Tin materials can be divided into four categories: tin foil, tin powder, tin granules (beads, balls) and tin profiles (sticks, plates, sheets, strips).
There are three allotropes of tin: white tin, gray tin and brittle tin.
Laminated paper
Tin foil is widely used in various fields such as medicine, chemical industry, light industry, food, art materials and craft production. Its applications include advanced dry capacitors, decorative and decorative materials, microwave oven insulation, food and alcohol packaging, and use in popular religious activities.
The flexibility, non-extrusion, anti-corrosion and waterproof properties of tin foil make it suitable for packaging flame retardant barrel liners, floor glue, synthetic paint and other organic chemical raw materials.
Tin foil is also used as a preform in special welding processes. However, currently, the production of tin sheets is mainly done by hand, resulting in products with narrow width, uneven thickness and low strength. As a result, they are only suitable for handmade flower binding technology products mainly used in religious ceremonies.
Currently, most tin foil (approximately 2,000 tons/year) is exported to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and other areas with large overseas Chinese populations. However, in recent years, especially since the 1990s, the national economy has experienced rapid growth, leading to an increase in the use and consumption of tin foil.
Unfortunately, domestically produced varieties have a limited scope and cannot meet users' needs. Therefore, there is a great demand for imported tin sheets, which are mainly machine-made, large in size and of high quality.
It is estimated that the global production of machine-made sheets with mechanical strength, gloss, finish and thickness (approximately 40μ) is approximately 5,000 tons. The world's leading producers of tin foil include Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia and others.
From current production and consumption of tin foil:
On the one hand, the application and demand for tin foil has expanded further. On the other hand, the emergence of substitutes and increased consumption of alternatives such as aluminum foil and low-cost polyethylene film packaging materials have led to a decline in tin foil consumption. As a result, total tin foil consumption has not improved significantly.
However, in the long term, tin foil has advantages and market needs that aluminum foil does not have, such as brightness, non-oxidizing, non-toxic, corrosion resistance and good resonance performance. With the continuous improvement of industrial level and quality of life, the production of high-quality and large-specification tin foil products has broad market prospects in China.
tin powder
Tin powder is widely used in various applications, such as electroplating, powder metallurgy structural parts, porous materials, friction materials, metal ceramics, diamond grinding wheels, graphite metal brushes, clutch brake patches, special coatings, flares, rubber, plastics and other organic products. chemical additives and organic synthetic reducing agents.
Currently, the demand for tin powder is more than 500 tons annually. Furthermore, with the continuous development of the powder metallurgy industry, the consumption of tin powder is expected to increase rapidly.
Tin particles (beads, balls)
2) Tin particles and balls are widely used in flow, organic synthesis, chemical production, alloy manufacturing and assembly of various groups of integrated circuits in the electronics industry.
They serve as reagents and reducing agents for the determination of arsenic and phosphate, and also in the production of tinned products.
Tin granules are essential raw materials in the tinning process and must be smooth, uniform and shiny to obtain the best results.
Tin profile (bar, plate, sheet, strip)
Tin profiles find wide application in the welding and electroplating industries, especially in the electronics industry.
In China, they represent the largest category of tin imports, with an annual import volume of around 10,000 tons.
These profiles come in numerous varieties, specifications and designs such as diamond bars, octagonal bars, star bars, anode plates and round tubes of varying specifications.
The cost of these products is high and their added value exceeds 20% of the cost of the raw material.
1) Tin bars (sticks) are mainly used in two ways:
Typically, tin-lead alloy bars serve as raw materials for the production of solder wires in the electronics industry. To obtain welding wires of various specifications, these alloy bars require additional processing and stretching.
On the other hand, pure tin bars are used as anode bars in tinplate electroplating.
2) Tinplates can be divided into two categories:
There are two types of tinplates used in different applications. One is the tin anode plate used for tinning, while the other is used for civil purposes, mainly in the food industry or large hotels, where pure tin plates serve as the panel or console for food processing.
In Japan, during the production of tinplate, the tin anode serves as an insoluble anode, which means that it does not change during the electroplating process. This differs from the common electroplating process, which uses a soluble anode. In the latter, the anode plate dissolves during the production process.
