Covestro and EconCore join forces in composites development
EconCore and Covestro are combining their technologies in order to produce strong and lightweight honeycomb panels.
One of the targeted key performance aspects is to comply with Fire, Smoke, Toxicity (FST) requirements for public transportation applications, including railway and aerospace.
This will be achieved by selecting the right combination of polycarbonate grades and composites for the honeycomb core and skin and at the same time adapting the parameters within EconCore’s honeycomb technology.
Covestro has developed and tested a wide range of polycarbonates and blends with specific grades to meet the FST performance required by railway and aviation applications.
The company is currently developing a range of lightweight thermoplastic composite solutions under the brand name Maezio.
EconCore has developed and patented a unique manufacturing process to produce ultra-light honeycomb structures in an economic way, with a high variety of material combinations that can be fine-tuned to meet customers’ needs.
The manufacturing process developed and patented by EconCore offers significant cost saving potential due to a high-speed and fully integrated continuous production process, where thermoplastic polymers are directly converted into a honeycomb structure and where, in addition, the sandwich skin layers can be immediately laminated onto core.
“We look forward to this new development and to continuing the partnership with Covestro. The polycarbonate-portfolio of our partner, combined with the composite solutions of Maezio, provides us with the variety and quality of materials needed to meet the high technical requirements in mass-transportation markets,’ said Tomasz Czarnecki, COO of EconCore N.V.
“Imagine the potential benefits for the aerospace industry, if it had the option to thermoform sandwich panels into finished parts in a one-shot operation. The industry, already inclining to monolithic thermoplastic composites, has not seen such a change for decades.”