Development of an Aluminum-Based Hybrid Billet Material for the Process-Integrated Foaming of Hollow Co-Extrusions

Metal foams are attractive for lightweight construction in the automotive sector since they provide high-energy absorption and good damping properties, which is crucial, e.g., for crash structures. Currently, however, foams are produced separately and then pasted into the components. Consequently, the overall mechanical properties depend significantly on the quality of the adhesive bond between the foam and the structural component. A new process route for the manufacture of hybrid foamed hollow aluminum profiles is proposed. In this approach, a foamable precursor material is directly integrated into the extrusion process of the hollow structural profile. To this end, special low-melting alloys were developed in this study to enable foaming inside the aluminum profile. The melting intervals of these alloys were examined using differential scanning calorimetry. One of the promising AlZnSi alloys was atomized, mixed with a foaming agent and then compacted into semi-finished products for subsequent co-extrusion. The foaming behavior, which was investigated by means of X-ray microscopy, is shown to depend primarily on the mass fraction of the foaming agent as well as the heat treatment parameters. The results demonstrate that both the melting interval and the foaming behavior of AlZn22Si6 make this particular alloy a suitable candidate for the desired process chain