Anhydrous Borax Usage as a Space Holder for Vacuum Sintered Porous Magnesium: Microstructural and Mechanical Insights

Year 2024, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 1 - 8, 30.06.2024

Erkut Fındık , Tülin Şahin

Abstract

In this study, magnesium powder and anhydrous borax (Na2B4O7) particulates sintered in a Hot Press (HP) machine by widely preferred space holder technique in three different weight ratios; to obtain the best ratio for a homogenous magnesium foam for specific usage in multi-disciplinary applications. Metallic foams are industrial products manufactured from porous metal materials. Although it is much lighter than other metal materials, it is gaining importance due to its high resistance, absorbing shocks, and vibrations, providing thermal insulation, gain biodegradable implant solutions in orthopaedics, chemical filtration, and battery production, many more for trying to increase its research to be used in practice. Anhydrous borax (ANB) used in thesis study was blended with commercial pure magnesium powder at the rates of 20%, 40% and 60% by weight and sintered to produce metal foams. The anhydrous borax particle sizes used are T1 (250 ̴ 400 µm), T2 (400 ̴ 500 µm) and T3 (over 500 µm). Magnesium foam was prepared via HP sintering machine at various sintering temperatures 550 to 600˚C. The produced biodegradable Mg foams evaluated in terms of density, porosity, and mechanical strength in general. Compression and three-point bending tests were performed to evaluate the usability of the samples as bone fixing implants. This study represents a novel implementation of anhydrous borax in metal foaming due to the lack of information on the use of anhydrous borax mineral in this specific space-holder metal foaming academic field.

Keywords

Magnesium foam, anhydrous borax, vacuum sintering, space holder technique

Supporting Institution

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Project Number

Proje çalışmasında herhangi bir maddi destek alınmamıştır.

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