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10 Things You Need to Know about Aluminum Honeycomb Panel

Aluminum honeycomb panel is a honeycomb sandwich plate with honeycomb structure as its core, which is inspired by the natural hexagonal honeycomb. The unique honeycomb structure makes its weight lighter than other materials in the same volume, and the stiffness and overall stability is very good as well, what’s more, aluminum honeycomb panel also has the advantages of sound insulation and heat insulation. The aluminum alloys are neither radioactive nor volatile. They can be completely recycled and reused, then saving resources and energy, and minimizing environmental pollution. This makes honeycomb aluminum panels used as a new energy-saving, environmentally friendly and healthy material.

Compared with other materials, aluminum honeycomb panel has many advantages:

1. Lightweight and low density.

The core layer of the honeycomb panel is a typical cellular structure, the continuous polygonal cells are regularly arranged, so that the solid portion of the honeycomb panel has a small cross-sectional area, so the density of honeycomb panel is lower than the other sandwich materials. Since the density of honeycomb panel is much smaller than that of ordinary sheets such as laminates and steel sheets, the weight is also the lightest in same volume. It is only 9% of FRP laminate, 11% of steel, and 23% of aluminum alloy, which makes aluminum honeycomb panel can save a lot of energy for aircraft application. The feature of low-density and light-weight makes the honeycomb panel meet the requirements of “lightweight, energy-saving and environmentally friendly” materials for aerospace engineering aircraft and transportation vehicles.

2. High strength and good rigidity.

According to mechanical analysis, the structure of honeycomb panel is connected with each other like I-beams. The skin sheet bears the in-plane load like I-beam flange, function of honeycomb core is similar to the web of I-beam, bearing shear stress, connecting and support both skin sheet. However, different with I-beam web, the honeycomb core is not a thin rib but a dense reinforcement. The core layer is bonded to the entire surface of the board, and the height of core layer is much larger than the thickness of skin sheet, which makes section inertia moment multiplied, the overall stability is also increased while the overall stiffness is increased.

3. Good impact resistance and vibration damping.

When the honeycomb panel is subjected to external impact, the impact force can be converted into the plastic deformation energy of the honeycomb core, therefore, impact energy can be effectively absorbed. Through the self-dropping ball impact test on the aluminum honeycomb panel, there is no crack by inspecting dent area and depth of impact site, it indicate that the toughness of the aluminum honeycomb panel is better and the impact resistance is stronger, and most of the energy can be absorbed by its own deformation. The damping effect is good.

4. Sound insulation and heat insulation.  

The material used to produce the honeycomb panel itself has no heat insulation and sound insulation properties, aluminum is a good conductor of heat and sound. However, the unique structure of the honeycomb panel makes it has good heat insulation and sound insulation performance.

The core is a cellular structure, hexagon hole occupies most of the space. For example, a honeycomb panel is 51.96×48.00×12.20mm, foil thickness of honeycomb core is 0.1mm. The solid part is only 4% of the total volume. After the composition of honeycomb core and skin sheet, the cells are hexagonal column-shaped closed spaces, and the air layer between skin sheets is also divided into a plurality of closed cells, preventing air flow, and heat is difficult to convert and transmit. In this structure, the propagation of sound waves is also greatly limited, so the honeycomb panel has pretty good heat insulation and sound insulation properties.

5. Non-combustible and moisture resistance.

The aluminum panel is made of aluminum plate and aluminum honeycomb core. The aluminum alloy is a non-combustible material, which plays a good role in fire retardant and fire protection. In addition, the aluminum alloy itself has good chemical stability, corrosion resistance, and moisture resistance.

6. Good formability and optional thickness.

The thickness of the honeycomb aluminum panel can be selected at 6mm-100mm according to actual needs, and the shape can also be made into a flat plate, a single curved panel or a double curved panel according to specific requirements. Honeycomb aluminum panel not only has good formability but also is not easily deformed after forming.

7. No pollution, energy saving and environmental protection.

The raw material of aluminum honeycomb panel is aluminum alloy, which is not radioactive and does not volatilize any harmful gases. Honeycomb panels can also be completely recycled, saving resources and energy, and meeting the requirements of energy saving and environmental protection. In addition, the honeycomb panel reduces the load of the transportation vehicle, improves the power, reduces the fuel consumption, and exhaust pollution while saving energy.

8. Beautiful appearance and easy to clean.

The skin sheet of honeycomb panel can be used directly (mill finish) or coated with different colors or patterns. (RAL color, wooden patterns or even stone patterns)

APPLICATION

1. For Architecture

In the field of construction, aluminum honeycomb panels are often used to make ceilings for subway stations, large shopping malls, conference rooms, curtain walls, louvers and roofs for high-rise buildings, as well as screen dividers, soundproof panels, portable mobile homes for banks and hotels. The aluminum honeycomb panel not only has a good decorative effect but also can utilize the characteristics of vibration damping to reduce the casualties and property losses caused by the earthquake.

(honeycomb panel for soffit decoration)

2. For Aviation, ships, high-speed vehicles 

Due to the above advantages, aluminum honeycomb panels are widely used in aviation, aerospace, transportation, construction, military and other areas. For example, Used for rocket fairings, aircraft wings and warehouses, train bulkheads and floors, car skins and doors, ceilings and curtain walls for building., In application of wings and vertical tail, as well as the cockpit, cargo floor, and the door partition or cargo compartment, The honeycomb panels can effectively reduce the weight of aircraft and improve the handling sensitivity of moving parts.

How to Choose High-quality Aluminum Honeycomb Panel?With the rapid developing of economic, all kinds of high-end buildings and high-rise buildings are towering everywhere. The green building materials like aluminum wall panels, aluminum honeycomb panels are widely used in the top grade buildings. There are more and more aluminum cladding and honeycomb panel manufacturers across the country, but the scale of some is uneven, and their products quality cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, it’s very important to choose high-quality aluminum honeycomb panel. There are three main features:

1. Face sheet of aluminum honeycomb panel

Normally, the material of aluminum honeycomb panel face sheet is selected from 3000 and 5000 series, instead of 1000 series. The surface treatment is spray coating or roller painting, the coating is polyester or fluorocarbon paint. For exterior wall panel, it would be better to choose 3 layer spray coating, the paint layer is ≥40μm. This ensures the durability of the coating, then the color of honeycomb panel surface can keep long.

The aluminum plate is subjected to a strict surface anodization before painting to ensure sufficient coating adhesion and bonding strength with the honeycomb core.

The aluminum plate should be treated strictly by anodization on surface before painting. By this treatment, it ensures sufficient coating adhesion on aluminum plate and bonding strength with the honeycomb core.

2. Face sheet of aluminum honeycomb panel

The face sheet and base sheet should be the same material, and the surface should be anodized. The expose side should be coated with protective coating, such as polyester, epoxy or acrylic. The coating can prevent the aluminum sheet from air corrosion during the long-term exposure.

3. Aluminum core

The aluminum honeycomb core material is manufactured by aluminum foil and special honeycomb node glue on the aluminum honeycomb core production line. The factors affecting the performance of the honeycomb core material mainly include parameters such as aluminum foil, node glue, and honeycomb core specifications.

3.1 Aluminum foil

The aluminum foil should be 3000 series with strict surface treatment. When the products with high strength or durability requirements, it should be very cautious to adopt 1100 pure aluminum as the honeycomb core material.

3.2 Adhesive

We use Bio-component polymer epoxy adhesive film and Bi-component modified epoxy resin. It not only provides sufficient bonding strength but also has excellent environmental resistance and high and low-temperature resistance. Common adhesives tend to degum the honeycomb core due to low strength, resulting in overall failure and instability.

The node strength of the honeycomb core is the main basis for evaluating its performance, and its node strength data should be ≥2.0N/mm.

8 Reasons to Choose Stone Honeycomb Panel

Nowadays, stone honeycomb panel is more and more popular in architecture application. Following 8 reasons to choose stone honeycomb panel for architecture application.

1. Lightweight.

The marble composite panel can be 5mm (Compounded with aluminum honeycomb panel), the thickness of ceramic/granite composite panel is just 12mm, Because of lightweight, it can save a lot of transportation cost. The reduced weight of the panel also means less load stress is applied to the building or structure, It’s the most appropriate choice when there is load limited for building structure.

2. High strength and superrigidity.

With the combination of marble, ceramic tile, granite, and aluminum honeycomb panel, the intensity of stone honeycomb panel is better than the traditional stone slab. The bending resistance and shear resistance are obviously improved, which greatly reduces the damage rate during transportation, installation, and use.

3. Improved anti-pollution capability.

Ordinary marble original board (general bodyboard) is installed by cement wet stick generally, very likely half a year or a year later, marble surface appears all sorts of different change color and besmirch, purify hard. The stone honeycomb panel avoids this because the aluminum base sheet is harder and denser, and there is also a thin layer of glue.

4. Easy to control color differently.

The marble honeycomb panel is split into 3 pieces or 4 pieces slice with 3M2 or 4M2 using a 1M2 original slab. The pattern and color of these 3M2 or 4M2 slice is almost 100% the same, so it is easier to ensure the consistency of color and pattern when a large area is used.

5. Easy to install.

Lightweight, high rigidity (not easy breakable) less color difference property make installation easier, safer and faster, reduce installation cost.

6. Sound insulation and moisture proof.

The stone aluminum honeycomb panel is made of aluminum honeycomb panel and stone veneer. It has the properties of sound insulation, moisture proof, heat insulation and cold resistance because of its hollow hexagonal honeycomb core structure. The air layer between skin sheets is also divided into a plurality of closed cells, preventing air flow, and heat is difficult to convert and transmit. In this structure, the propagation of sound waves is also greatly limited.

6. Sound insulation and moisture proof.

The stone aluminum honeycomb panel is made of aluminum honeycomb panel and stone veneer. It has the properties of sound insulation, moisture proof, heat insulation and cold resistance because of its hollow hexagonal honeycomb core structure. The air layer between skin sheets is also divided into a plurality of closed cells, preventing air flow, and heat is difficult to convert and transmit. In this structure, the propagation of sound waves is also greatly limited.