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#1
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
I apologize, this is unrelated to aviation, but it is a question about
a material some of you may be familiar with. I recently found this material in my lab, and for the life of me, I can not find out where it came from. It is perfect for a project I am currently working on, and I would love to find where I can order more. It basically looks like Styrofoam with a kevlar shell. I cut off a sample and took some pictures: http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdmaterial1.jpg http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdmaterial2.jpg http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdmaterial3.jpg http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdmaterial4.jpg http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdmaterial5.jpg One side is just the kevlar type material with the kevlar texture, the other side is also kevlar, but painted black and smooth to the touch. It is extremely lightweight and very strong. We have a piece that looks like it was 4'x6' or so, and was used to hold solar cells. If you know anything about what this material is and where I might be able to get more, I would love you. |
#2
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
On Feb 17, 4:10 pm, "
wrote: I apologize, this is unrelated to aviation, but it is a question about a material some of you may be familiar with. I recently found this material in my lab, and for the life of me, I can not find out where it came from. It is perfect for a project I am currently working on, and I would love to find where I can order more. It basically looks like Styrofoam with a kevlar shell. I cut off a sample and took some pictures: http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdm...dmaterial5.jpg One side is just the kevlar type material with the kevlar texture, the other side is also kevlar, but painted black and smooth to the touch. It is extremely lightweight and very strong. We have a piece that looks like it was 4'x6' or so, and was used to hold solar cells. If you know anything about what this material is and where I might be able to get more, I would love you. The foam looks like about 3lb/foot divinycell, the laminate - maybe kevlar, but it doesn't look like any kevlar I know of. How many do you want, and what area are you in? |
#3
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
On Feb 18, 1:51 am, wrote:
On Feb 17, 4:10 pm, " wrote: I apologize, this is unrelated to aviation, but it is a question about a material some of you may be familiar with. I recently found this material in my lab, and for the life of me, I can not find out where it came from. It is perfect for a project I am currently working on, and I would love to find where I can order more. It basically looks like Styrofoam with a kevlar shell. I cut off a sample and took some pictures: http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdm.../losingallhope.... One side is just the kevlar type material with the kevlar texture, the other side is also kevlar, but painted black and smooth to the touch. It is extremely lightweight and very strong. We have a piece that looks like it was 4'x6' or so, and was used to hold solar cells. If you know anything about what this material is and where I might be able to get more, I would love you. The foam looks like about 3lb/foot divinycell, the laminate - maybe kevlar, but it doesn't look like any kevlar I know of. How many do you want, and what area are you in? I don't have the measurements on hand, but I need about 4, 8' x 3' pieces, or enough to make that many pieces. I'm in the Austin, TX area. |
#4
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
On Feb 18, 1:17 am, "
wrote: On Feb 18, 1:51 am, wrote: On Feb 17, 4:10 pm, " wrote: I apologize, this is unrelated to aviation, but it is a question about a material some of you may be familiar with. I recently found this material in my lab, and for the life of me, I can not find out where it came from. It is perfect for a project I am currently working on, and I would love to find where I can order more. It basically looks like Styrofoam with a kevlar shell. I cut off a sample and took some pictures: http://losingallhope.com/temp/weirdm.../losingallhope.... One side is just the kevlar type material with the kevlar texture, the other side is also kevlar, but painted black and smooth to the touch. It is extremely lightweight and very strong. We have a piece that looks like it was 4'x6' or so, and was used to hold solar cells. If you know anything about what this material is and where I might be able to get more, I would love you. The foam looks like about 3lb/foot divinycell, the laminate - maybe kevlar, but it doesn't look like any kevlar I know of. How many do you want, and what area are you in? I don't have the measurements on hand, but I need about 4, 8' x 3' pieces, or enough to make that many pieces. I'm in the Austin, TX area. Are you sure you want Kevlar? It's very hard to work with (in laminated form, frays wherever you cut or drill it). If it's to hold solar cells I'd use fiberglass - almost as light, WAY cheaper and easier to work with. Both the Kevlar and foam are available from Aircraft Spruce. If you want prelaminated panels, they're also available, I can look for names. |
#5
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
I second the idea that unless you specifically need Kevlar face
sheets, it is overkill and a totally needless expense. It is relatively easy to make your own but if you want commercially available stuff the two largest commercial suppliers a http://www.bellcomb.com/ and . . . http://www.panelteccorp.com/ Note that if you mention that you got their contact information from an aviation-related source they will hang up on you immediately. If you are doing anything OTHER than aviation they will talk to you just fine. Both companies can probably ID the product from the photos you have, but again--unless you have a specific spec for Kevlar, fiberglass is much cheaper and infinitely easier to work with. The core choice is driven by what the panel will be exposed to in terms of temp, chemicals, and the required thickness. There are a few major families of foam, each with good but differing properties. There is also honeycomb of various types, which are suited to particular situations but require a little extra work and ideally should have glue sheet between the face sheets and the core. Take-home message--stick with foam if you can. In our own project we recently switched away from honeycomb cores and went back to Divinycell. Counter-intuitively, this saved both money and weight. |
#6
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
"Steve S." wrote in message ... I second the idea that unless you specifically need Kevlar face sheets, it is overkill and a totally needless expense. It is relatively easy to make your own but if you want commercially available stuff the two largest commercial suppliers a http://www.bellcomb.com/ and . . . http://www.panelteccorp.com/ Note that if you mention that you got their contact information from an aviation-related source they will hang up on you immediately. If you are doing anything OTHER than aviation they will talk to you just fine. Both companies can probably ID the product from the photos you have, but again--unless you have a specific spec for Kevlar, fiberglass is much cheaper and infinitely easier to work with. The core choice is driven by what the panel will be exposed to in terms of temp, chemicals, and the required thickness. There are a few major families of foam, each with good but differing properties. There is also honeycomb of various types, which are suited to particular situations but require a little extra work and ideally should have glue sheet between the face sheets and the core. Take-home message--stick with foam if you can. In our own project we recently switched away from honeycomb cores and went back to Divinycell. Counter-intuitively, this saved both money and weight. Given the same core thickness and cloth weave, won't he gain a little stiffness on a panel this thin with fiberglass as well? |
#7
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
On Feb 18, 1:33 pm, "Maxwell" wrote:
Given the same core thickness and cloth weave, won't he gain a little stiffness on a panel this thin with fiberglass as well? On paper, yes. Kevlar (aramid) is not a particularly stiff fiber. In the lineup between glass, carbon & Kevlar, the Kevlar comes in last in terms of stiffness. Actually it comes in last for just about everything except impact tolerance/cut resistance/abrasion resistance-- at which it is superb and of course is mostly what it is used for. In use in a panel you would have to get out the good tools to measure the difference in deflection between any of them. As long as the face sheets are bonded nicely and you've got a decent core material, almost any laminate panel is honkin' stiff. |
#8
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
The core foam is Divinycell, at a guess I'd say H60. And I'd say
you're right about the face sheets, that's almost certainly some sort of aramid like Kevlar (tm). Premanufactured sheets of this stuff can be had, but it's generally an aerospace or military item and priced accordingly in the hundreds of dollars per pound. Fortunately, its easy enough to make with garden-variety materials and techniques. As others note, plain old fiberglass will yield greater stiffness than the Aramid, and for the most part stiffness is what you sense the most directly, not strength. Thanks, Bob K. http://www.hpaircraft.com |
#9
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Kevlar - Styrofoam material, where to get more
Bob Kuykendall wrote:
The core foam is Divinycell, at a guess I'd say H60. And I'd say you're right about the face sheets, that's almost certainly some sort of aramid like Kevlar (tm). Premanufactured sheets of this stuff can be had, but it's generally an aerospace or military item and priced accordingly in the hundreds of dollars per pound. Fortunately, its easy enough to make with garden-variety materials and techniques. As others note, plain old fiberglass will yield greater stiffness than the Aramid, and for the most part stiffness is what you sense the most directly, not strength. Thanks, Bob K. http://www.hpaircraft.com Sheets -- with pricing... http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...nycellfoam.php |
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