JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 57

MATERIALS: PUSHING BOUNDARIES
honeycomb

High-performance polypropylene
honeycomb boards at minimal cost

JochEn pfluG,
CEO
tomasz czarnEcki,
COO
EconCore

From twin-wall corrugated sheets
to true honeycomb core ones
The journey started in packaging, a market
with very tough cost requirements. Twinwall corrugated plastic sheet (normally
made of polypropylene) has been popular
for some time, and because of its very
reasonable cost, the range of applications
quickly expanded beyond packaging. For
some applications though, the mechanical
performance of these extruded sheets is
not good enough - especially given that
while these products offer good rigidity
and strength in the extrusion direction,

they fail to show any good level of properties in the transverse direction.
The market responded by inventing
panels that still have solid skins but with
cup-shaped bubbles in their cores rather
than longitudinal channels. These panels
(sometimes incorrectly referred to as
"honeycomb" panels) show a more isotropic-like behaviour, but the production
process has some important limitations -
even though it is still continuous, and the
products perform reasonably well in a very
low thickness range of 3 to 5 mm.
The failings are mainly related to the fact
that the forming process used to create the
cup shapes heavily and unevenly stretches
the material. This has a strong negative effect on the mechanical performance of the
finished product as well as on the upper
limits of thickness, and hence also rigidity,
achievable for these panels.
The most recent evolution in technology
for producing sandwich panels now makes

it possible to produce polypropylene
sheets with a true honeycomb core - that
is, with a structure of interlocking hexagons - in a continuous process. Thanks to
this optimal structuring, the honeycomb
boards show much higher and uniform
rigidity, as well as flexural strength and
compression strength, compared to their
predecessors.

Performance increase
Because the honeycombs are formed in a
different way from that used to make the
cores with cup shapes, a much more even
forming of the core structure is possible.
Boards can be produced with thicknesses
anywhere from 3 to 60 mm and used for
very demanding applications, including
those in automotive as well as building
and construction. Furthermore, because
the honeycombs are small and completely
sealed, the entrapped air makes the structure a very efficient thermal insulator.

Fig. 1: Comparative performance chart of various polypropylene sandwich boards at around 10mm thickness

N°119 March 2018

/ jec composites magazine

Materials: pushing boundaries

D

espite the numerous advantages
that honeycomb sandwiches can
offer, their design is still very limited
and generally reserved for high-end technical applications, primarily in aerospace.
This is largely because conventional ways
of producing honeycomb materials are
labour-intensive batch processes that are
inevitably expensive.
The world is changing though. Thanks
to evolutions in production technology,
these materials increasingly appear in
application areas - many of them cost-sensitive - such as packaging, building and
construction, automotive, transport in
general, and beyond.

Lightweight and cost-efficient composite sandwiches with honeycomb
cores can form the basis for incredibly strong and stiff structures.
Compared to solid and monolithic products, these sandwiches, developed by specialist technology company EconCore in Leuven, Belgium,
can save tremendous amounts of materials, reducing weight and -
potentially - costs.

57



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018

Cover
Edito
Opinion: Aeronautics
Contents
NEWS
In brief
Agenda
BUSINESS
KPIs - Up-to-date key performance indicators for the fibre-reinforced plastics market
Opportunities - Advanced plastics and composites break through the automotive sector
EV - China: driving the whole car supply chain, electric vehicles are in full swing
MANUFACTURING
Surface - New machine system takes surface finishing to a new level
3D printing - Additive manufacturing of highperformance composite structures
Automotive - Body in black versus body in white
Automotive - Sheet moulding compression of prepreg sheets for a composite subframe
Simulation - High-quality sound-absorbing automotive carpets
Curing - GRP composite manufacturing optimization: opportunities with UV curing
FEATURE Materials: pushing boundaries - Do materials have their limits?
Fastener - High-resistance fastener for structural composite parts
Recycling - Applications of recycled carbon fibre in high volume manufacturing
Resin - High-performance epoxy/carbon fibre SM
Honeycomb - High-performance polypropylene honeycomb boards at minimal cost
CFRTP - Beautiful, lightweight, and tunable
SOLUTIONS
Aeronautics - A demountable composite wing box for private planes
Civil engineering - Repair and replacement of concrete pipes with carbon composites
Sports - Sustainable composite manufacturing kicks into high gear
Medical - lmproving lives with carbon composites
TECHNOLOGY
NDT - NDT in-line inspection using the NIDIT procedure
Assembly - Ensuring the durability of adhesive-bonded assemblies
Index
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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 84
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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Opinion: Aeronautics
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 5
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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Contents
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 7
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - In brief
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 9
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 10
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 11
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Agenda
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 13
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 14
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 15
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 16
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - KPIs - Up-to-date key performance indicators for the fibre-reinforced plastics market
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 18
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 19
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Opportunities - Advanced plastics and composites break through the automotive sector
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 21
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 22
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - EV - China: driving the whole car supply chain, electric vehicles are in full swing
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 24
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 25
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Ad4
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Ad5
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Surface - New machine system takes surface finishing to a new level
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 27
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 28
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 3D printing - Additive manufacturing of highperformance composite structures
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 30
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 31
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 32
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 33
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 34
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Automotive - Body in black versus body in white
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 36
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 37
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 38
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Automotive - Sheet moulding compression of prepreg sheets for a composite subframe
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 40
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 41
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Simulation - High-quality sound-absorbing automotive carpets
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 43
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Curing - GRP composite manufacturing optimization: opportunities with UV curing
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 45
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 46
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 47
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Fastener - High-resistance fastener for structural composite parts
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 49
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 50
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Recycling - Applications of recycled carbon fibre in high volume manufacturing
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 52
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Resin - High-performance epoxy/carbon fibre SM
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 54
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 55
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 56
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Honeycomb - High-performance polypropylene honeycomb boards at minimal cost
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 58
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - CFRTP - Beautiful, lightweight, and tunable
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 60
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 61
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 62
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Aeronautics - A demountable composite wing box for private planes
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 64
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 65
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Civil engineering - Repair and replacement of concrete pipes with carbon composites
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 67
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 68
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Sports - Sustainable composite manufacturing kicks into high gear
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 70
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Medical - lmproving lives with carbon composites
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 72
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 73
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - NDT - NDT in-line inspection using the NIDIT procedure
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 75
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 76
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - Assembly - Ensuring the durability of adhesive-bonded assemblies
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 78
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 79
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - March 2018 - 80
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