Lightweight, hollow-sphere-composite (HSC) materials for mechanical engineering applications

Lightweight structure is a new trend in machine tool design to ensure higher speed and higher acceleration of elements. The drive and control systems in mechanical engineering requires lightweight design provided by the recently developed light materials thus resulting in economical advantages. The hollow-sphere-composites (HSCs) consist of hollow spheres up to 80 of the volume and a reactive resin system as binder. The recently developed HSC materials, the hollow sphere bodies, are made from ceramics, silicates, plastics or metals and provide a range of structural materials of different chemical composition, grain size distribution, density, bulk density, softening temperature and compression. Therefore, a vast palette of HSC-variants can be obtained with different properties for a variety of applications. The mechanical properties of HSC materials depend on the properties of the spherical hollow bodies. The mechanical and thermal behaviour of HSC materials can be characterised by using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermomechanical analysis (TMA). The thermal and mechanical properties of selected HSC structures, e.g. machine tool components, robot arms, demonstrate the flexibility and application feasibility of this new material. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.