Through long-term cooperation, EconCore ThermHex technology has been developed.
Contributed by Lily Manolis Sherman
In the past ten years, we have steadily reported new developments in Belgian EconCore's patented ThermHex thermoplastic honeycomb technology. At the same time, EconCore's German subsidiary ThermHex Waben GmbH (PP honeycomb core material for economical sandwich panels and parts) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Materials and System Microstructure IMWS are both located in Halle. Long-term collaborator project for research and development. Their focus is on the development of production and processing technologies for the production of honeycomb cores and organic sandwich series.
The semi-finished organic sandwich consists of two very thin thermoplastic fiber composite panels (organic sheets) separated by a thermoplastic honeycomb core. It has been proven to provide high stiffness with minimal weight, but without additional ribs.
These semi-finished products become particularly cost-effective when they are applied online and bonded to the honeycomb core in a continuous process. In subsequent production steps, they are further processed into components, such as thermoforming and functionalization by injection molding in a very short cycle time. The corresponding component production technology was developed by Fraunhofer IMWS under the brand TS-molding.
The TS molding technology developed as a result of this research is expected to contribute to ThermHex's highly automated production process and enable the company to achieve its goal of total sales of 2.2 million pounds of organic sandwiches and honeycomb cores this year, and further in the next few years Annual growth rate of 10% to 20%.
As previously reported, EconCore's ThermHex process enables thermoplastic honeycomb cores to be produced in continuous in-line production. After extrusion, the net is rotated and vacuum formed, folded, laminated and cut to the length required by the customer. In the traditional process, each layer of honeycomb must be individually cut from one piece and then laminated.
This makes the traditional production method of honeycomb cores complicated and expensive-with ThermHex, all production steps are carried out on one production line. Compared with the traditional honeycomb core manufacturing process, this process has been proven to be more resource efficient and lower in cost.
In Halle’s production facility, it is possible to produce honeycomb cores with thicknesses ranging from 0.2 inches/3 mm to 1.8 inches/30 mm and very small honeycomb core sizes to achieve better surface quality and a single length of up to 19.69 feet/6 meters. The fiber composite industry processes honeycomb core materials into sandwich panels and components for applications such as truck bodies, car interiors, or prefabricated bathrooms and swimming pools.
It is said that this sandwich structure offers great potential for weight reduction. By using a lightweight core material that separates the two thin surface layers, the weight can be reduced by more than 80% compared with the overall structure. In addition to weight reduction, material costs can also be significantly saved.
According to the collaborators, only ThermHex honeycomb production process on a single production line can realize the cost-effective and continuous production of organic sandwich semi-finished products.
Mona Boche-Würfel, Marketing and Communications Manager of ThermHex said: "The collaboration between ThermHex and Fraunhofer IMWS will bring industry-leading changes to cellular technology. The technology developed through an exciting collaboration will be able to scale up in a very short period of time. The production of almost carbon dioxide neutral sandwich panels is part of a very cost-effective process."
ThermHex PP honeycomb core with a thermoplastic top layer is used in the automotive industry. Commercial applications include the trunk floor of Maserati Ghibli and Jaguar F-Type or the trunk lid of Toyota Prius PHV.
The Organosandwich joint research project of ThermHex Waben and Fraunhofer IMWS is funded by the European Union through the Saxony-Anhalt Investment Bank within the EFRE program.
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