What is the process and principle of making honeycomb aluminum foam?

Aluminum honeycomb foam is a new type of lightweight, strength, energy saving and environmental protection materials, widely used in aerospace, automotive, railway, shipbuilding, construction, energy, chemical and other fields, with light weight, energy absorption, sound insulation, heat insulation, fire, corrosion resistance and other excellent characteristics. Shanghai honeycomb foam aluminum factory to talk about its production process and principle mainly including material selection, preparation method, molding technology and surface treatment.

Material selection

The basic material of honeycomb aluminum foam is aluminum, and its main component is pure aluminum or aluminum alloy. Aluminum has the advantages of light weight, good plasticity, corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity, and has a wide range of applications in aerospace, automotive, rail transit and other fields. At the same time, aluminum material has high melting point and density, in order to obtain high specific strength and light aluminum honeycomb foam material, it is necessary to carry out orthogonal forming process and hole formation technology.

Preparation method

The preparation method of aluminum honeycomb foam can be divided into two categories, one is the gas phase method and the other is the molten salt method.

Gas phase method: The gas phase method uses a chemical reaction to react in the gas phase to produce a honeycomb-like material. The preparation steps include forming aluminum into a certain shape and generating honeycomb aluminum material through a certain chemical reaction at a constant temperature. The advantage of preparing aluminum honeycomb foam by gas phase method is that large size and high specification porous structure can be prepared, but the cost is relatively high.

Molten salt method: Molten salt method is to place aluminum or aluminum alloy materials in molten salt liquid melted at high temperatures, and form honeycomb foam aluminum materials through heat expansion. The preparation steps include heating aluminum or aluminum alloy to a certain temperature, placing it in a heated molten salt solution, after heat expansion and hardening, the resulting material is removed from the molten salt, and subsequent processing. The aluminum honeycomb foam prepared by molten salt method has stable quality and relatively low cost, and can be produced on a large scale.

Molding technique

There are two main types of forming technology of aluminum honeycomb foam, one is the pressing method, the other is the laser melting method.

Pressing method: The pressing method is to pre-prepared honeycomb foam aluminum raw materials, at a certain temperature, through pressure to press it into various shapes of aluminum products. The advantage of the pressing method is that the cost is relatively low and the application range is wide, but it is limited by conditions such as pressure and temperature.

Laser melting method: Laser melting method is a molding technology developed in recent years, which can use the heat energy of the laser beam to melt the honeycomb foam aluminum raw materials. By controlling the irradiation time and irradiation intensity of the laser beam, a full range of accurate molding of the material can be achieved, and more complex shapes and larger sizes of aluminum products can be made.

Surface treatment

Surface treatment is to improve the surface properties of honeycomb foam aluminum, the commonly used surface treatment methods include anodizing, electroplating, painting and so on.

Anodizing: Anodizing is the method of placing honeycomb aluminum foam products in an electrolytic cell containing acidic liquid and producing an oxide film through electrolytic treatment. Anodizing can improve the surface hardness, corrosion resistance and wear resistance of aluminum products.

Electroplating: Electroplating is a method of plating a layer of metal or alloy on the surface of aluminum products using the principle of electrochemistry to improve the surface hardness, corrosion resistance and aesthetics of aluminum products.

Spray painting: Spray painting is a method of spraying paint with good color and gloss on the surface of aluminum products. Spray painting can beautify the appearance of products and improve the surface quality of products.

To sum up, the production process and principle of honeycomb aluminum foam rely on advanced material science and technology and processing technology means, with the continuous improvement and development of manufacturing technology, honeycomb aluminum foam in the future application prospects will be more broad.