New approach for porous materials obtaining using centrifugal casting

Abstract

It has been presented different methods for obtaining porous materials, (mainly used for metallic foams) and highlighting a new technology developed in the Faculty of Materials science and engineering, of Iasi. Our technology for obtaining porous materials is called centrifugal casting for porous materials. This technology is included in the method number 8: co-pressing of a metal powder with a leachable powder being in the same time a newer approach in the porous materials field. This technology is currently in the developmental phase. Since now we made experiments on the metallic materials, aluminum alloys. The technology is briefly described in this paper. The obtained parts were used for making samples in order to characterize the properties of the materials. The cellular structure of metallic foams requires special precautions that must be taken in characterization and testing. In this paper we have characterized the samples structurally by its cell topology (open cells, closed cells), relative density, cell size and cell shape and anisotropy. Also it was used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which is straightforward; the only necessary precaution is that relating to surface preparation.