The investigation of diffusion bonding behaviour of aluminium metal foams

ABSTRACT Master Thesis THE INVESTIGATION OF DIFFUSION BONDING BEHAVIOUR OF ALUMINIUM METAL FOAMS SedaBİLHAN Fırat University Graduate School of Sciences Department of Metallurgy Education 2005, Page : 57 In this study, to produce of an aluminium foam, a mixture from pure aluminium powders and a soluble salt which were joined by powder metallurgy techniques. In order to obtain an aluminium metal foam, aluminium and the salt powders were mechanically mixed in rates of 90:10, 80:20 and 70:30. The mixture was pressed under 200 MPa pressure by using a hydraulic press machine. The pressed materials were sintered in a metallurgical furnace at 630 °C. The sintered samples were washed in a warm-water bath and then the salt in sintered material was been dissolved, therfore the samples which had cell-structure were produced. Samples which were obtained from the produced aluminium metal foam which had a dimension of 10x10 mm in cross-section were bonded by diffusion bonding techniques with use a 1047 interlayer aluminium material in argon gas atmosphere, under 3 Mpa pressure, 600 °C temperature and for 20, 40, 60 minutes working times. Microstructures of the bonded samples were determined by Optic Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Electron Dispersion Structure (EDS) before and after the bonding process. In addition, mechanical resistance of diffusion bonded aluminium foam samples were determined by using of lap-shear mechanical test. Key Words: Diffusion bonding, powder metallurgy, Al foams, porous materials. VII