METALS

The milling machine

(without housing)
including universal slide
in metal foam design.
Source: Niles-Simmons
Industrial plants GmbH
and Metal Foam Centre
Chemnitz

FILLED CAVITIES
AND METAL FOAMS
F

or the implementation of lightweight

strategies, new materials are continually desired and requested, adapting
their characteristics to the production process. This applies for all industrial areas,
especially in mechanical engineering and in
the automotive industry. Cellular metallic
materials, so called metal foams, also belong
to a material group which exhibits a high
light-weight potential [1, 3].

Metal Foam Center

Chemnitz
The Metal Foam Center Chemnitz has
combined ongoing research activities in
the area of metal foams running at the
Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools
and Forming Technology since 1995. An
extended testing facility of approximately
1,000 square meters for manufacturing
prototypes and small series was built in
September 2004.
Metal foam prototypes and serial components are offered. This starts with an initial idea, followed by design and simulation
www.applianceDESIGN.com

Metals.indd 27

until production and analysis of prototypes

is completed in the Metal Foam Center
Chemnitz.

Metal foam in the

machine tool industry
Metal foams and metal foam composites, especially closed cellular aluminum
foams and steel-aluminum foam composites, are characterized by high light-weight
and damping behavior. This combination of
properties combined in an all metallic material structure allows this material to meet the
highest standards of the current and future
machine tool building. In detail there are
numerous and various fields of application,
for example, thin walls and thin-walled profiles within the machine structure. Usually
they need to be over-sized to meet the necessary static stiffness requirements (critical
compressive stress level) to avoid any buckling. It is possible to deal with that situation
by filling existing cavities of the construction
with metal foam, consequently backfilling
thin walled zones.

Metal foams and metal

foam composites
provide the benefits of
metal, but at a lighter
weight.
by r. thmmler;
t. hipke; f. schneider;
s. fahrni; and m. fraa
R. Thmmler.; T. Hipke,; F. Schneider;
S. Fahrni; and M. Fraa are from the
Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools
and Forming Technology IWU (Chemnitz,
Germany). Dr. Hipke is the head of the
Department Lightweight Structures - Metal
Foam Center. For more information, visit www.
iwu.fraunhofer.de/en/metal-foam-center.html.
applianceDESIGN November 2013 27

10/16/13 8:53 AM

Metals

Source: Fa. Mikron Agie Charmilles AG

If there are no cavities to be filled, the

wall with risk of buckling can be replaced by
a metal foam sandwich, by a separate aluminum foam plate or rib-support. Moreover,
steel-aluminum foam-sandwich panels are
much lighter than massive constructions,
particularly under a bending load. Such
sandwiches show an approximately 30- to
40-fold bending stiffness towards mass
equivalent steel sheets due to the high planar moment of inertia. The ability for vibration damping of a structure is in most cases
desired or rather necessary in engineering.
Reaction resin concrete is a well-known
and well-damping material. In comparison,
aluminum foam shows an approximately
25 % lower damping behavior, but at only
a quarter of the weight. Thats what makes
aluminum foam a perfectly suitable material for moving assemblies with light weight
and damping requirements.
The general principle is that the more
metal foam is placed into the assembly,
the higher the damping potential. In particular, metal foam can be placed as insulation and a buffer element in between
vibration sources or their load integration
points and the subsequent structure. This
should, for example, be directly underneath guidings, for linear motors between
primary component and the structure
to be moved or as foam filled profiles to
work as power transmission elements for
coupling drives. In order to prevent vibrations in walls, the concerned steel wall can
be substituted by a considerably lighter
28 applianceDESIGN November 2013

Metals.indd 28

and stiffer steel-aluminum foam-sandwich. The optimized assembly regarding

lightweight and damping should ideally
be a filigree structure of a material with a
high Youngs modulus that is specifically
filled with metal foam, whereby metal
foam should have a high mass and volume
amount towards the material with high
Youngs modulus (typically steel) [3, 4].

2004 and is currently manufactured in

serial production of engineering specific
typical number. In this application aluminum foam was successfully and therefore
reasonably used in serial application for
the first time in the machine tool building
being advantageous for the manufacturer
and clients [5]. <

First serial application of

metal foam in the machine
tool industry

Literature
[1]Gibson, L. J.; Ashby, M. F.: Cellular solids:
structure & properties. Pergamon press;
Oxford; (1999)
[2] Neugebauer, R.; Hipke, T.: Dynamisches
Verhalten geschumter Bauteile.
Symposium Metallschume; Wien;
28./29.2.2000
[3] T. Hipke, J. Hohlfeld, R. Thmmler:
Metallschaum Konstruktionswerkstoff
fr den Werkzeugmaschinenbau; Metall
57 (2003) 9; S. 557-562
[4] Neugebauer, R.; Hipke, T.; Hohlfeld,
J.; Thmmler, R.: Ein Weg zu leichteren Bauteilen Eigenschaften,
Dimensionierung, Anwendung von
Aluminiumschaum; Der Konstrukteur
(2004) 12; S. 16-18
[5] Hipke, T.; Hohlfeld, J.; Thmmler, R. in:
Cellular Metals and Polymers 2004, edited
by R. F. Singer, C. Krner, V. Altstdt,
Fragezeichenverlag, Frth 2004

Within an industrial project the universal

slide of a high performance milling machine
for the tool- and mold-making industry has
been realized using metal foam sandwiches.
The Opening picture shows a general
view of the machine.
This design is using aluminum foam
sandwiches with strongly varying cover
sheet thickness for the first time. As a result,
the load requests can be fulfilled even better. The weight of the slide was reduced by
more than 30%, which caused an increase
of the dynamic stiffness and damping, leading to a very good dynamic behavior with
high accuracy and surface quality of the
work piece.
The machine arises from cooperation
between two machine tool companies. The
Metal Foam Center Chemnitz has been
responsible for the complete know-how
and production of the metal foam composite components. The milling machine
was introduced at the trade fair METAV

For more information on metal foam, visit

www.appliancedesign.com/articles/90123metal-metal-parts-foamy-future.
www.applianceDESIGN.com

10/16/13 8:53 AM

Copyright of Appliance Design is the property of BNP Media and its content may not be
copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual use.