Mosalagae Mosalagae; Russell Goodall; Mohammed Elbadawi
Abstract
Porous copper was fabricated by means of a powder metallurgy process applied to tape casting. Lost Carbonate Sintering (LCS) was employed to control porosity within the component during processing. The weight ratio of the potassium carbonate introduced into the matrix ranged from 30-40 wt%. Additives ...
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Porous copper was fabricated by means of a powder metallurgy process applied to tape casting. Lost Carbonate Sintering (LCS) was employed to control porosity within the component during processing. The weight ratio of the potassium carbonate introduced into the matrix ranged from 30-40 wt%. Additives such as; plasticizers, binders, dispersant and solvents were utilized to control the properties throughout the processes and ease fabrication. The component was debinded and sintered at 400 °C and 900 °C respectively, under vacuum. The potassium carbonate was removed from the sintered component via dissolution in water. By using X-ray Florescence (XRF) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) techniques, the effectiveness of the dissolution route at removing the space holder was investigated. The results show that porous copper produced in this way has porosity ranging from 75-85 % and pore size from 500-766 mm. The component produced has thickness ranging from 1300 -1800 mm.
Mohammed Menhal Shbeh; Russell Goodall
Abstract
Titanium foams are advanced materials with macroporous structure that have a great potential in a variety of areas such as biomedical and functional applications. They are characterized by their reduced density and stiffness, with high permeability and excellent biocompatibility. One production technique ...
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Titanium foams are advanced materials with macroporous structure that have a great potential in a variety of areas such as biomedical and functional applications. They are characterized by their reduced density and stiffness, with high permeability and excellent biocompatibility. One production technique for Ti foams with promising results is Metal Injection Moulding (MIM). So far most of the porous titanium produced by this technique has a very basic design with low percentage of porosity, thus limiting its potential in the biomedical industry, among others. In this study, the use of MIM in combination with a space holder to produce single and multi-layered porous Ti with high volume percentage of porosity will be explored. The results show that it is possible to produce Ti foam with a total volume percentage of porosity of 61 % through MIM technology. In addition, it is also feasible to combine different porous layers resulting in multi-layered porous titanium parts with gradient porosity that could have a huge potential in a wide range of applications, especially for biomedical implants, where these pores can promote bone ingrowth as well as reduce stiffness to match that of the natural bone, thus alleviating the stress shielding problem.
