Dear Sirs,
               I am constructing a single seater race car for sprints and speed hillclimbs part of  which involves an aluminium alloy monocoque which I wish to stiffen with a honeycomb,or similar,core. Whilst the major part of the monocoque is straight lines and should present little problem, there is a section involving a single,gentle curvature.Is it possible to curve an aluminium honeycomb core to pre-curved alloy panels? or should I instead consider foam core?
Any help or advise would be appreciated before I commit the design to the metal.
Thanks in advance,
Dennis Troman

Hi Dennis,

It sounds like an interesting project.

If the curve that you need the aluminium honeycomb core to comply to is relatively gentle (for example the inside of a wheel arch would not be a problem with a 10 or 15mm honeycomb) then you shouldn't have any difficultly working with aluminium honeycomb. The cells are relatively flexible until the honeycomb is bonded into place meaning that within reason, most steady contours can be accommodated.

I hope this answers your question and gives you the confidence to work with this material in your design.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Thank you very much for the encouraging reply!
Dennis

Dear Sir!

If I infuse some carbon layers and let them cure, will I be able to bond honeycomb on the 'peel ply' face of the carbon skin just with some epoxy? If not, will silica or microballoons help with that? I can't afford buying that special honeycomb bonding adhesive, because I would need too much of it.

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that F1 cars are made up of carbon and nomex honeycomb and not aluminium.

With some kevlar in places to protect the driver from penetrating fragments in the even of a crash.

Fred 

Thanks Matthieu

Yes I see lots of aluminium honey comb on the car. Wonder what the advantage is over nomex? Nomex would be lighter.

Fred

In terms of the original question, yes you could use epoxy thickened as a bonding agent for the honeycomb, however it will not perform as well as a specific adhesive.  But it may well perform good enough for your needs.  You can only find that out by making a simple test panel.

In F1 they will use the best material for the specific application (costs arent a factor - well not in any terms us mere mortals would consider!) hence the mixture of nomex and alloy honeycombs.

In terms of comparing the two, your typical aluminium honey comb is usually structurally  stronger than a nomex equivilent.   However a nomex core would be significantly lighter but massively more expensive.  Some of the new top end nomex's perform structurally as good as and sometimes better than an aluminium honeycomb but are silly expensive.

Unless you are seriously into lightweight model or real aviation, then for most uses, aluminium based honeycomb is perfectly good enough.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant