Metal Foams with Advanced Pore Morphology (APM)

Experimental Testing of Single APM Spheres

“…The APM foam elements (spheres) consist of interconnected closed-cell cellular structure (foam), as shown in Fig. 1 [9][10]. The manufacturing procedure consists of powder compaction (by the CONFORM® process) and rolling to obtain expandable precursor material.…”

“…Their density can vary from 500 to 1000 kg/m3 [10]. Their detailed technology concept, production and properties are described in [9,12]. The APM foam parts exhibit two types of porosity: (i) the inner porosity in single APM foam elements and (ii) the porosity between the many APM foam elements [13].…”

“…Since the technology concept and manufacturing procedure of APM foam elements has just recently been developed there are only a few studies available characterizing this kind of material. The reference [9], along with the detailed description of the APM technology concepts, represents fundamental deformation behaviour of single and bonded APM foam elements under quasi-static compressive loading conditions. Results of uni-axial and hydrostatic compression tests of APM foam are evaluated in [11], where the authors focus on variation and influence of adhesives and adhesive coating thicknesses used for bonding the APM foam elements with partial morphology.…”

The effect of production parameters on the foaming behavior of spherical-shaped aluminum foam

“…Homogeneous heat transfer into the precursor, foaming mould design and precursor geometry are most important for high quality near-net shape aluminum foam part production in moulds. If these parameters cannot be controlled non-uniform expansion can occurs 10,11 . But the spherical-shaped metallic foam parts are produced without a mould.…”

“…Surface tension of the metal melt shapes the elements spherical. Due to gravity force the geometry is not perfectly spherical 10,11 . The result is a high reproducibility of the expansion level in contrast to foam expansion in moulds.…”