Investigation of manufacturing process of ADC12-A1050 porous aluminum by friction stir processing route

Recently, porous aluminum has attracted special interest as a new functional material. However, the application of porous aluminum remains limited due to high-cost fabrication and low productivity. To overcome these problems, the authors proposed a new fabrication method by using friction stir processing (i. e. FSP route precursor method). In this s t u d y, at first, the precursors of ADC12 and A1050 were fabricated by FSP route individually and those precursors were welded by friction stir welding (FSW). Moreover, by foaming the welded precursor, ADC12-A1050 porous aluminum was manufactured. Based on the cross-sectional images and X-ray CT images, porosity and pore structures were examined. Although ADC12-A1050 bonded precursor tends to foam from the part of ADC12, ADC12-A1050 porous aluminum with high porosity and high circularity can be manufactured under proper forming conditions.