Bone inspired hybrid foams
A group of Fraunhofer Institutes is engaged in a project to develop hybrid foams, that they say, could combine the flexibility of plastics with the resilience of metal to create a material with entirely new properties.
They cite the cell structure of bones and honeycombs as an example of a material that is particularly resilient and gets by with extremely little material.
The efficiency of the novel materials is to be demonstrated in three test applications: one is to increase the sound insulation in a combustion engine, another is to improve the energy absorption in a crash box, and the third is to manufacture light weight, high strength components. A research group comprising the Fraunhofer Institutes for Chemical Technology ICT, Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research IFAM, Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS, Silicate Research ISC and Mechanics of Materials IWM has taken up the challenge of developing these materials.
