Fabrication methods and property analysis of metal foams – a technical overview

Abstract

In recent years, metal foams have emerged as the most advanced materials for structural, thermal, and sound insulation purposes. Metal foams have more exciting properties than other lightweight materials, such as higher deformation resistance, compressive strength, and crashworthiness. This review article highlights various conventional and non-conventional manufacturing methods of metal foams under direct and indirect foaming techniques. Non-conventional methods of metal foam fabrication, such as additive manufacturing, novel methods, and metal syntactic foaming have been described in detail. A detailed review of foaming agents, space holders, and filler particles utilised in the metal foaming process is provided. Recent advancements in the metal foam coating process and coating materials have also been discussed.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Metal foam
• precursor
• investment casting
• foaming agent
• mechanical properties
• metal foam coatings
• additive manufacturing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

The paper reflects the authors’ research and analysis in a truthful and complete manner and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. Animals and humans were not involved in the study.

Data availability statement

It is a review article; all data generated or analysed during this study are included in this article (and its supplementary information files).