JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #87 - March 2014 Special JEC Europe - 121

honeycomb

Continuous honeycomb production technology
EconCore provides a cutting-edge production technology
that enables its customers to produce cores and sandwich panels at optimum performance and lowest cost.
Its patented ThermHex technology allows the costefficient production of PP honeycomb cores as well as
honeycombs made from other thermoplastic polymers
such as PE, PET, PVC, ABS, PC, PPS or PLA, with a large
variation in cell size, density and thickness.

conCore's ThermHex honeycomb
core is produced from a single
continuously extruded film in
three steps: thermoforming, folding
and bonding. This innovative sandwich
technology, which makes it possible to
save costs, minimize weight and reduce
CO2 emissions, is presented below.

Production technology
Honeycomb cores can be made from
different materials, but usually for lowvolume applications. The ThermHex
technology allows the continuous production of thermoplastic honeycomb
cores at speeds of 10 m/min, and this is
truly unique on the market. This technology enables the production of thermoplastic honeycombs directly from
the extruder or from a roll of material.

The thermoplastic polymer is extruded
into a film, vacuum formed and folded
into a honeycomb core.

Polypropylene honeycomb core
ThermHex Waben, EconCore's production site in Germany, produces
the ThermHex PP honeycomb core
material for composite applications.
The thickness of this honeycomb core
material typically ranges from 3 mm
to 30 mm. Its density can vary in a
rather wide range, usually from 40 kg/
m³ to 200 kg/m³, offering a compression strength as high as 6 MPa. The
honeycomb core material is available
in max. 6 m x 1.4 m width and 3-30
mm thickness. Standard honeycomb
cores are available in a sheet size of
2500 mm x 1200 mm. If other dimensions are required, the process can
be adapted, thanks to the continuous
production concept. The sheets can,

Fig. 1: ThermHex honeycomb core production line with in-line lamination

No87 March 2014

JocHen Pflug, managing Director
tomasz czarnecki, tecHnology manager
econcore

in principle, be endless. Due to the
highly automated production process,
this honeycomb core can be produced
very cost efficiently and offered at lower
prices compared to other thermoplastic
honeycomb cores.
ThermHex Waben customers typically
process the core further by applying
glass fibre and thermoset composite
skins. Such sandwich panels and parts
provide much higher stiffness compared to monolithic constructions; at the
same time, substantial cost savings and
weight savings are achieved.

In-line honeycomb
sandwich panel production
To produce sandwich panels, skins
are adhesive bonded or thermoplastic
welded onto the honeycomb. The skins
can be made of thermoplastic materials,
but composite, wood-based, aluminium
or steel skins can also be applied. The
unique feature of this technology is
the possibility to integrate the continuous core production in-line with skin
lamination, resulting in the continuous
production of finished sandwich panels.
This leads to substantial further cost
reductions through optimum process
integration. In contrast to traditional
manual sandwich panel manufacturing,

/ jec composites magazine 121

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #87 - March 2014 Special JEC Europe

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #87 - March 2014 Special JEC Europe