Engineering thermoplastic honeycomb core supplies goal car,

EconCore is extending the functions of its ThermHex generation for manufacturing of high-performance light-weight thermoplastic honeycomb core supplies and sandwich panels. The corporate, which already licenses the generation for manufacturing of polypropylene (PP) honeycombs, is now ready to supply honeycombs from excessive functionality thermoplastic. An additional building permits the built-in manufacturing of organosandwich preforms with steady fiber-reinforced skins.

EconCore’s generation makes use of a chain of in-line, high-speed, operations to supply honeycomb buildings from a unmarried frequently extruded thermoplastic movie, involving a series of thermoforming, folding and bonding operations.

“We’ve already effectively produced and examined honeycombs from a number of high-performance thermoplastics at our refurbished R&D amenities in Leuven, Belgium” says Tomasz Czarnecki, Leader Running Officer at EconCore. “We’ve been operating with quite a lot of forms of changed polycarbonate (PC), polyamide 66 (PA 66) and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) and we’re proceeding to pursue trends with those and different high-end polymers. We are actually coming into the overall segment of product validation and we predict to paintings on a number of software trends in car, aerospace, transportation, and development and development markets this yr.”

EconCore’s patented generation makes use of a chain of in-line, high-speed, operations to supply honeycomb buildings from a unmarried frequently extruded thermoplastic movie. It comes to a series of thermoforming, folding and bonding operations. ThermHex generation has the possible to paintings with quite a lot of thermoplastic polymers to create honeycombs, whose cellular measurement, density and thickness can also be altered with easy {hardware} and/or procedure parameter changes. The method makes it conceivable to create extraordinarily cost-effective completed composite sandwich supplies by means of inline bonding of skins to the honeycomb.

“As of late we provide honeycombs with the most efficient functionality in keeping with charge available on the market. Within the close to long run we will be able to be offering additionally honeycombs with the most efficient functionality in keeping with weight” provides Jochen Pflug, Leader Govt Officer at EconCore.

Thermoplastic honeycomb cores for composites supply a ratio of functionality to weight this is very tricky, if no longer unimaginable, to succeed in with different forms of core supplies. ThermHex cores are round 80% lighter than cast thermoplastic cores in use these days, in such merchandise as metallic skinned- panels for transportation and development programs. The light-weight cores even have certain implications for product dealing with, uncooked subject matter stock, outbound logistics and set up.

In use, honeycomb buildings end up awesome no longer simplest when it comes to mechanical functionality: the acoustic functionality and thermal insulation of honeycomb buildings could also be really useful for plenty of programs.

HPT honeycombs will construct at the intrinsic advantages of light-weight honeycomb buildings, with upper warmth resistance (helpful for such merchandise as housings for electrical automobile batteries) and superb flame resistance (essential for development panels). EconCore could also be operating with supplies changed for FST (flame, smoke, toxicity) compliance in railway and aerospace programs. The corporate additionally sees considerable doable in photovoltaic (PV) panels and a lot of different merchandise.

EconCore has already demonstrated the potential of using Polycarbonate honeycombs in next-generation plane inside modules. Those have been evolved in an EU-sponsored challenge involving aerospace corporate Diehl Aircabin. Polyamide honeycomb generation has additionally been demonstrated in ultralight PV panels co-developed with panel maker Armageddon Power and DuPont.

EconCore could also be readying a variant of the ThermHex generation for manufacturing of what it calls organosandwich  supplies. Those are thermoplastic sandwich composite supplies, once more produced inline, which include a thermoplastic honeycomb core thermally bonded between thermoplastic composite skins strengthened with steady glass fibers. Against this to traditional organosheets, an organosandwich  gives remarkable ratio of stiffness to weight and can also be transformed into ultimate portions the use of such fast and environment friendly processes as compression moulding and injection moulding. In comparison to extra typical composite and metal-based answers, those merchandise be offering awesome light-weighting doable and essential charge advantages blended with an especially rapid processing for the introduction of complicated functionalized portions.

The organosandwich  supplies are perfect for programs requiring mild and cost-effective subject matter answers blended with excessive stiffness, as an example in lots of structural car elements and markets with identical necessities.

“All varieties of markets can take pleasure in the benefits that new honeycomb cores and organosandwich  supplies will be offering when it comes to weight loss, charge relief, progressed functionality and design flexibility,” says Czarnecki. “Those merchandise can also be produced and transformed briefly and successfully in processes which might be extremely automatic. They’re additionally extremely recyclable, particularly when core and pores and skin are constructed from the similar thermoplastic polymer.