Development of pin screen mold for shaping porous aluminium three dimensionally

Abstract

When using porous aluminum (Al) as a machinery member, it is necessary to shape it according to the purpose. We used precursor foaming process in this research. In our previous research, a pin screen mold was prepared by a stainless steel pin having heat resistance and ceramics honeycomb board, and the shape was applied only from below of the porous Al. In this research, fabrication of three-dimensional shape porous Al was attempted by applying the pin screen mold with three-dimensional pin direction. Two pin screen molds were placed in contact with each other for the horizontal direction, and then heating them with a precursor sandwiched between them in the space of the pins for foaming. A precursor was fabricated using a friction stir welding method. Heating was performed with optical heating apparatus using a halogen lamp. The pin screen mold was made by making a hole by pushing the shape of the model to be shaped into the aluminum foil, and then piercing the pin through a ceramic honeycomb board. The pore structures of the obtained porous Al were evaluated using X-ray computed tomography (CT) images. It was found that porous Al with three dimensional can be fabricated by the pin screen mold.