Has anyone encountered these materials in person, or designed with them professionally?
Any rigorous sources of information about their properties?
Any suppliers that you could expect to deliver consistent properties from one batch to the next?
If you’ve never heard of it, LMGTFY:
[Stabilized Aluminum Foam Large Cell Panel - Alusion™ from Cymat Technologies Ltd.]
[https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Aluminum-foam-sandwiches-AFS-panels_fig5_268434835]
I haven’t worked with Aluminum Foam panels before - we utilize sandwich panels in many of our projects and I’ve worked with more traditional foam sandwich panels both in noise-dampening applications and purely building envelope insulation.
I’ll look into these Aluminum Foam panels more closely - do they offer a particular advantage you’re looking to take capitalize on?
SparWeb,
I am aware off these people: http://ergaerospace.com/materials/duocel-aluminum-foam
I had a sample of their foam on my desk for a very, very long time. I was working on an electronics platform that required heat sinks and I mentioned the stuff to the engineer doing the analysis. He worked out that it caused too much air resistance.
I was originally asked about these materials as a crushable energy absorption material. This was brought up in the context of absorbing impact energy during an aircraft crash. They were suggesting to use it under the seat, placing a very thick pad of this foam between the seat pan and the floor. And I had to admit that it seems plausible, and one of the properties that this stuff as advertised for. The crushing of this foam during an impact would be permanent, so it’s not going to rebound causing whiplash effects as much as, for example, a machined aluminum frame would.
SparWeb,
You would have to talk to the manufacturers about controlled crush. I was interested in heat sinks and mirror substrates. The sample I had could be bent easily but not crushed. Maybe its crushability is about right for an airplane crash!