Laser foaming for joining aluminum foam cores inside a hollow profile

This paper investigates the feasibility of the joining process of two aluminum foam cores contained in a tubular profile exploiting laser foaming of a solid precursor. The aim is to examine the foaming process by means of external laser irradiation of a hollow steel profile, which contains two separated aluminum foam cores intermingled by a foamable solid aluminum precursor. The experimental activity showed that three process parameters should be taken into account in order to obtain a sound foam: interaction time, laser beam power density and total amount of beam energy delivered to the work-piece. A numerical simulation allowed the qualitative evaluation of the temperature field inside the solid precursor with the purpose of better understanding the effect of the chosen parameters on the process itself. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.