PVC foam core has dominated composite manufacturing for 30 years. That run is ending. Wind energy blade production, the largest consumer of structural foam cores worldwide, has shifted hard toward PET foam core over the past decade. The reason is straightforward: PVC waste gets burned or buried, while PET recycles at conventional facilities. Armacell’s own…
Comparing aluminum sandwich panel specifications without understanding how core materials perform in your actual application is a fast track to project overruns. Honeycomb cores deliver compressive strength and rigidity that foam cores simply cannot match, but they command 3x to 5x the unit price. That premium makes sense for aerospace and high-end curtain wall applications.…
General contractors and developers in 2026 face a brutal combination of escalating labor costs, tightening energy codes, and unforgiving project timelines. The ongoing debate comparing SIPs vs ICFs often distracts from the operational math that actually dictates your bottom line. The hard numbers tell the real story. Field data shows that builders erect structural insulated…
When Airbus subsidiary CTC GmbH ran head-to-head manufacturing trials comparing PMI foam vs honeycomb sandwich structures, the results made several procurement teams reconsider their material specs. A polymethacrylimide foam sheet core delivered 19% lower weight and 25% lower cost than traditional honeycomb construction, while cutting production time by 18 hours on a single aircraft door.…
PP honeycomb panels ship at densities as low as 0.3 g/cm³, roughly 60% lighter than PVC foam boards and a fraction of what aluminum honeycomb weighs. But most distributors I work with lose margin on these panels because their teams handle PP honeycomb panel installation like any standard composite sheet. Wrong adhesives. Skipped surface prep.…
Procurement teams lose weeks comparing aluminum sandwich panels by unit price alone. That approach misses the real cost driver: core material selection. Structural testing data shows honeycomb core panels outperform foam core by 28% in load capacity and at least 19% in bending stiffness. Spec the wrong core type, and you either over-engineer the build…
Aluminum honeycomb still dominates most spec sheets for sandwich panels. That’s changing. After 15 years in composite manufacturing, I’ve watched PP honeycomb panel applications steadily claim market share in automotive, marine, and logistics because the cost-to-performance ratio is difficult to ignore. PP honeycomb core weighs roughly 1/32 of solid aluminum, resists corrosion and chemical exposure…
Ask any fleet manager what drives their material choices, and the answer is always weight. Polypropylene honeycomb panel uses have expanded far beyond simple packaging into demanding structural roles across transportation, marine, and construction — precisely because the material delivers rigidity at roughly 1/32nd the weight of solid aluminum. Our production floor has run these…