Ceramically reinforced structural materials and method of making same
OwnerBryan Prucherinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A ceramic foam reinforced structural material is disclosed as comprising either a hollow-legged or a solid legged ceramic open-celled foam. The foam is saturated with or surrounded by a resilient polymeric or other ductile material such as a plastic, to obtain a structural member with the high compressibility of ceramics while eliminating the edge brittleness inherent therein. The ductile material further provides the material with suitably fastenable and workable surfaces. Where an impact barrier is desired to be made of the structural material the ceramic foam is disclosed as being filled at least partially with a flowable material such as a liquid or a gel.
Claims16
A ceramic foam reinforced structural material comprising:
- (a) an open-cell ceramic foam core having an exterior surface and having a three dimensional repeating structure with interconnecting solid legs and voids formed therebetween;
- (b) a ductile material which is operatively attached to the ceramic foam core;
- and
- wherein the ductile material forms a barrier covering the exterior surface of the foam.
A method of making a ceramically reinforced structural material comprising substantially filling at least some of the voids of an open-celled ceramic foam with ductile material, the foam having a substantially regular repeating dodecahedral cell structure with solid legs defining the structure.
A method of making a solid leg ceramic open-celled foam which is a positive mold of an initial destructible open-celled foam, for use in structural material comprising the steps of:
- (a) saturating an initial destructible open-celled foam with a material capable of creating a negative mold of the open-celled foam;
- (b) destroying the original open-celled foam while leaving the negative mold material intact to create a negative mold of the original foam;
- (c) filling the negative mold with a ceramic composition to create a positive mold of the original foam and causing the ceramic composition to solidify;
- and,
- (d) removing the negative mold material from the hardened ceramic composition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.