Metal foam sandwiches for shipbuilding industry

Sandwiches with aluminum foam core and massive cover sheets are excellently suited for lightweight constructions. The light aluminum foam core functions as a rigid core which holds the top layers at a distance. The top layers are responsible for the applied loads. Semi-finished products are significantly lighter than massive plates as the core material exhibits a low density while maintaining the same load carrying capacity. Due to the high lightweight potential and the very good energy absorption capability the sandwiches are particularly predestinated for machine tools. These sandwiches are also suitable in the ship building industry for highly stressed ship structural components like transmission bases or rudder structures. The great potential has been demonstrated within the joint research project MESCHLAS which was founded by Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology between December 2009 and May 2012. The project consortium consists of the companies Blohm + Voss Naval GmbH, LZH e. V., Precitec Optronik GmbH and the Fraunhofer IWU in Chemnitz.Aim of the project was to develop and provide a lightweight construction based on large-scale steel-aluminum foam sandwiches for the application field of shipbuilding as well as their qualification for the shipbuilding established laser welding technology.