Processing, Properties and Coating of Micro‐Porous Syntactic Foams

Abstract

The production of microporous syntactic foam by pressure infiltration of sintered preforms of micro glass bubbles with Al-, Zn- and Mg-alloys was examined. Compression tests with aluminium matrix specimens showed that this material has a very high compression strength and behaves almost like an ideal crash energy absorber. Due to their closed microscopic-scale porosity such foams can be surface treated e.g. by anodizing processes. The figure shows a cross section of an anodized aluminium syntactic foam.