www.cymat.com

CYMAT STABILIZED ALUMINIUM FOAM

Legislation and consumer demands in North America and Europe are putting pressure on the automotive industry to design and build lighter, safer and more recyclable products. Cradle to grave legislative requirements continue to become increasingly stringent and encourage the use of metallic components. Solutions that make the car safer without adding significant weight are also invaluable.

Aluminium is considered an ideal material for recycling because recycling it requires only 5% of the energy needed to produce virgin material. Cymat Technologies Ltd. has commercialized the production of Stabilized Aluminium Foam (SAF) which brings the environmental benefits of aluminium in an ultra low weight form while being capable of providing significant energy absorption to improve safety.

The liquid melt route used by Cymat to make stabilized aluminium foam (SAF) was developed independently and concurrently by Alcan International Inc. and Norsk Hydro A.S.A. Cymat has the exclusive worldwide rights to the technology and has produced more aluminium foam than any other company in the world.

Cymat has developed two different proprietary processes for producing SAF in either sheet form or in three dimensional castings. In both cases the foam structure is predominantly closed cell. The cell size is controlled predominantly by the gas flow rate, impeller design and impeller rotational speed. The rate of bubble generation can be varied to produce foams with densities varying from 2.5% to 25% of the density of solid aluminium. Because many of the mechanical and physical properties of SAF vary with density, having control over the density allows SAF to be tailored to suit the application.

SAF offers many advantages to the automotive designer in the areas of crashworthiness, fuel economy and recyclability. In addition it has other interesting physical properties that allow it to be multifunctional. The material has a unique flat stress strain curve which allows flexible design and progressive energy absorption when used as a crash management element. The material is unaffected by time temperature and humidity unlike polymeric foams.

Cymat is targeting three major markets for its SAF products: architectural, military and automotive. For architectural applications the flat panel material is often used after having opened the surface cell structure with high pressure water blasting. A number of major building projects as well as numerous trade show displays have been completed using the panels.

For military purposes, the ability of SAF to absorb large amounts of energy, while being lightweight and unaffected by environmental conditions makes it an ideal component of a lightweight blast mitigation system for both stationary and vehicular applications.

The automotive market offers the largest potential for SAF. Applications include crash management systems such as crash boxes and structural reinforcement as well as NVH and light-weighting applications.

In crash box design, the use of SAF increases crash box efficiency leading to absorption of the required amount of energy in a shorter distance than that achieved with conventional technology allowing designers to minimize overhang. As a structural reinforcement, SAF three dimensional castings can be used in applications such as A/B pillar and side rail inserts to provide lightweight reinforcement to improve rollover and side impact performance. Increased demand for improved NVH while still developing lightweight designs has proven to be an excellent application for the material. SAF casting cores can be used in place of sand cores in manufacture of hollow aluminium parts. The casting becomes stiffer and has vastly improved NVH properties, no longer ringing like a bell when struck. Existing hollow castings of iron, steel or aluminium can be filled with SAF eliminating the need for additional runner isolation bushings or the use of fillers such as bitumen, while providing enhanced NVH properties.

In the current economic climate in which customers demand lighter, safer and more fuel efficient vehicles Cymat’s Stabilized Aluminium Foam offers automotive engineers and designers a unique ultra-lightweight, recyclable material with superior energy absorption properties, to use as a solution to the many design challenges facing them. No longer a laboratory phenomenon, the material is available in volume using modified standard production equipment.

Cymat Technologies Ltd.
6320-2 Danville Rd.
Mississauga, ON, Canada
L5T 2L7

Contact:
Tim Hardman
President
Tel: 905-696-2421

Wayne Maddever
Chief Technical Officer
Tel: 905-696-2426

Web: www.cymat.com

Cymat Technologies Ltd., located in Mississauga, Ontario Canada is the world’s largest producer of aluminium foam. Publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Company has brought to commercial reality, technology initially developed by Alcan and Norsk Hydro. Targeting the three core markets of automotive, military and architectural applications Cymat has produced over 1.5 million pounds of aluminium foam in the last two years

 

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