Manufacturing process and mechanical properties of a novel periodic cellular metal with closed cubic structure

Highlights: • A novel periodic cellular metal with three-dimensional closed cubic structure was developed and presented. • The presented cellular metal is manufactured initially by sheet metal forming, and then by cells bonding. • The mechanical properties of the presented cellular metal were investigated by compressive and impact experiments. • The presented cellular metal shows a sound energy absorbing performance and a great potential used for passive safety. Cellular metal is an ideal energy absorbing material which is extensively used in passive safety area. This paper investigates the manufacturing process and mechanical properties of a novel periodic cellular metal with three-dimensional closed cubic structure. The manufacturing process of this kind of cellular metal is unconventional because it is obtained initially by sheet metal forming, and then by cells bonding. In this work, two methods including gluing and laser welding are introduced for bonding the cells. By the gluing method, various cellular metals with irregular/regular topological cellular structures can be automatically manufactured via an innovative device which is originally put forward in this work. By contrast, the laser welding method is more suitable for fabricating the cuboid cellular metal blocks. Meanwhile, the cellular metal fabricated by laser welding comparing with by adhesive owns better mechanical performance because there are not any heterogeneous layers between the cells. In order to investigate the mechanical properties of the cellular metal fabricated by laser welding, a series of quasi-static compressive and drop weight impact experiments were carried out. The experimental results demonstrate that the presented cellular metal possesses a sound energy absorbing performance and a great potential used for passive safety.