-> Metal Foam -> AFT
Metal Foam
Shaped Metal Foam Technology (AFT)
Many leading research institutes throughout the world keep on dealing recently with development of metal base cellular materials. Several production technologies have been prepared already but a real breakthrough for some big scale industrial application is to wait for yet. Basically two types of technologies are contesting:
/1/ the indirect one is featured by starting out of solid metal powder, adding foaming substrate powder and processing („leavening”) in form. These procedures are rather expensive and produced foam structure is inhomogeneous.
/2/ by the direct gas input technology products show the following disadvantages:
- outer shape of product is to be simple (mainly plain interfaces)
- rough surfaces
- machining needed is very expensive.
Consequently a process is wanted to be able to make product featuring
- uniform cells evenly distributed
- product shape design is unrestricted
- product surface quality is fine.
That’s why a Hungarian consortium lead by ADMATIS started a project in 2008 to establish and develop his own technology for metal foam production .
Goals
Not long ago Hungary was the leading aluminum producing country in Eastern Europe. Well, in the future products with following properties may survive:
- easy to produce
- low energy and raw material consumption
- more added value.
Admatis had decided to establish the basic conditions of aluminum foam production considered high technology as yet. The first steps in aluminum foam production as new application possibility of aluminum are:
- development of raw material of metal foam
- development of production technology of shape foam products
- design and preparation of manufacturing equipments.
In order to reach worldwide application new foaming process is to be invented featured by homogenous foam structure and free product shape design (not confined for simple geometry). Applying the new technology the parts being made of light, cellular foam in variable shape design will practice economy both in material and energy consumption.
Members of consortium:
