Plating Foam materials

[Quentin30]

I am investigating the possibility plating foam (Syntatic foam) with Al. and was wondering if anybody has had any luck doing so. The plating must encapsulate the entire piece which includes holes completely through the foam ( average hole ~ 1” dia.). The size of the foam sheet can vary but first look is 20.0" X 10" X 2.0".

Also, any thoughts on CTE mismatch of such a "composite" looking at delta T of 45 C...will the foam conform with the plating as it grows or will the foam tear away at the edges?

Do I treat the CTE calculation of the Al. plating the same way as solid Al. plate?

Any websites or alternative process would be appreciated!

 

[unclesyd]

Why not use Al foam?

 

[EdStainless]

How about 'cold spray' Al? I have never worked with it but I have seen parts coated that way.

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[Kalroy]

You might try electroless plating followed by electroplating the resulting coating. I know they do some plastics this way, but beyond that I don't know much about the process.

Kalroy

 

[kenvlach]

Do you actually mean electroplating that deposits aluminum? If so, please explain the details.
-- Al plating is a very rare process, requiring non-aqueous chemistry. Evaporation & ion vapor deposition (vacuum processes) are more common.
Thanks,
Ken

 

[rorschach]

I believe Ion vapor deposition is going to be the process you'll need. I've seen it used on plastics before, the problem yo MIGHT have is if the glass spheres in the Syntactic foam rupture in the vacuum that they'll be sujected to. I've never tried to use syntactic foam in a vacuum so I'm not sure how it behaves.

 

[NickE]

I've gold/platinum and carbon coated foams before. Under an SEM at low magnifications (<1000x) the coating looked continuous, but I wasn't investigating the coating. The carbon was a very old sputter coater, the gold and Pt coatings were Ion Vapor coated.