Producing Technology of Aluminum Foam from Machined Chip Waste

The present study focuses on the investigation of the possibility of producing aluminum foam from low cost machined chip waste. To produce highly porous aluminum, manufacturing process of precursor, the effect of TiH 2 content and the effect of ceramic particle addition were examined. In the study of precursor manufacturing processes, precursors fabricated by extrusion process did not expand sufficiently and the pore morphology was very irregular. In contrast, precursors fabricated by compressive torsion processing satisfactorily expanded and the pore morphology was uniform. There was an adequate range of TiH 2 addition. The increase of TiH 2 content more than 3 mass% was not an effective way to produce highly porous aluminum foam. Addition of fine Al 2 O 3 particle resulted in a significant increase in foam expansion.