Abstract: A new technique, powder compact foaming process for the production of aluminum foams has been studied in this article. According to this method, the aluminum powder is mixed with a powder foaming agent (TiH2). Subsequent to mixing, the powder blend is hot compacted to obtain a dense semi-finished product. Upon heating to temperatures within the range of the melting point, the foaming agent decomposes to evolve gas and the semi-finished product expands into a porous cellular aluminum. Foaming process is the key in this method. Based on experiments, the foaming characteris- tics were mainly analyzed and discussed. Experiments show that the aluminum-foam with closed pores and a uniform cell structure of high porosity can be obtained using this method by adjusting the foaming parameters: the content of foaming agent and foaming temperature.

Key words: aluminum foams, powder compact foaming process, foam structure