Two-Criteria Analysis of Casting Technologies of Metal and Composite Foams

Abstract

The determination of potential areas of application for metal foams allows to precisely define properties these materials are expected to have. The characteristics of metal foams are strictly related to their cellular structure, which in turn depends on the manufacturing method and materials used. Obviously, metal foam producers should strive to make these materials using inexpensive, or cost-effective technologies, yielding possibly good quality and being environment-friendly. This paper briefly characterizes the manufacturing of metal and composite foams by casting methods. We determine an optimal manufacturing method based on a matrix diagram for metal and composite foams satisfying the two -criteria: "manufacturing costs" (depending on the price of production equipment and labour, cost of materials for foam manufacturing, environmental impact) and "foam quality" (depending on the manufacturing precision, homogeneity of the structure, pore size, shape, and volumetric fraction).Keywords: metal and composite foams, manufacturing methods, matrix chart analysis Określenie potencjalnych obszarów zastosowań pian metalowych pozwala sprecyzować wymagania dotyczące właściwości tych materiałów. Są one ściśle związane ze strukturą komórkową determinowaną metodą wytwarzania oraz zastosowanym materiałem wyjściowym. Należy dążyć do wytworzenia tych struktur metodami tanimi, dającymi najlepszą jakość wyrobu a przy tym możliwie przyjaznymi dla środowiska naturalnego. W niniejszej pracy, krótko scharakteryzowano wytwarzanie pian metalowych i kompozytowych metodami odlewniczymi. W pracy opisano jak określić optymalny sposób wytwarzania w oparciu o schemat macierzy dla pianek metalicznych i kompozytowych spełniających dwa kryteria: "koszty produkcji" (w zależności od ceny urządzeń do produkcji i pracy, kosztów materiałów do produkcji pianki, oddziaływania na środowisko) oraz "jakości piany" (w zależności od precyzji wykonania, jednorodność struktury, wielkości porów, kształt i frakcję objętościową).

Study of Thermal Properties of Cast Metal- Ceramic Composite Foams

“…1) produced by the gas injection method at the Maritime University of Szczecin [4][5][6][7]. The method involves blowing the gas directly into the liquid composite: aluminum alloy (AlSi11) with SiC particles (Fig.…”

“…For instance, polymeric foams have poor resistance to elevated temperature, ultraviolet light, emit large amounts of smoke and toxic substances when burning and have poor mechanical properties. Ceramic foams demonstrate high brittleness and consequently poor impact resistance [3][4][5][6][7]. Metallic foams can be produced from virtually all metals (except mercury).…”

“…Metallic foams can be produced from virtually all metals (except mercury). The most common foams are made from aluminum, magnesium, titanium, zinc, nickel, copper and iron or their alloys [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”

“…The density of the most common foams produced from aluminum has the range 0.15-0.5 g/cm 3 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The pores of metal foams, similar to ceramic and polymeric foams, may be open or closed [1,4,[6][7][8][9].…”

“…Extending the scope of functional properties of foam, and being able to control them, we can yield multiphase materials. These are composite materials, formed by joining together at least two chemically and physically different materials in such a way thataccording to one definition -with good interconnection, there will be a clear boundary between them, and that the distribution of reinforcing phase will be possibly uniform over the entire matrix volume [6,7,[9][10][11][12]. Metal-ceramic composites, with a wide range of different compositions, can make up a basis for the production of foams with specific properties, useful in shipbuilding.…”