Production Techniques of Metallic Foams in Lightweight Materials

Lightweight materials were needed in many different areas, especially in order to reduce the required energy in areas such as automotive and aerospace industries. Metallic foams attract attention in lightweight material applications due to their unique properties. The pores in its structure provide advantages in many applications, both structural and functional by promising both ultra-lightweight construction, energy absorption, and damping insulation. Production techniques of metallic foams can generally be classified as liquid, solid, gas, and ionic state production according to the physical state of the metal at the beginning of the process. The production technique should be chosen according to the usage area and desired properties of the metallic foam and the suitability in terms of cost and sustainability of production. For this reason, the details of the production techniques should be known and the products that can be obtained and their properties should be understood. In this respect, this chapter emphasizes the production methods from past to present.

Structural Optimizations of Different Load-Carrying Members Based on Low Structural Performance Through Computational Structural Analysis

Load withstanding characteristics are one of the major considerations involved in structural engineering because the lifetime factor is directly proportional to load withstanding behavior. Thus, this work computationally analyzes the load withstanding behavior of various sandwich lightweight composite materials under the given flexural load. In this work, four major materials are imposed under flexural loads for two different cum prime core structures such as hexagonal cross-section and twisted cum integrated pentagonal cross-section. The major materials implemented for this comparative investigation are Aluminium Alloy, CFRP, GFRP, and KFRP. All the computational composite models are constructed through the advanced computational tool (i.e., ANSYS Workbench). Finally, the best structures with respect to their lightweight materials are shortlisted to withstand a high amount of flexural loads. According to this comprehensive study, the CFRP-based honeycomb sandwich composite performed better than all other lightweight materials.

Joining Techniques Like Welding in Lightweight Material Structures

In order to take more stringent measures in fuel economy and achieve the determined performance targets, the automotive industry needs to reduce the weight of the vehicles it produces. For this reason, all automobile manufacturers have determined their own strategies. Some manufacturers use lighter aluminum, magnesium, and composite components in their cars. In this study, the joining techniques of lightweight materials such as welding and the processes of their industrial use have been examined. There is currently no single technology that can combine all metallic panels in a car body structure. However, it is known that various joining technologies are used together. With the potential to combine certain combinations of steel and aluminum, manufacturers and scientists continue to work to identify technologies with the highest potential for lightweight joining and put them into use in high-volume automobile production. Therefore, it is important to examine the weldability of light materials such as magnesium, titanium, and aluminum.

Characterization and Spectroscopic Applications of Metal Foams From New Lightweight Materials

Lightweight materials such as metallic foams possess good mechanical, chemical, and physical properties, which make them suitable for a wide range of functional and structural applications. Metal foams have recently gained substantial interest in both industry and academia due to their low cost, thermal conductivity, high working temperature, vibration damping, specific mechanical properties, energy absorption, and heat resistance. The use of metal foams on a large scale and successful applications depend on a detailed understanding of their characteristic properties. Metallic foams are characterized by the morphology of the porous cells (size and shape, open or closed, macro and micro), pore topology, relative density, properties of the pore wall, and the degree of anisotropy. This contribution focuses on x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and Raman spectroscopic applications used for the characterization of metal foam, and also a brief of the most important applications, including a significant number of examples given.

Sustainable Processes in Aluminium, Magnesium, and Titanium Alloys Applied to the Transport Sector: A Review

The reduction of consumption and pollutant emissions is a top priority for the transport sector. One working line is the substitution of conventional structural materials with lightweight materials such as metallic alloys of aluminium, titanium, and/or magnesium. For this reason, and considering that the number of related articles is lower than the existing number of other structural lightweight materials, it is considered very convenient and helpful to carry out a systematic analysis of their latest trends through Open Access literature. A methodology adapted from the PRISMA statement is applied, in order to guarantee unbiasedness and quality in selecting literature and research. The final selection is made up of the 40 most cited research papers from 2015–2020, with an average of 20.6 citations per article. Turning and drilling are the most trending machining processes, and there is particular interest in the study of sustainable cooling, such as dry machining, cryogenic cooling, and MQL. In addition, another trending topic is multi-materials and joining dissimilar materials with guarantees. Additive manufacturing has also been identified as an increasingly trending theme, appearing in 18% of the selected studies. This work is complemented with summary tables of the most cited Open Access articles on sustainable machining and cooling, multi-materials or hybrid components, and additive manufacturing.

A Review on Lightweight Metal Component Forming and its Application

The present research focused on reviewing forming technology and inspired various method forming processes for different lightweight materials. Nowadays, to improve modern automobiles’ fuel economy while preserving safety and efficiency, advanced materials are essential. Since accelerating a lighter object requires less energy than a heavier one, lightweight materials offer great potential to improve vehicle performance. Innovative forming technologies are discussed concerning each approach and their contribution to lightweight material application. New metal forming methods are implemented to fulfill lightweight material applications in various fields.

Modeling and Fatigue Analysis of Robotic Arm with Lightweight Materials using FEA Technique

A robotic arm is a device that can perform comparable duties to a human arm and is programmable and versatile. It is utilized to execute a variety of mechanical operations with great accuracy and efficiency for extremely repetitive jobs. Because robotic arms are employed for repetitive tasks, fatigue may occur as a result of continuous or continual loading; therefore, fatigue behavior is crucial to investigate with the lightweight materials. In this research, a robotic arm was designed and evaluated utilizing a CAD-tool (solid works) with real-time boundary conditions and five different materials (aluminum alloy 7475, carbon fiber, kevlar29, E-glass fiber, and boron fiber). There was a static analysis, a modal analysis, and a fatigue analysis. Deformations, stress, frequency values, component life, and safety considerations were all detected in these evaluations for all models. It can deduce from all of these data which materials have less deformation and which materials have lower stress levels. It can determine robot with which material to utilize for various situations, such as reduced weight or less stress generating robots with greater fatigue resistance, based on all of these findings. The created structure is compared to the metallic structure's original design. It is observed that the robot arm's stiffness has increased significantly while its mass and inertia have decreased, resulting in a very high specific stiffness, specific strength, and excellent dynamic performance, which will undoubtedly result in good productivity as per our requirements, which is the project's desired goal.