Patent Grant
6866084
Present invention relates to a method and means for producing moulded bodies of metal foam, in particular an aluminium foam.
Up to present, several techniques have been proposed for the production of three-dimensional bodies of metal foam. For instance in U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,237 there is disclosed a method for making foam casting objects where a volume of foaming compacts of a powder metal and a gas-evolving foaming agent is heated in a chamber. When at least partial foaming occurs, the contents is forced into a mould cavity where residual foaming is permitted.
In Norwegian Patent No. 304359 there is disclosed a method for casting articles by heating a metal matrix composite that contains finely dispersed solid stabilising particles to a temperature above the solidus temperature for the metal matrix. Gas bubbles are introduced into the melted metal composite beneath the surface thereof, whereby a stabilised flowable metal foam is obtained on the surface of the metal composite. Further, the stabilised metal foam that is in a liquid state is thereafter forced into a form cavity where it is allowed to cool and solidify.
These methods implies that the foam is forced or pressed into the mould cavity. In dependency of the shape of the mould cavity, inhomogenity in the foamed body may occur as a result of restricted inflow and frictional forces between the moving metal and the internal mould walls in the cavity under the filling operation. In addition, related to complex tree dimensional shapes of the cavity, there can be problems with insufficient filling of the mould causing that the cast product will not be complementary with the mould cavity.
According to the present invention, there is provided a novel and simplified method of forming three-dimensional castings of foamed metal, where problems of the above mentioned type can be minimised.
In the following, the invention shall be further described by examples and figures where:
In
It should be understood that the above mentioned principle of gas injection, which is commonly known by those skilled in the art and further described in the applicants own patent application WO 91/01387, may be substituted by other ways of gas injection that will generate foaming. The use of a porous plug in this sense will be described later.
Coalescence of the bubbles accumulated in the mould can be avoided by addition of refractory particles in the melt matrix that reinforce the bubble walls. As shown in the example, the mould is completely filled with melt before the foaming starts up. This results in the fact that no air will be present in the mould before foaming which contributes to reduce possible friction between the foam and the mould walls during the moulding process that may cause unwanted structural deformations of the foam.
In a second embodiment which is shown in
As indicated in
An alternative way of filling the mould with melt without the use of specific air evacuating means is to turn the mould upside down and back again while it is submerged in the melt.
Alternatively, the mould may be dividable into two or more parts (not shown). The latter will ease filling of the mould with melt before foaming, and make the casting of complex three dimensional components available. With a dividable mould, the mould should preferably be divided during submerging in the melt to ease filling. After submerging, the mould is closed by sliding the parts together, leaving a fully filled cavity. After foam filling the mould is lifted from the melt to solidify the foam body, and the mould is again divided to remove the foam body.
After the foaming process where the melt inside the mould is replaced by foamed metal, a lid or the similar may preferably be placed under the bottom part to ensure that the net shape foam component still in liquid or semi solid state does not fall out as the mould is fully extracted from the melt to solidify and cool the foam inside.
The mould may preferably be preheated before being submerged in the melt in order to reduce dead time before foam filling. This could be done by integrated heating elements in the mould, for instance electric heating elements. Alternatively, the mould or mould parts could be heated in a separate chamber. Likewise, the mould could be equipped with an integrated cooling circuit to cool the mould subsequent to foam filling to reduce time for solidification before the foam body is removed from the mould.
During experiments, it was observed that surface quality varies along the length of the cast components. This is due to the fact that the mould was fixed at the same vertical level during the foaming operation. As the best surface quality was found near the bottom of the components, it is assumed that the observed differences in surface quality is closely linked to the metallostatic pressure in the position where the surface is created. The foam bodies produced by this method have a smooth outer surface in the parts of it that solidifies next to the mould walls, while the interior of the foam body is, of course, porous. An improvement of the all over surface quality is therefore assumed to be achieved if the mould is elevated during foam filling in such a way that the lowermost foam inside is always at the same depth. In this way, the pressure will always be the same where the new foam is accumulated. The mould may be lowered and elevated by an electric hoisting apparatus (not shown).
In the above standing examples there is disclosed a mould of cylindrical shape, but it should be understood that other geometrical shapes can be applied as well.
With the present method, one can cast an aluminium core inside another (hollow) metallic part or the similar, e.g. foam filling inside a steel tube in a crash box for energy absorption applications where the steel tube will serve as the mould in the manufacturing process. Provided that the metallic part can survive staying in the melt for some time (as it is or with some surface treatment), one could imagine to fill such components directly by the present method. This would rationalise the manufacturing process of foam filled hollow components significantly.
Yet another possibility is to use another source for generating the bubbles for foaming, for instance porous plugs or plates, where the gas is injected into the melt from these devices. This could ease the process control as the gas could more easily be turned on and off when needed, for instance in the dead time during mould exchanges.
It should be understood that in accordance with the present method other varieties of products can be made, such as tubes and other products with hollow cross-sections. Even products having cross-sections with an U-profile can be made by the method. This can be implemented by the arrangement of an insert in the mould before filling (not shown).
As will be understood on the basis of the above standing paragraphs, the mould itself can preferably be of a re-usable type, or it can simply be a part of the component intended to receive the foam.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 0973 | Feb 2000 | NO | national |
This application is a continuation application of PCT Application No. PCT/NO01/00072, filed on Feb. 23, 2001 (which designates the United States and was published on Aug. 30, 2001), which claims priority from Norwegian application number 20000973, filed on Feb. 25, 2000. These patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
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| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 4326982 | Feb 1995 | DE |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20030051850 A1 | Mar 2003 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCTNO01/00072 | Feb 2001 | US |
| Child | 10227238 | US |
