Why is the development of aluminum foam so fast? It is because the advantages of aluminum foam are numerous, for example, the density is 0.1-0.4 times of metal aluminum; its flexural specific stiffness is 1.5 times of steel; the damping performance is 5-10 times of metal aluminum. Aluminum foam with 84% porosity can absorb more than 2.5MJ/m3 energy when 50% variation occurs. The sound insulation coefficient of closed cell aluminum foam reaches more than 0.9 when the frequency of sound waves is between 800-4000HZ. When the electromagnetic wave frequency is between 2.6-18GHZ, the electromagnetic shielding amount of aluminum foam can reach 60-90dB.
Aluminum foam is made by adding additives to pure aluminum or aluminum alloy after foaming process, and it has both metal and bubble characteristics. It has small density, high impact absorption capacity, high temperature resistance, strong fireproof performance, corrosion resistance, sound insulation and noise reduction, low thermal conductivity, high electromagnetic shielding, weather resistance, filtering ability, easy processing, easy installation, high forming accuracy, and surface coating.
Aluminum foam is easy to cut, drill and glue; it can be bent into the required shape by molding; it can be surface treated with organic or inorganic paint; it can be masked on both sides to form a large size light weight and high rigidity panel. Aluminum foam material can be installed in high places without mechanical lifting equipment, such as: ceiling tops, walls and roofs, etc. It can be attached and fixed by mechanical methods or directly with screws, or it can be attached to walls or ceilings with adhesive. The “sandwich” structure formed by metal sheeting – aluminum foam – inherits the excellent performance of aluminum foam and has high bending strength, which can be used as new building materials, high stiffness structures for locomotives and vehicles, It can be used as new building materials, high stiffness structural parts of locomotive vehicles, etc.
Aluminum foam has excellent physical, chemical and mechanical properties as well as recyclability. These excellent properties of aluminum foam make it a promising engineering material in today’s material field, especially in transportation industry, aerospace industry and building structure industry, etc.
