Deformation of lotus-type porous copper in rolling

Although forming of porous metal is demanded for industrial applications, the deformation characteristics have not been investigated sufficiently. In this study, lotus-type porous copper is processed by multi-pass cold rolling. At the early stage of rolling, the elongation of the porous copper in the rolling direction is small, and the porosity decreases almost linearly with the total reduction in thickness. It is found that pass schedule with small rolls and with small reduction per pass is effective to suppress pore closure. Hardness of the porous copper increases almost linearly with total reduction. If the effective total reduction is considered, the hardness change is similar to that of a nonporous copper.