Lightweight construction with core materials

Core mate­ri­als are light­weight, porous mate­ri­als used as cores in com­pos­ites such as fiber com­pos­ites or met­al com­pos­ites. They serve to reduce the weight of the work­piece while increas­ing its stiff­ness and strength.

There are dif­fer­ent types of core mate­ri­als, includ­ing foams such as PVC, SAN, PET, poly­styrene or polyurethane, as well as hon­ey­comb struc­tures such as alu­minum or card­board hon­ey­combs and foam cores made of aramid or car­bon fibers.

Core mate­ri­als are usu­al­ly low den­si­ty, light­weight and have high stiff­ness and strength. They also pro­vide excel­lent ther­mal and sound insu­la­tion and are easy to machine.

Core mate­ri­als are used in a wide range of indus­tries, includ­ing aero­space, auto­mo­tive, sports equip­ment and mar­itime light­weight con­struc­tion. They are main­ly used in sand­wich con­struc­tions to reduce the weight of com­po­nents and increase their stiff­ness and strength.

The use of core mate­ri­als can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce com­po­nent weight, result­ing in improved fuel effi­cien­cy and per­for­mance. They also offer greater stiff­ness and strength and improved damp­ing prop­er­ties. In addi­tion, they are easy to machine and can be used in var­i­ous applications.

When select­ing core mate­ri­als, var­i­ous fac­tors must be con­sid­ered, includ­ing the require­ments of the spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tion, such as weight, strength, damp­ing prop­er­ties, heat resis­tance, and resis­tance to mois­ture and chem­i­cals. Selec­tion of the right core mate­r­i­al also depends on man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nolo­gies, cost and availability.