Foamed Alloys?

Howdy, all!

Sorry if this is a repeat topic, but I didn't turn up anything, searching on it, so...

Question for the Brain Trust, as I'm hoping that we have at least one or two metallurgists among us:

Would it be possible to created "foamed" titanium? Essentially by injecting air into molten Ti and then somehow flash-cooling it? For that matter, it might be enough simply to inject the air, since that could cool it below the melting point, if the air were cooled prior to injection. Is something like this possible? If the bubbles were made small enough, I would think that you would retain most, if not all of the Ti's strength, with the added bonus of even lighter finished material. I know that Ti is already quite light, but I'm just wondering about this. I've recently become very interested in next-stage metals. I'm trying to conceptualize how it might be possible to create a metal harder than diamonds, without sacrificing the ductility necessary to make it sturdy. Any thoughts? My mind instantly went to Ti, since it's very tough, but doesn't get brittle as easily as steel (this from knifemaking, where we've all discovered that, unfortunately, Ti doesn't make a flip's worth of a knife, unless you alloy it with something or layer it, a' la Damascus steel). Such a material would be invaluable for making all kinds of objects, from aircraft to automobile bits. And, since less material would be used in the actual end product, an equivalent volume of foamed Titanium should cost substantially less than solid Ti, no?

Your thoughts, please? Thanks in advance for anything you can offer.

Arrgh. Thirty seconds after I post, I found the other thread. Dang. *Note to Self* Self, you must learn to spell your search queries properly. Or something. Dunno why it didn't pull up in the first place.

Sorry for the repeat topic. Please feel free to delete. Thanks!

They already do this...it's called a casting.

Definition of a casting:

A series of discontinuous voids and flaws held together by metal of questionable integrity.



Okay, now I'll get serious.

lol Val.... Yeah this is being done...