Fabrication and Characterization of Open Cell Aluminum Foams by Polymer Replication Method

Open cell metallic foams are versatile materials that have various applications in engineering and technology due to their unique properties. Especially, aluminum foams are getting more attention because of their superior mechanical properties. In this study, open-cell aluminum foams with pore sizes of 25 and 40 ppi are produced via polymer replication method. 6063 series aluminum alloy is used to produce open cell foam and polyurethane foams are used as a model material. Induction sintering is chosen to shorten long sintering time and make aluminum foam production industrially applicable. SEM, EDS, and XRD analyses are applied in order to investigate the morphology, chemical components and phases of the aluminum foams. There is no carbon peak observed in XRD analysis. The mechanical properties are measured by microhardness tests. Vickers Hardness of the samples are measured as 29.9 +/- 3.2 and 32.4 +/- 2.7 for A1 and A2 samples, respectively.