CELLMET 2005, Cellular Metals for Structural and Functional Applications

Cellular metals are a new class of materials and have been in the focus of numerous scientific studies in the last year. The increasing interest in cellular metals is principally due to the fact that the introduction of pores into the metals and alloys significantly lowers the density. These highly porous materials also show combinations of properties which are not possible to achieve with other materials. Besides the drastic weight and material savings due to the cell structure, there are also other application-specific benefits such as noise and energy absorption, heat insulation, mechanical damping, filtration effects and also catalytic behaviour. Cellular metallic materials are hence multi-functional lightweight materials. Because of the focus of the symposium on structural and functional applications of cellular metals numerous case studies for automotive, chemical process industry, machine construction, medical devices, construction engineering and environmental technology have been presented. Additional papers focussing on manufacture and properties of cellular metals are also included in the proceedings. Due to the importance for the end users of cellular metals, contributions about machining and joining of these new materials are presented.