Light-metal foams: Some recent developments

Metallic foams have now reached the maturity of development in terms of process stability, materials properties and costs required for industrial applications. The fine-tuning of the manufacturing process carried out in the past few years has been responsible for this success. Nowadays, Al foam panels as large as 2.5 m x 1.5 m in area and having a uniform pore structure are commercially available. In parallel to this development, new processing routes are being explored, including foaming with novel blowing agents, foaming by application of under-pressure, foaming of scrap and of other metals such as magnesium. Some of the steps of these developments are reviewed. (C) 2016 Portuguese Society of Materials (SPM). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.