Abstract: | A new technique, powder compact foaming process for the production of aluminumfoams has been studied in this article. According to this method, the aluminum pow-der is mixed with a powder foaming agent (TiH_2). Subsequent to mixing, the powderblend is hot compacted to obtain a dense semi--finished product. Upon heating to tem-peratures within the range of the melting point, the foaming agent decomposes to evolvegas and the semi--finished product expands into a porous cellular aluminum. Foamingprocess is the key in this method. Based on experiments, the foaming characteris-tics were mainly analyzed and discussed. Experiments show that the aluminum--foamwith closed pores and a uniform cell structure of high porosity can be obtained usingthis method by adjusting the foaming parameters: the content of foaming agent andfoaming temperature. |