Additive manufacturing (AM) is a production process for the fabrication of three-dimensional items characterized by complex geometries. Several technologies employ a localized melting of metal dust through the application of focused energy sources, such as lasers or electron beams, on a powder bed. Despite the high potential of AM, numerous burdens afflict this production technology; for example, the few materials available, thermal stress due to the focused thermal source, low surface finishing, anisotropic properties, and the high cost of raw materials and the manufacturing process. In this paper, the combination by AM of meltable resins with metal casting for an indirect additive manufacturing (I-AM) is proposed. The process is applied to the production of open cells metal foams, similar in shape to the products available in commerce. However, their cellular structure features were designed and optimized by graphical editor Grasshopper®. The metal foams produced by AM were cast with a lost wax process and compared with commercial metal foams by means of compression tests.
Keywords: additive manufacturing; compression test; metal foam; open cell; random structure.