Porous metals and metallic foams are presently the focus of very active research and development activities. There are currently around 150 institutions working on metallic foams worldwide, most of them focussing on their manufacture and characterisation. Various companies are developing and producing these materials which are now being used in numerous industrial applications such as lightweight structures, biomedical implants, filters, electrodes, catalysts, and heat exchangers. This review summarizes recent developments on these materials, with particular emphasis on research presented at the latest International Conference on Porous Metals and Metallic Foams (MetFoam 2007).
EditorialPorous metals and metallic foams are presently the focus of very active research and development activities around the world, both at the academic and industrial levels. These materials are used when the combination of metal properties with the characteristics of porous structures provides significant advantages over other types of materials. Porous, cellular and foamed metals are now produced by various companies and used in numerous applications such as light-weight structures, biomedical implants, filters, heat exchangers, sound absorbers, mechanical damping devices, electrodes, sensors and catalyst substrates.
Bioactive glass 45S5 foams were produced using a powder technology process developed by The National Research Council Canada-Industrial Materials Institute. NRC-IMI's proprietary process, combining powder technology and polymer foam technique, allows the production of materials having different structures and properties. It can be used to produce components into various forms, such as fully porous bodies or coatings on solid structures. During foaming, the foaming agent is decomposed and expands the binder-bioactive glass suspension. Then, the binder is burnt out by heating the sample at 500°C and finally the bioactive glass particle network is sintered to consolidate the material. Foams sintered at various temperatures were characterized from a microstructural and mechanical point of view. The foam structure and properties are affected by the sintering temperature when it is varied between 950°C and 1025°C. Foams exhibited open porosity (64%-79%) and pore size (335-530 lm) optimal for bone ingrowth. In all cases, the glass crystallized during sintering and the material was mostly composed of Na 6 Ca 3 Si 6 O 18 and Na 2 Ca 4 (PO 4 ) 2 SiO 4 phases. The mechanical strength increased from 1.7 to 5.5 MPa while the density of the material increased from 0.56 to 0.97 g/cm 3 .
P. Colombo-contributing editorManuscript No. 31380.
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