THE STRUCTURE CONTROL OF ALUMINUM FOAMS PRODUCED BY POWDER COMPACTED FOAMING PROCESS

A new technique, powder compact foaming process for the production of aluminum foams has been studied in this article. According to this method, the aluminum powder is mixed with a powder foaming agent (Till2). Subsequent to mixing, the powder blend is hot compacted to obtain a dense semi-finished product. Upon heating to temperatures within the range of the melting point, the foaming agent decomposes to evolve gas and the semi-finished product expands into a porous cellular aluminum. Foaming process is the key in this method. Based on experiments, the foaming characteristics were mainly analyzed and discussed. Experiments show that the aluminum-foam with closed pores and a uniform cell structure of high porosity can be obtained using this method by adjusting the foaming parameters: the content of foaming agent and foaming temperature.

The Structure Control of Aluminum Foams Produced by Powder Compacted Foaming Process

A new technique, powder compact foaming process for the production of aluminum foams has been studied in this article. According to this method, the aluminum pow- der is mixed with a powder foaming agent (TiH_2). Subsequent to mixing, the powder blend is hot compacted to obtain a dense semi--finished product. Upon heating to tem- peratures within the range of the melting point, the foaming agent decomposes to evolve gas and the semi--finished product expands into a porous cellular aluminum. Foaming process is the key in this method. Based on experiments, the foaming characteris- tics were mainly analyzed and discussed. Experiments show that the aluminum--foam with closed pores and a uniform cell structure of high porosity can be obtained using this method by adjusting the foaming parameters: the content of foaming agent and foaming temperature.