DragonPlate Nomex Honeycomb sheets are an excellent lightweight composite sheet utilizing a Nomex Honeycomb core. Nomex honeycomb is the standard for lightweight non-metallic composite construction. Commercial Grade honeycomb made with aramid fiber paper (DUPONT Nomex or equivalent) coated with heat resistant phenolic resin offers excellent resiliency, low density, lower pricing, and high strength to weight ratio. Similar to our foam core product line, Nomex honeycomb is another type of sandwich panel. In essence an I-Beam, the honeycomb acting as the web, and the top skins acting as the flanges.
The advantage over an I-Beam is the core creates a box structure giving the panel additional torsional rigidity. Another benefit of the core material is as the core thickness increases the panel's stiffness increases dramatically. The Nomex honeycomb offers additional compressive strength with lower densities when compared to low-density foam cores. Nomex Honeycomb also has properties including moisture resistance, energy absorption, and sound and vibration dampening. The lay-up design is 0/90 uni-directional with twill weave face sheets with approximately 0.03 inches of carbon on each side of a Nomex honeycomb core. DragonPlate Nomex honeycomb core is available in a satin finish on both sides.
Unlike other manufacturers of Nomex honeycomb, DragonPlate has paid close attention to the most critical component of a high-quality honeycomb panel, the bond between the Nomex Honeycomb and the Carbon Fiber skin.
If this bond is poor, the skin will easily peel off from the core, destroying the structural integrity of the panel. The contact area between a honeycomb core and the face skins in a sandwich composite is very small, and hence poor bonding is often a problem with these types of materials if incorrectly manufactured. Since the cell walls are thin, proper bonding of the honeycomb core to the face skins relies on the formation of high-quality fillets. The fillet becomes the mechanism that transmits the loads from the skins into the honeycomb core. Without sufficient fillet size, the face skins will easily peel from the core.