Laminate Sample #16: G10 Sheet on Aluminum Honeycomb Core

EC! Laminate Sample #16:

  • Reinforcement: 1/32″ G10 sheet
  • Resin: Totalboat 5:1 Epoxy
  • Core: 10mm 40kg Aluminum Honeycomb

Panel weight: 4.54kg per square meter / 14.87 oz per square foot

Thickness 12mm / 0.47″

Overview:

This laminate sample shows how you can make stiff cored panels without actually mixing the fiber and resin yourself. G10 is a ready-made fiberglass sheet product that is easy to use and comes in a wide variety of thicknesses. Here I’m bonding some thin G10 sheet (0.03″ / 0.75mm) on either side of 10mm aluminum honeycomb with 5:1 Totalboat epoxy.

This could be a good way to make quick stiff panels for projects that aren’t otherwise composites – heavy. You could substitute aramid paper / Nomex honeycomb or foam for the core if you wanted to have a better insulator – either thermal or electrical.

No vacuum bag here – just some careful taping and a big heavy angle plate!

Video:

Laminate Schedule:

Things to Improve:

Fix the weight per kg in the graphic! 4,536kg – that’s heavy!

Thicker an perhaps toughened resin. Something like Proset 176/276 might be ideal.

Bonding each side individually so the resin on the top side doesn’t run down into the honeycomb cells. Bonding to honeycomb cells is visually less “good” on the side that was the top when it was laminated. By only bonding the “bottom” and then flipping it over and doing the other side, this could be avoided. Thicker resin or “gel” type viscosity would help too.