Investigation of manufacturing process of ADC12-A1050 porous aluminum by friction stir processing route

Recently, porous aluminum has attracted special interest as a new functional material. However, the application of porous aluminum remains limited due to high-cost fabrication and low productivity. To overcome these problems, the authors proposed a new fabrication method by using friction stir processing (i. e. FSP route precursor method). In this study, at first, the precursors of ADC12 and A1050 were fabricated by FSP route individually and those precursors were welded by friction stir welding (FSW). Moreover, by foaming the welded precursor, ADC12-A1050 porous aluminum was manufactured. Based on the cross-sectional images and X-ray CT images, porosity and pore structures were examined. Although ADC12-A1050 bonded precursor tends to foam from the part of ADC12, ADC12-A1050 porous aluminum with high porosity and high circularity can be manufactured under proper forming conditions.