Processing of cellular materials — An overview

The cellular materials have myriad of applications due to their unique properties viz., high stiffness-to-weight ratio, lower density, good thermal insulation, excellent sound and energy absorption capability and good vibration damping. Cellular materials are foams generally made of materials like Polyurethane, Ceramics, Aluminium, Steel, Nickel, Titanium, etc,. These cellular materials are used in structural applications in civil construction industries, process industries, aircraft and automobile industries; and in non-structural applications like thermal insulation, acoustic absorption, vehicle crash energy absorption, filters and so on. In this paper, the manufacturing processes used to fabricate the cellular materials are discussed.