Aluminium Coil Slitting & Cut to Length Lines
Aluminium is soft, light and unforgiving. It marks at pressures steel shrugs off, its slivers contaminate everything, and thin-gauge aluminium tears rather than cuts if knife setup is even slightly out. Processing it well is a configuration problem, not just a settings problem.
Friend Engineering Works builds aluminium-configured slitting lines and CTL lines for coil stock from thin fin gauges up to 6mm plate, used by ACP manufacturers, cable and transformer strip producers, roofing sheet makers and utensil manufacturers across India.
Aluminium-Specific Line Features
- Low-pressure, covered contact surfaces — aluminium picks up roll marks and galling from bare steel rolls
- Sharp, fine-clearance knives — aluminium demands tighter clearance than steel of the same gauge to avoid burr and sliver
- Sliver management: slitter area extraction and guards, because aluminium slivers embed in the strip surface
- Lower recoiling tension — soft tempers stretch and telescope at steel-line tensions; tension control is scaled to alloy and temper
- Non-marking separator discs and felt-lined strip guides at the recoiler
Applications for Aluminium Coil Processing
| Application | Typical Gauge | Equipment |
|---|---|---|
| ACP (aluminium composite panel) skins | 0.2–0.5mm | Precision slitting line |
| Transformer & cable strip | 0.2–3mm | Slitting line with fine tension control |
| Roofing & cladding sheets | 0.5–1.2mm | Slitting + CTL |
| Fin stock (HVAC) | 0.1–0.3mm | Precision slitting line |
| Utensils & cookware circles | 0.5–3mm | CTL line feeding circle cutting |
Slitting Aluminium vs Slitting Steel
Aluminium's lower tensile strength means lower slitting forces, but that is the only thing that gets easier. Knife clearance windows are narrower, burr tolerance is lower (burrs tear thin webs downstream), tension windows are tighter, and surface standards are higher. Our aluminium configurations start from the strip's requirements rather than de-rating a steel line.
Recommended Equipment
- Slitting Line — Friend Engineering Works slitting lines are designed to ensure the highest standards of quality and productivity while processing different materials.
- Cut to Length Line — We manufacture advanced Cut to Length Lines for uncoiling, straightening, gauging, cross-cutting to length, and stacking work.
- Recoiler Machine — Our recoiler machines provide consistent tension control for rewinding processed metal strips.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a steel slitting line process aluminium coils?
It can cut them, but usually badly: excessive burr, surface marking from hard rolls, and telescoped coils from over-tension. If aluminium is a meaningful share of your work, the line should have aluminium-specific knife setups, covered rolls and scaled-down tension control. We configure combination lines when customers run both materials.
What aluminium thickness range can your lines handle?
Standard aluminium configurations cover roughly 0.1mm (fin stock and light foil gauges) up to 6mm plate, depending on line type. Alloy and temper matter as much as thickness — share both for an accurate proposal.
How do you prevent telescoping when recoiling soft aluminium?
Telescoping is a tension and alignment problem: recoiling tension scaled to the alloy/temper, precise strip alignment into the recoiler, and separator discs that keep each strip tracking straight. Our recoilers use adjustable tension control so soft tempers can be wound tight without stretching.