Preparation of precursor for stainless steel foam

Abstract

The effects of polyurethane sponge pretreatment and slurry compositions on the slurry loading in precursor were discussed, and the performances of stainless steel foams prepared from precursors with different slurry loadings and different particle sizes of the stainless steel powder were also investigated. The experimental results show that the pretreatment of sponge with alkaline solution is effective to reduce the jam of cells in precursor and ensure the slurry to uniformly distribute in sponge, and it is also an effective method for increasing the slurry loading in precursor; the mass fraction of additive A and solid content in slurry greatly affect the slurry loading in precursor, when they are kept in 9%–13% and 52%–75%, respectively, the stainless steel foam may hold excellent 3D open-cell network structure and uniform muscles; the particle size of the stainless steel powder and the slurry loading in precursor have great effects on the bending strength, apparent density and open porosity of stainless steel foam; when the stainless steel powder with particle size of 44 μm and slurry loading of 0.5 g/cm3 in precursor are used, a stainless steel foam can be obtained, which has open porosity of 81.2%, bending strength of about 51.76 MPa and apparent density of about 1.0 g/cm3.