US Patent 7393446 Cellular metal structure

A porous metal structure having a continuous metal phase intermingled with a continuous tortuous porous phase. The continuous tortuous porous phase can be made to terminate at a surface of the porous metal structure with elongated pores. The porous metal structure can be made to have a bulk density divided by the density of the metal of from, for example, 0.99 to 0.01. Such structures can be made by electrodepositing a metal in the interstitial spaces of a polymer foam and by electroforming a metal in the interstitial spaces of a stretched porous structure of sintered polymer beads.