K Show: EconCore: Innovative technology for the production of economic honeycomb sandwich materials

EconCore, the worldwide leader in honeycomb sandwich technology provides a cutting-edge technology for the continuous production of sandwich panels and parts with thermoplastic honeycomb cores. EconCore’s ThermHex honeycomb technology minimizes weight, reduces CO2 emissions and production costs. It is a cost efficient, continuous sandwich panel production process to be used in various, cost sensitive application areas.
It allows for the off-line or in-line combination of honeycomb cores made from different thermoplastics with various skin materials into lightweight sandwich panels. 

The unique technology
During the continuous production first thermoplastic polymers are extruded into a film, vacuum formed and folded into a honeycomb core. Different thermoplastics can feed the process. Polypropylene (PP) is the most widely used, but PET (polyethylene terephthalate), bioplastics, PVC (polyvinyl chloride), ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), PS (polystyrene), PC (polycarbonate), PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate), PA (polyamide), PPS (polyphenylene sulfide), and others are in the scope of the technology. In-line with the core production, skins can be laminated onto the honeycomb, directly after the core is made. Skins made of the previously mentioned thermoplastic
materials, but also composite, wood-based, aluminum or steel skins can be applied. The possibility to integrate the continuous core production in-line with skin lamination, resulting in the continuous production of finished sandwich panels is the unique feature of this technology. This leads to substantial further cost reductions through optimum process integration. In contrast to traditional manual sandwich panel manufacturing, this technology fits in very well with mass production requirements. With their vertical cell walls, honeycomb cores provide bi-directional support for the skins, leading to excellent specific mechanical properties with minimal amount of
material and resources, resulting in minimal material cost. For the implementation of such technology in the automotive, building and packaging industries, it is essential to ensure minimum production costs by integrating core production and skin application into a single sandwich material production process. The sandwich materials can be produced continuously in one production line from thermoplastic film extrusion by successive in-line operations at high production speeds, with in-line laminations.

Developments with LANXESS TEPEX & Dupont Vizilon
The capability to produce honeycomb cores from variety of thermoplastics provides users of ThermHex technology with more degrees of freedom according to application requirements. A compelling example of this is seen when looking to the cooperation of EconCore with Lanxess to produce sandwich panels with thermoplastic composite skins based on continuous glass filaments. Bond-Laminates GmbH, subsidiary of Lanxess, produces composites branded as Tepex. Durethan polyamides lend the honeycomb cores very high stiffness and strength even at relatively high temperatures, and good thermal ageing resistance. Combining the honeycomb cores with Tepex
facings will result in sandwich panels with improved strength and stiffness. Thermoplastic sandwich structures, with their high-quality mechanical properties, are expected to be suitable for replacing metals in many areas and thus reducing weight, for instance, in motor vehicles, but also in the building and transportation industries, boat and furniture building and motorhome manufacturing. EconCore also partnered with DuPont Performance Materials on the development and production of wide, strong and rigid honeycomb panels, with tunable properties, depending on the choice of Dupont polymer used. EconCore’s ThermHex technology has proven to be capable of delivering highperformance sandwich panels at high efficiency and cost levels that, to date, have not been achievable using conventional methods. The honeycomb cores are combined with skins made of Vizilon thermoplastic composite, a very light, continuously reinforced fiber composite sheet based on a high-temperature-resistant, heat-stabilized polyamide matrix. Within the in-line integrated ThermHex technology, Zytel based honeycomb core can be welded with the Vizilon thermoplastic composite, yielding sandwich panels with a very stable core-skin interfacial connection.
For more information, please visit www.econcore.com and booth C37 in Hall 8A during the K-show.