Dear All

Can you clarify how to bond / laminate a sandwich panel from cured flat sheets of carbon fibre using Nomex honeycomb as the core please? Your Nomex honeycomb pages say to use epoxy resin. The aluminium honeycomb recommends a Permabond structural adhesive. Would I be better to use the structural adhesive for Nomex?

Would your recommendation change if I were to use one of your foam core materials.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

John

The ET538 is specifically designed for bonding aluminium honeycomb so is correct for that application.

Normally in industry, higher volume work with nomex is likely to use film adhesives and an oven cure.  This is not always practical for small scale or DIY projects.

A batch of epoxy resin can be mixed and spread onto a surface so that the honeycomb can be dipped into it, coating the contact areas with resin without resulting in un-needed resin in none-contact areas. The honeycomb can then be placed onto the composite sheet and the first side allowed to cure. Once cured, repeat the process by dipping the other side of the honeycomb into resin and weighting it down onto the other skin.

A foam core is a bit easier as you can simply spread the resin onto the foam core using a brush thus minimising resin wastage.


Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

I've found that when bonding the second "skin" onto the nomex honeycomb on curved parts, i make up a hand lay-up second skin, and let that cure to a kind of "soft tack" (Since i need to drape it on the curved honeycomb)  I "prep" the honeycomb by "dabbing" on laminating resin on to it, using a small sponge...

This means that I need only one mould (for the outside of the sandwich) but it also means that the inside skin will be a bit heavier and have a higher resin content.

I tried to infuse a flat piece, and de-bag it before it was fully cured ... what a mess ...

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