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Metal Foams: A Design Guide

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Cell size (cm)<br />

Making metal foams 7<br />

6. The trapping of high-pressure inert gas in pores by powder hot isostatic<br />

pressing (HIPing), followed by the expansion of the gas at elevated temperature.<br />

[Ti]<br />

7. Sintering of hollow spheres, made by a modified atomization process,<br />

or from metal-oxide or hydride spheres followed by reduction or<br />

dehydridation, or by vapor-deposition of metal onto polymer spheres. [Ni,<br />

Co, Ni–Cr alloys]<br />

8. Co-pressing of a metal powder with a leachable powder, or pressureinfiltration<br />

of a bed of leachable particles by a liquid metal, followed by<br />

leaching to leave a metal-foam skeleton. [Al, with salt as the leachable<br />

powder]<br />

9. Dissolution of gas (typically, hydrogen) in a liquid metal under pressure,<br />

allowing it to be released in a controled way during subsequent solidification.<br />

[Cu, Ni, Al]<br />

Only the first five of these are in commercial production. Each method<br />

can be used with a small subset of metals to create a porous material with a<br />

limited range of relative densities and cell sizes. Figure 2.1 summarizes the<br />

ranges of cell size, cell type (open or closed), and relative densities that can<br />

be manufactured with current methods.<br />

10<br />

1.0<br />

0.1<br />

Vapor of electrodeposition,<br />

on<br />

open cell polymer<br />

foam template<br />

(open cell)<br />

Hollow sphere<br />

consolidation<br />

(open / closed cells)<br />

Melt gas<br />

injection<br />

(closed cell)<br />

Solidification in open<br />

cell mold<br />

Particle (open cell)<br />

decomposition<br />

in melt<br />

(closed<br />

cell)<br />

Particle<br />

decomposition<br />

in semi-solid<br />

(closed cell)<br />

Entrapped<br />

gas<br />

expansion<br />

Gas metal<br />

(closed cell)<br />

eutectic<br />

(closed cell)<br />

0.01<br />

0.01 0.1<br />

Relative density<br />

1.0<br />

Figure 2.1 The range of cell size and relative density for the different metal<br />

foam manufacturing methods

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