Floor panels

Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Back

Floor panels

Author	Message
MarkMK	MarkMK posted 9 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 338, Visits: 2K	I'm thinking of replacing the floor panels on my kit car with carbon ones. Current panels are rivetted in place and are approximately 1mm thick. The seat bases are bolted through steel mounting straps running across the floor, so they take the weight of the seat/driver, but the floor will be stepped upon when getting in and out etc. Do you think nomex/aluminium/foam cored panels would work best and be structurally better than, say, a 2mm pure carbon panel (estimate that this thickness might be need so as not to deflect too much)? Additionally, I'm looking for the best method of finishig the edges of the panels, if cored, in order to provide a good mounting surface to then rivet to the chassis tubes. Would these need to be built up somewhat yo match the thickness of the cored main structure? Any thoughts/prior experience?
	Reply Like 3
f1rob	f1rob posted 9 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 237, Visits: 4.8K	Have the core/foam undersize and 45 the edge so in the areas where it is under a chassis rail both laminated meet and you only mount through solid carbon
	Reply Like 3
MarkMK	MarkMK posted 9 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 338, Visits: 2K	Thanks for that Rob Is it easy to create an angle when using a honeycomb core? Not having worked with it previously, I'm not certain what to expect when trimming or cutting it, especially the Nomex variant?
	Reply Like 3
ChrisR	ChrisR posted 9 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 363, Visits: 3K	Use a nice stiff foam, it will help with sound dampening, whereas a honeycomb won't. It's also easy to shape with a knife/saw/sandpaper/sander/tablesaw etc... I've not used the easy composites foam but I do use Gurit M80 a lot (closed cell foam also) and honestly cannot see the advantage of using honeycomb on a small area, especially when not using prepreg - it's a pain the proverbial having to multistage the process rather than one shot in the bag
	Reply Like 3
ChrisR	ChrisR posted 9 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 363, Visits: 3K	Just re-read your original post - why would you bother with a core on a 2mm thick floor panel? If you want to then maybe use corecork rather than a thin foam. Honeycomb will collapse with repeated point loads (like standing on the thing). I'm replacing a floor panel at the moment on a boat that has had the core collapse, 1in honeycomb with 1/16 ali top and bottom
	Reply Like 3
Dravis	Dravis posted 9 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 592, Visits: 1.9K	IMHO a 2 mm thick (Even a 1,5 mm ) solid carbon/kevlar mixed panel/flor plate will outperform the original 1 mm aluminum, it will certainly be just as stiff, provided that you lay up with some of the CF/kevlar at 45 deg . (or buy some of the cheap biaxial that EC has on sale .. great stuff .. ) a 2 mm Infused CF panel will use about 8 layers of 200 gsm CF cloth -- I would go for 2 -3 layers of "outside" in the pattern you want and then 2 layers of 300 gsm biaxial -- That will certainly be just as strong as a 1 mm alu plate .. "Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW! The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind... 103% of all people do not understand statistics... Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)
	Reply Like 2