Advanced Powder Technology 28 (2017) 14261429

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Advanced Powder Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apt

Rapid Communication

Cutting process for aluminum foam fabricated by sintering and

dissolution process
Yoshihiko Hangai , Nguyen Ngoc Minh, Tomoaki Morita, Ryosuke Suzuki, Masaaki Matsubara,
Shinji Koyama
Faculty of Science and Technology, Gunma University, Kiryu 376-8515, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, a cutting process using a milling machine for Al foam with and without remaining NaCl fab-
Received 8 November 2016 ricated by a sintering and dissolution process was proposed. By comparing the surface pore structures of
Received in revised form 27 February 2017 the Al foam after the cutting process, the possibility of cutting Al foam using a milling machine while
Accepted 28 February 2017
retaining its pore structures was investigated. Although some flashes were observed around the pores,
Available online 10 March 2017
most of the pores remained at the cutting surface and retained their shape. Therefore, it was found that
Al foam can be cut using a milling machine without fracturing its pore structures at the surface by retain-
Keywords:
ing the NaCl spacers. Namely, NaCl, which was used as spacers to generate pores in Al, can also have the
Cellular materials
Powder metallurgy
role of strengthening Al foam during the cutting process.
Sintering 2017 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder
Cutting process Technology Japan. All rights reserved.
NaCl spacers

1. Introduction
Lightweight materials have high potential for use in various
fields such as automotive industries. Aluminum (Al) foam has a
light weight and superior energy absorption properties to dense
Al, suggesting its potential use in vehicle components such as
shock absorbers [1,2]. However, cutting Al foam using a milling
machine is difficult because the thin cell walls of the foam fold
and fracture during processes using a rotating tool. Kwon et al.
have demonstrated a friction surface modification process and
Matsumoto et al. have demonstrated friction stir incremental
forming to form a nonporous skin layer on the surface of Al foam
by inducing the folding of cell walls by traversing a rotating tool
[3,4]. Namely, it is difficult to fabricate complicated vehicle compo-
nents by a cutting process using a milling machine, which is easy
to operate and widely available, while retaining the pore structures
on the surface. The cutting of Al foam is normally performed by
wire electric-discharge machining [5,6] or laser cutting [7].
Zhao and Sun developed a novel sintering and dissolution pro-
cess for fabricating Al foam [8]. In this process, Al powder and
sodium chloride (NaCl) powder as spacers are thoroughly mixed
and sintered. The pores in the sintered Al are generated by leaching
the sintered mixture in water to dissolve the NaCl. Hangai et al.
conducted compression tests on specimens with and without NaCl
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hanhan@gunma-u.ac.jp (Y. Hangai).
remaining in the sintered mixture. It was found that the remaining
NaCl increases the strength of Al foam compared with the Al foam
without the remaining NaCl [9,10]. Therefore, it is expected to be
possible to cut Al foam using a milling machine without folding
the cell walls if the cutting process is conducted before the disso-
lution of NaCl.
In this study, a cutting process using a milling machine for Al
foam with and without remaining NaCl fabricated by a sintering
and dissolution process was proposed. By comparing the surface
pore structures of the Al foam after the cutting process, the possi-
bility of cutting Al foam using a milling machine while retaining its
pore structures was investigated.
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Fabrication process of Al and NaCl sintered mixture
Fig. 1 shows a schematic of the fabrication process of the Al and
NaCl sintered mixture. As shown in Fig. 1(a), as-received pure Al
powder (average particle diameter of 20 lm) and NaCl powder
(sieved to a particle diameter ranging from 300 lm to 425 lm),
manufactured by Kojundo Kagaku (Japan), were first mixed with
a volume ratio of Al to NaCl of 3:7 (corresponding to a porosity
of approximately 70%). Fig. 2(a) and (b) respectively show scanning
electron microscope (SEM) images of the Al powder particles and
NaCl powder particles used in this study. The Al particles have
an elongated shape and the NaCl particles have a cubic shape. Next,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apt.2017.02.021
0921-8831/ 2017 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.
 Y. Hangai et al. / Advanced Powder Technology 28 (2017) 14261429
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of fabrication process of Al and NaCl sintered mixture, (a) mixing of Al and NaCl powders, (b) hot pressing of mixture, (c) sintered mixture.
(a) (b)
50 m 1 mm
Fig. 2. SEM images of (a) Al powder particles and (b) NaCl powder particles.
as shown in Fig. 1(b), the mixture was sintered by hot pressing
with a die temperature of 510 C and a pressing load of 58.8 kN
for 4 h. Then, as shown in Fig. 1(c), a sintered mixture with a diam-
eter u of 25 mm and a height h of 50 mm was obtained.
2.2. Cutting process
Fig. 3 shows a schematic of the cutting process for Al foam. The
obtained sintered mixture (Fig. 3(a)) was cut in half using a band
saw. Half of the sintered mixture (Fig. 3(b)) was first leached in
water to dissolve the NaCl before cutting (Fig. 3(c)), then the
obtained Al foam without NaCl (Fig. 3(d)) was subjected to the cut-
ting process (Fig. 3(e)). The other half of the sintered mixture
(Fig. 3(f)) was first subjected to the cutting process (Fig. 3(g)), then
(b) (c)
(a)
(f) (g)
Fig. 3. Schematic illustration of cutting process for Al foam using milling machine. (a) As-sintered mixture. In (b)(e), the cutting process was conducted after the dissolution
of NaCl. In (f)(i), the cutting process was conducted before the dissolution of NaCl.
1427
leached in water to dissolve the NaCl (Fig. 3(h)) and obtain Al foam
(Fig. 3(i)). A tool rotation rate of 530 rpm and tool traversing rates
of 700 mm/min and 1000 mm/min were used during the cutting
process.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Characteristics of fabricated Al foam
Fig. 4(a) shows the as-sintered mixture before NaCl dissolution,
corresponding to Fig. 1(c). The mixture was well sintered, and no
collapse of the mixture during its removal from the mold of the
hot-pressing equipment was observed. Fig. 4(b) shows the pore
structures of the initial Al foam after NaCl dissolution, which is
the surface obtained after wire electric-discharge machining of
the compression test specimen described below. The shape of the
pores was almost cubic, which was almost the same as that of
the NaCl particles as shown in Fig. 2(b).
Fig. 5 shows the stress-strain curves of the Al foams fabricated
in this study obtained during static compression tests conducted in
accordance with JIS H7902 [11]. For the preliminary tests, an Al
foam specimen with u25 mm  h50 mm, corresponding to the
specimen in Fig. 4(a) after the dissolution of NaCl, was subjected
to the compression test. However, the specimen buckled during
the compression test. Therefore, an Al foam specimen after the dis-
solution of NaCl was cut in half in the height direction by wire
electric-discharge machining to obtain two u25 mm  h25 mm Al
foam specimens (Samples I and II), which were subjected to
(d) (e)
(h) (i)
1428 Y. Hangai et al. / Advanced Powder Technology 28 (2017) 14261429

Dissolution Cutting

Cutting Dissolution
(a) (b)

700 mm/min
(c) (d)

1000 mm/min
Fig. 4. (a) As-sintered mixture before NaCl dissolution. (b) Pore structures of
surface cut by wire electric-discharge machining of the Al foam after NaCl
dissolution.

140
Compressive stress, /MPa

2 mm
120 Specimen I
100 Fig. 6. Pore structures of Al foam specimens in the cases of (a) dissolution of NaCl
Specimen II
before cutting for tool traversing rate of 700 mm/min, (b) cutting before dissolution
80 of NaCl for tool traversing rate of 700 mm/min, (c) dissolution of NaCl before cutting
60 for tool traversing rate of 1000 mm/min, (d) cutting before dissolution of NaCl for
tool traversing rate of 1000 mm/min.
40
20
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 in the case that the cutting process was conducted before NaCl dis-
Compressive strain, solution (corresponding to Fig. 3(i)) for a cutting-tool traversing
rate of 700 mm/min. Although nonporous parts were partly
Fig. 5. Stress-strain curves of fabricated Al foams subjected to the cutting process in observed, the pore structures of the cutting surface of the Al foam
this study. retained their shape, which is similar to that in Fig. 4(b). This ten-
dency was also observed upon increasing the cutting-tool travers-
ing rate from 700 mm/min to 1000 mm/min, as shown in Fig. 6
compression tests. In the stress-strain curves, three specific
(c) and (d).
regions; an elastic region, a plateau region and a densification
Fig. 7(a) shows a SEM image of a surface cut by wire electric-
region, can be observed, which are similarly observed for Al foams
discharge machining, corresponding to the specimen in Fig. 4(b).
fabricated by the sintering and dissolution process [8,12,13], cast-
Fig. 7(b) shows a SEM image of a surface cut using a milling
ing process [14,15] and precursor foaming process [16,17]. There-
machine, corresponding to the specimen in Fig. 6(a). Although a
fore, the samples subjected to the cutting process using the milling
few pores can be observed in Fig. 7(b), almost the entire surface
machine in this study had similar compression properties to those
was covered with a nonporous skin layer. Fig. 7(c) shows a SEM
of other ordinary Al foams.
image of a surface cut using a milling machine, corresponding to
the specimen in Fig. 6(b). Although some flashes were observed
3.2. Pore structures after cutting process around the pores, as shown by arrows, which are considered to
have formed during the cutting using the milling machine, almost
Fig. 6(a) shows the cutting surface of the Al foam in the case all the pores were retained at the cutting surface and their shape
that the cutting process was conducted after NaCl dissolution (cor- was retained, which was similar to that in Fig. 7(a). This indicates
responding to Fig. 3(e)) for a cutting-tool traversing rate of that Al foam can be cut using a milling machine without fracture of
700 mm/min. The pores of the cutting surface of the Al foam were the pore structures of the surface by retaining the NaCl spacers.
almost covered with folded cell walls and a nonporous skin surface Namely, NaCl, which was used as spacers to generate pores in Al,
layer was formed. Fig. 6(b) shows the cutting surface of the Al foam can also have the role of strengthening Al foam during the cutting

(a) (b) (c)

500 m

Fig. 7. SEM images of surfaces (a) cut by wire electric-discharge machining, corresponding to specimen in Fig. 4(b), (b) cut using milling machine, corresponding to specimen
in Fig. 6(a), and (c) cut using milling machine, corresponding to specimen in Fig. 6(b).
 Y. Hangai et al. / Advanced Powder Technology 28 (2017) 14261429
process. More precise investigations are necessary to clarify the
relationship between the cutting conditions of the milling machine
and the pore structures of the cutting surface.
4. Conclusion
In this study, a cutting process using a milling machine for Al
foam with and without remaining NaCl fabricated by a sintering
and dissolution process was proposed. By comparing the surface
pore structures of the Al foam after the cutting process, the possi-
bility of cutting Al foam using a milling machine was investigated.
Although some flashes were observed around the pores, it was
found that Al foam can be cut without fracturing its pore structures
at the surface by retaining the NaCl. In contrast, a nonporous skin
layer was formed during the cutting process for the Al foam with-
out remaining NaCl. Therefore, it is expected that Al foam can be
cut without folding of the cell walls if the NaCl is dissolved after
the cutting process.
Acknowledgments
This work was partly financially supported by Osawa Scientific
Studies Grants Foundation and JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research (B).
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