In daily talks with our customers, many are concerned about differences between aluminum honeycomb panels and aluminum composite panels. And some customers are confused with which option to choose for their projects. So our article today tells the differences and similarities between aluminum honeycomb panels and aluminum corrugated panels.

Aluminum honeycomb panels are composed of aluminum face/back sheets with aluminum honeycomb as cores. And aluminum corrugated panels are made of aluminum face/back sheets with aluminum corrugated cores.

Both of the two are composite panels and belong to advanced decoration materials. And both of aluminum honeycomb panels and aluminum corrugated panels are light in weight, great in strength and flatness, fireproof and waterproof. And they also do well in easy installation and costs saving.

If judged with costs, if both with 3-layer composite structures, there are no big differences between aluminum honeycomb panels and aluminum corrugated panels. However thickness of aluminum honeycomb panels can be made as thick as 150mm. And when the thickness becomes thicker, the strength growing stronger. While the applications of aluminum composite panels are limited by thickness, as aluminum corrugate core can be made 15mm the thickest.

And the main difference lies in the core materials. The hexagonal structure of aluminum honeycomb cores makes it the best structure in the earth. This shape well disperses the external forces in all directions and supports each other, making it a perfect mechanical structure. After bonding with aluminum face/back sheet, it forms a small I-beam structure in all directions to get the force. The characteristics of balance and structural stability makes it the most ideal composite core material with high bending stiffness. This is also the reason why aluminum honeycomb structures were first used in aerospace, aviation and other manufacturing fields.

The shape of the corrugated core forms a vertical rib structure, that is, approximately a series of similar U-shaped wave sections, forming a large section moment of inertia I. The stiffness is the product of the elastic modulus E and the corresponding section geometric property I, ExI, so bending rigidity will form when bonding with face/back aluminum sheet. However, the corrugated core is restricted in only 1 direction. After bonding, this direction can still form a certain degree of rigidity, which is far from the U-shaped wave section, and the rigidity capacity is only about 1/3 (refer to the test data). Thus it lies the advantage of the non-directionality of the honeycomb core over the corrugated core.

When using and designing aluminum corrugated panels, we should pay attention to its different directionality, which results in different bending stiffness. While aluminum honeycomb panels do well in bending resistance in all directions. Therefore, in the early design, the panel and panel load-bearing method should be reasonably selected in combination with the actual projects"board installation span, installation and fixing method, local wind pressure, snow pressure and other load conditions.

We have an article talking about aluminum honeycomb panel for marine furniture and interior decoration with links below:

http://www.gpcomposite.com/nd.jsp?id=12#_np=106_351