickness does.

Generally yes. Manganese in 3003 raises strength and improves how the metal behaves under a heavier load or a deeper draw, so larger trays often move to it.

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3003 adds manganese, which raises strength and improves behaviour when the container has to hold a heavier load or a deeper draw. It is the usual choice for larger trays and for containers that will be handled roughly in catering.

The manganese addition stiffens the solid solution and slows the way the metal softens as it is worked. In a press shop that shows up as a wall that holds its shape after the punch withdraws, and as less thinning in the corners where a deep tray is stretched hardest. It also means the finished container resists bending when it is picked up fully loaded, which is usually the real reason a buyer asks for more strength.

Cost and availability move as well. A manganese-bearing coil is not dramatically dearer, but it is often quoted on a slightly longer horizon, and not every width or core combination is held in coil form. If the container is a shallow chilled tray, the extra strength adds little, so it is fair to ask whether the load case really justifies the change. Where the tray is stacked, handled roughly, or filled hot, the heavier alloy usually earns its place. It is one of those choices that looks like a small cost on paper and a large one in the complaints file.

Is 3004 the alloy for oven and high-heat use?

Some trays have to keep their shape while hot, and that is where the third alloy of the family comes in.

Broadly yes. 3004 carries magnesium as well as manganese, so it holds its shape better at high temperature and under mechanical stress than the other two.

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3004 adds magnesium as well as manganese, giving the highest strength of the three. It is used where the container must keep its shape at high temperature or under mechanical stress, and for press-formed containers with demanding geometry.

The combination is what matters. Magnesium is the element most often used to strengthen worked aluminium products, and when it sits alongside manganese the alloy keeps more of its strength after forming. In a container that means walls that do not sag when a full tray is lifted by one corner, and rims that stay flat enough to take a lid after the tray has been through heat. Press-formed containers with tight radii and folded edges benefit most, because those shapes concentrate stress during forming.

It is worth being careful about what the alloy can and cannot promise. A stronger alloy is not the same as a validated product for any particular use, and this page deliberately says nothing about approvals or test results of any kind. What can be said is that where geometry, load and temperature all push in the same direction, 3004 gives the press the best chance of a stable, repeatable container. A requirement of this type is often written around the 3004 specification at 0.07 mm.

How do 8011, 3003 and 3004 compare, and how do they behave in drawing?

The three alloys sit on a scale from easiest forming to highest strength, and drawing behaviour follows that order closely.

Broadly, 8011 draws most easily and costs least, 3003 sits in the middle, and 3004 is the strongest and the least forgiving of worn tooling.

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Read the three as a progression rather than three separate answers. 8011 gives the widest forming window and the simplest surface, 3003 trades a little of that window for stiffness, and 3004 trades a little more for strength that survives heat and handling. A well-set press can draw any of the three.

In drawing, the differences show up in three places. First, the force needed at the punch: a stronger alloy needs more of it, which older presses may not have to spare. Second, springback: the amount the metal relaxes back after the punch withdraws, which changes wall angles and rim flatness. Third, earing and trim: the wavy rim left after drawing varies with the grain of the coil, so two coils of the same alloy can behave differently.

It also helps to know where the industry draws its guidance. National and regional aluminium associations publish general technical material on alloy families and tempers, and the European Aluminium association is one of the bodies that does so for the European market. None of that replaces a trial on your own press, but it is a reasonable place to frame the questions you take to a supplier. It is also a quick way to sanity-check a supplier's own numbers.

What do thickness and temper change in a formed container?

Thickness and temper are the two variables that decide whether a formed tray feels right in the hand.

Thickness sets stiffness and fill weight; temper decides how much the metal springs back after forming, so it changes wall definition and how a lid seats.

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Container stock generally runs 0.03 to 0.09 mm. Thin gauges suit small containers; heavier gauges are needed for large trays. Temper is usually O for maximum formability, or H24 where more stiffness is wanted after forming.

The tempers that come up most often are O, H14, H16, H18, H22 and H24. In plain terms, O is the softest and takes the deepest draw with the least risk of cracking, while the H tempers are progressively harder and give more stiffness and better shape retention in the finished tray. H24 is often the compromise for a tray that must feel firm in the hand without making the press struggle. Thickness and temper are not independent: a thin, hard gauge can behave like a thicker soft one.

For a formed container the practical questions are usually about the wall, the rim and the base. A heavier gauge gives a flatter base and a rim that holds a lid pressed to it. A harder temper holds wall angles and reduces the settling that makes stacked trays lose height. Both cost more metal or more press effort. Industry bodies such as the Aluminum Association publish general background on tempers, and our note on lacquering covers the coating step that often follows forming.

What causes earing in container foil?

Earing is the wavy rim left after a deep draw, and it is a rolling issue as much as an alloy issue.

Grain orientation in the coil causes it. The rolling and annealing route controls how pronounced it is, so the coil earing profile matters as much as the alloy name.

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Earing - the wavy edge left after drawing - is caused by grain orientation in the coil. It is controlled by the rolling and annealing route, not by the alloy alone. If your press is trimming a lot of scrap from the rim, ask your supplier about the earing profile of the coil, not just the specification.

Picture the rolled sheet as a bundle of elongated grains lying in the rolling direction. When the metal is drawn radially, it flows differently along the grain and across it, so the rim rises into peaks and troughs. The height of those peaks is what the press then trims away, and every millimetre of trim is metal the buyer pays for and never ships. Because the effect comes from texture rather than chemistry, two coils of the same alloy from different rolling routes can give noticeably different trim rates.

The practical consequence is that the coil specification alone does not settle the question. A supplier who can describe the earing behaviour of the actual route being quoted is more useful than one who simply repeats the alloy and temper. It is a fair question to ask before a first container trial, and one reason a short run on production coil is worth arranging rather than judging from a certificate.

How are the lid and the container body specified together?

A tray and its lid are really one system, so the two are usually ordered against the same drawing.

They are specified as a pair. Body alloy and temper, lid alloy and gauge, and the sealing geometry all have to agree, or the lid will not seat as the press expects.

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Start from the seal, not from the metal. Whether the lid is a lidded foil sheet, a crimped cover or a seamed membrane, the geometry where body and lid meet determines the required thickness and temper of both parts. A firm body rim needs a lid that can be pressed to it without folding, and a soft body needs a lid that will not cut through.

Alloy choice then follows. It is unusual to use a different alloy family for the lid, but a different gauge or temper is very common, because the lid usually wants to deform and the body wants to hold. A buyer will often send one tray drawing and one lid drawing and expect a single quotation covering both. The comparison between a foil lid and a polymer film lid is a separate question, covered in our note on foil versus PP film for lidding.

For background on how the container sector in the United Kingdom and Ireland describes these combinations, the Aluminium Federation publishes general industry material that is useful context when writing a specification for both parts together. That is usually enough to compare combinations without a long technical exchange in either direction. It is a comparison worth making before the first sample.

What should you send with an enquiry for container stock?

A short, specific enquiry is answered faster than a general one, and it needs only a handful of numbers.

Send alloy, temper, thickness, width, core diameter, whether you want coil or sheet, quantity, and the container type you are drawing. A tray drawing helps most.

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The list is shorter than most buyers expect. Alloy from 1050, 1060, 1100, 1235, 3003, 3004, 8011, 8021 or 8079; temper O, H14, H16, H18, H22 or H24; thickness within 0.005 to 0.20 mm; width within 100 to 1500 mm; and a core of 76 mm or 152 mm. Quantities are usually quoted from 3 MT per size, and the usual loading ports are Qingdao, Tianjin and Shanghai.

Beyond the numbers, a few words of context save a round of questions. Say what the container is for, whether it goes in an oven, how deep the draw is, and whether a lid is involved. If a previous coil gave trouble, describe it: heavy earing, torn walls, lids that would not seal. That kind of note steers a quotation far more usefully than a request for the cheapest coil. It also helps to say whether the first order is a trial or a launch.

We supply container stock in 8011, 3003 and 3004 from 0.03 to 0.09 mm; see the aluminium foil container page or the wider packaging and container foil range.

Tell us the alloy, thickness, width and temper you need - our engineers will confirm feasibility and pricing.

Match the metal to the draw, the load and the heat, and settle the lid at the same time. Everything else follows from the coil.