Preparation of Cast Metallic Foams with Irregular and Regular Inner Structure.

Ivana Kroupová,Jaroslav Beňo,Ivo Lána,Tomáš Obzina,Kamila Janovská,Václav Merta,Petr Lichý,Isabel Nguyenová,Martina Gawronová,Jiří Rygel,Filip Radkovský,Iveta Vasková

doi:10.3390/ma14226989

Ivana Kroupová, Jaroslav Beňo + Show 10 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14226989

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to summarize the possibilities of foundry methods for the production of metallic foams. At present, there are a number of production technologies for this interesting material, to which increasing attention has been paid in recent years. What is unique about metallic foams is the combination of their physical and mechanical properties. As part of our research, we designed and verified four main methods of metallic foam production by the foundry technology, whose products are metallic foam castings with regular and irregular arrangements of internal cavities. All these methods use materials and processes commonly used in conventional foundry technologies. The main idea of the research is to highlight such technologies for the production of metallic foams that could be provided by manufacturing companies without the need to introduce changes in production. Moreover, foundry methods for the production of metallic foams have the unique advantage of being able to produce even complex shaped parts and can thus be competitive compared to today’s established technologies, the output of which is usually only a semi-finished product for further processing. This fact was the main motivation for the research.

Highlights

It is a well-known fact that in nature we can commonly find materials that show interesting properties due to their internal cellular structure
The above text shows that to verify the possibility of making metallic foams by foundry technology the two main procedures were designed by casting over filler material placed in the mould cavity and using a disposable evaporable pattern to create a complex metallic foam structure
Due to the complexity of the resulting castings and the high shape and dimensional of a variability, these products can be applied, for example, in the field of filtration or14as construction material. Castings with this technology can be made from commonly used foundry alloys based on Al, after adjusting the annealing cycle, and the technology is suitable for Cu alloys

Summary

Introduction

It is a well-known fact that in nature we can commonly find materials that show interesting properties due to their internal cellular (porous) structure. Typical natural cellular materials include wood, coral or bone; even with their low weight, these materials are able to withstand high mechanical stress [1,2,3]. Porous materials with a cellular structure have an interesting combination of physical and mechanical properties, such as high stiffness at low weight or high permeability at high thermal conductivity [1]. The most important man-made porous material is polymeric foam, which has found application in a number of industries [1]. Porous structures can be obtained from metals and alloys, whose properties enable the significant expansion of the field of possible applications [5]

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