So, I am wondering would Diolen serve as structural material if properly boxed or with core material. The reason here is purely from cost point of view. The planned part would be under torsion, a bit like a wall tv mount but less weight, maybe a kilo, some 20-30cm from the attachment point. The possible torsion and as a result change of angle would not be a good thing in this case. I know CF would do the trick, just trying to figure out whether Diolen would serve as it's considerably cheaper.

Hi Wabba,

Diolen is very good as a reinforcement when stiffness is not critical but impact and abrasion resistance is required (ideal for things like kayaks or inner wheel arches on a car).

In your case it is probably not the best solution because it will not perform as well as other reinforcements would in resistance to torsion over a panel. I low cost alternative to carbon fibre would be woven glass fibre laminated with an epoxy matrix, this will offer more stiffness than diolen and it is cheaper still, if you were looking to have the cosmetic finish of carbon you could use carbon fibre as the outer skin and then back this with glass, this is fairly common practice when cost is a more important factor than shear performance.

with regard to core materials, diolen if used in conjuction with a core (like closed cell PVC) can improve the panel stiffness greatly, the further apart the skins are separated the effect of the 'elastic' nature of the diolen will be reduced so you may well be able to achieve the stiffness required this way, however core materials will help to achieve even stiffer panels when used with fibres of a higher youngs modulus such as carbon or glass fibre.

Paul Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical

Many thanks for that Paul, that answered my question.