Conductive metal porous sheet production

A porous product, typically a metal foam sheet, is produced as a tailored, engineered product. The porous product can have enhanced strength, as well as more desirable electrical and mechanical properties. The product which first exists typically as a flexible, generally polymeric foam sheet in strip form, which strip is produced in the longitudinal direction, is stretched in a direction other than its direction of production. The porous product can have pores which would be anisotropic in form in usual production, which are stretched to at least substantially isotropic form. The product can even be tailored to have pores which are anisotropic in the direction of the stretch. Thus, an engineered product can be produced which, for example, as an open-cell metal foam prepared from a polymeric foam can have conductivity, both thermal and electrical, as well as strength and ductility, tailored for greater uniformity and performance.