Continuous foaming of multiple aluminum foam precursors by combining conveyor and optical heating

Precursor foaming is one of the production processes for manufacturing aluminum foam. In this study, the continuous foaming of multiple precursors by combining a conveyor and optical heating with halogen lamps was conducted. First, in a preliminary test, the current of the halogen lamps was adjusted to enable the foaming of a precursor as it moves on the conveyor. Then, multiple precursors were continuously foamed at the adjusted current of the halogen lamps. It was shown that the multiple precursors exhibited similar temperature histories and were sufficiently foamed using the conveyor. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MT-M2020137]