The special role of aluminum foam

    Aluminum, which is common in daily life, is a metal with a density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter, which is certainly not a density that can float on water. However, the reporter recently visited the high-tech zone in Anhui Province and saw a kind of metal that can float - aluminum foam.

    Aluminum foam is a light and strong aluminum based new material, the density is less than water, but also can absorb energy, anti-collision, sound-absorbing fire prevention, can be widely used in rail transit, aerospace, building fire protection and other fields, is a rare treasure in renewable resources. For a long time, the domestic aluminum foam industry technology is relatively backward, in the face of huge domestic market demand, the gap mostly relies on imports.

    In order to fill this gap, in 2014, a group of young people from Tsinghua University's New Fangzun Science and Technology team with aluminum foam results and dreams came to the Jieshou high-tech Zone with rich aluminum based materials and founded Yiming New Material Technology Co., LTD. At the beginning of its establishment, there was no plant, no funds, the pilot line could not be formed, and the staff had only 500 yuan a month to make a living. Jieshou High-tech Zone solemnly promised them: "Regardless of whether the business is successful, Jieshou will give support; Regardless of whether the business will stay in the sector after success, the sector will still support it." In this way, with the strong support of the local government, the boys were able to carry out the research and development of new aluminum foam materials.

    In 2015, metal foam aluminum in the sector's first high-tech zone to achieve large-scale production, the metal foam industry since then has a real aluminum foam made in China. After 6 years of development, the team has mastered the most advanced domestic and international leading aluminum foam production technology, the number of patents exceeds 60% of the industry as a whole, and is the only team in the domestic industry that runs through material research and development, industrial production and application technology development. Yiming New Materials also organized the development of national standards for aluminum foam as the first author.

    Aluminum foam has been successfully applied to the Beijing Winter Olympics ice hockey arena, the Yangtze River Bridge, Anhui Province innovation hall and other important projects. In important areas such as the Science Island "EAST" artificial solar electromagnetic shielding project, aluminum foam also provides material support for China's world-class major scientific research devices and helps crack a series of technical problems.