ThermHex Waben highlights thermoplastic honeycomb panels
Economically produced composite sandwich panels are sustainable while maintaining high mechanical performance and surface quality, driving them into new market applications.
Photo Credit: ThermHex Waben
ThermHex Waben (Halle, Germany) a thermoplastic polypropylene honeycomb core producer, has announced its latest range of sustainable composite panels for lightweight applications. The applications cover a wide range of industries, including automotive, transport, wind and solar, logistics, B&C and furniture, having increasingly replaced more traditional materials, such as plywood and thermoset panels, particularly in trucks, trailers and cargo boxes.
The thermoplastic composite panels are offered in thicknesses ranging from 6-20 mm and densities from 1,200 to 4,200 g/m². They feature improved mechanical performance and a surface quality that the company says is not achievable via conventional honeycomb technology with thermoplastic composite skins.
The honeycomb panels are economically produced under EconCore’s (Leuven, Belgium) patented production process. They are produced in a continuous inline process via the extrusion of a polypropylene film, vacuum forming and folding. Enabling direct and automated lamination of thermoplastic composite skins, this integrated process effectively generates a high-performance honeycomb sandwich panel.
Optimal surface finish is aided by the polypropylene honeycomb’s >5mm cell size, even with thin skin layers. This enables industry to develop new applications, for example for the visible surface of parts for cars and trucks. Recently, ThermHex Waben used the panels in a range of automotive interior parts, effectively reducing vehicle weight without compromising rigidity, which saved on fuel efficiency.
The product’s resistance to chemicals and water and lightweight also makes it the material of choice within many composite markets like transportation, solar energy, marine, furniture and more. Sustainability continues to be a key consideration.
“We can now produce with equal high production speed and low production cost,” Dr Jochen Pflug, CEO of ThermHex Waben, adds.
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