Production of open cell aluminum foam by vacuum casting method

The main objective of this study is to produce and investigate production parameters open cell aluminum foams by vacuum casting method. Another important aim is to characterize the produced foams. For this purpose low vacuum casting setup was designed. NaCl as a space holder material and dissolution technique was used for foaming of the aluminum metal. By changing the NaCl particle size change in the foam properties was investigated. Density-strength relations were determined depending on the NaCl particle size. Compression test was used to evaluate the foam behaviour under static loading. Optimum vacuum conditions for the successful foam production by infiltrating the liquid melt between the NaCl particles were determined. It was concluded that, vacuum casting can be used to produce open cell aluminum foam by integrating of NaCl dissolution process. Proposed production route have great potential to solve the problem of undetermined cell shape of metallic foam productions.Key Words: Aluminum foams, Vacuum casting, Space holder technique, Density-strength relation.