WUNC: Raleigh Company Brings Composite Metal Foam to Market
WUNC recently highlighted how Advanced Materials Manufacturing (AMM), founded around NC State research by Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei, is bringing Composite Metal Foam to the industrial market after more than two decades of development. The story describes the material as a “metal bubble wrap” concept—engineered to absorb energy through trapped air pockets—and notes AMM’s performance claims around energy absorption, weight reduction, radiation resistance, and high-temperature durability.
The piece also explains how CMF is produced (casting or powder metallurgy) and why its “closed-cell” structure matters for compression resistance and heat insulation. WUNC notes AMM’s emphasis on using significantly less metal than solid blocks (positioned as both cost- and sustainability-relevant), and spotlights potential applications ranging from transportation and aerospace to hazardous-material containment and defense-related protection.
