Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Metallschaum in Werkzeugmaschinen und Handlingeinrichtungen

This report describes the possible applications of metal foam. These are: light construction, reinforcements, and energy absorption. In the paper the first two applications are discussed in detail. The first example is a machine tool for drilling and milling of PC-boards. Applying the finite element method it is shown that the mass of the machine table can be reduced by 15 per cent and that the stiffness during machining is improved while the stiffness during acceleration remains about the same. The second application investigated is the reinforcement of a handling device. Here it is shown that the deflection is reduced significantly.