Aluminum Sandwich Panels

[Carl Beck]

Hello Everyone:

Does anyone here have experience or knowledge related to fabricating anything using honeycomb core aluminum sandwich panels. ?

 

I'm thinking of building a trailer to haul a car - using them possibly for the floors and side wall's of an enclosed trailer. A labor vs. materials trade off, plus possible weight savings.

 

I'm seeking info related to strength, fabrication process, panel joining etc.

 

thanks,

Carl B.

[Tony D]

My source died. Eberhardt "Eddie" Bromert, former Waffen Panzer Trooper in WWII. Guy refit his entire 55 foot trimaran after getting exposure to a small sheet of milspec honeycomb.

 

Stopped his wood refitting, spent three months solid, every day the library was open reading on the subject. Then tore into his boat, and started doing it all in aluminum honeycomb. Tore out stuff he just installed! Floors, walls, shower cabinet, deck hatches you name it! Eddie refit everything with honeycomb, and could quantify his weight savings on every part. I don't recall exactly but one teakwood hatch he had was something like 140#, and the composite one he made to replace it not only was more water-tight, but weighed on the order of 25 or 55#, and he had something like 12 of them on the boat!

 

Of course, he was getting...er... uh... 'Discounted' Milspec resins and component parts from an...uh... 'associate' down in San Diego. Lots of his stuff was 'grey'...

 

If Eddie was still alive, he would talk your ear off about it, Carl. He would also tell you about the time he met Roger Penske while driving at Sebring. An interesting fellow to be sure.

 

Unless you have a source for surplus/'discoounted' composites you may be better served using aluminum framing on the trailer to keep the weight down, and then using conventional skinning techniques (aluminum sheeting)... The costs related to composite panels can really escalate the project to "Ferarri Level".

 

Might try Polycore:

 

http://www.polycore.com.au/

 

The link is the main page, this is really what you want to see there "Wingy's Trailers":

 

http://www.polycore.com.au/Polycore-Preglassed-Panels.php

 

I believe if Eddie had access to the internet, he would have spontaneously mutated into a self-levitating brainsac, such was his ability and thirst for knowledge. His buddy Pete always said 'Adolph did that to him!' and then would roll his eyes at a 78 year old guy acting like a kid over some gadget that was 'best in class' at whatever it was supposed to do.

Edited March 6, 2010 by Tony D

[Derek]

Hi Carl

This may sound a bit crude but I just built a porch on my house and used a foam sandwich material for the roof panels. It's 3" thick foam with 2 sheets of powdercoated aluminum bonded to them. They come in 4' wide and 2' wide and have an interlocking edge. The stuff is really tough and very reasonably priced. You order it cut to length. It's the same stuff they make walk in cooler with. This would be good for the sides but not the floor.

 

Just a thought.

 

Derek

Edited March 6, 2010 by Derek

[Carl Beck]

Hi Tony:

Thanks for a wonderful story - I'm sure I would have enjoyed knowing Eddie.

 

When I first started out in Aerospace - I worked for a Senior Engineering Fellow, Don McConnel, in the Manned Space Division; your description of Eddie would have fit Don to a tee. Don was a car, airplane and speed boat nut {anything that moved FAST...} .. when he found out that in my earlier life I had a Pilots License and had owned/operated a muffler shop... I became his #1 assistant. Aerospace Systems Engineers were a dime a dozen - but I could bend pipe and weld!! { so much for degrees..}

 

Thanks also for the links to Polycore.. Wingy's Trailers is pretty much the concept that I'm looking at - only on a much smaller scale.

 

Hi Derek:

Thanks for the suggestion. Something along those lines might just fill the bill for some of the roof panels...

 

Carl B.