Cellular metal materials: production and characterization of aluminium foam

Metal foams, as all highly porous materials, are well known for the interesting combinations of physical and mechanical properties, like high stiffness combined with a relatively low specific weight or high gas permeability combined with a high thermal conductivity. Metallic foams constitute an attractive alternative to composite materials for the manufacturing components: from the automotive to aerospace industry, from nautical to sportive equipment, all commercial sectors are covered by this material until biomedical field. The idea of making metal foams allows the production of a material filled by air bubbles that weights until 1/5 of the solid metal. This research is focused on two main aspect: manufacturing and transformation of aluminium foam. Concurrently with the focus on the characteristics of cellular metal materials and of the production method of these materials, the possibility of connect the two different materials by laser welding was investigated in this research work.