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A futuristic material for the aerospace industry and other high-tech applications that follows Nature’s example
Selters / Düsseldorf. Great success for the Industry Services division of Schütz GmbH & Co. KgaA in Selters, Westerwald, at the international plastics fair K2004 in Düsseldorf. The company’s presentation of Cormaster Nomex Honeycombs – a lightweight material developed according to Nature’s example – met with unexpectedly great interest from the international trade public thanks to the material’s broad spectrum of applications.
The base product looks like paper, feels like paper and is as thin and light as paper, but it is, in fact, a refined polyamide. It is the basis for the high-tech material which Schütz recognised as having a great future in multifunctional applications as long ago as the early 80s.
Properties such as extreme strength and durability coupled with very low weight, absolute corrosion resistance, high elasticity under pressure in hot and damp conditions, tremendous temperature stability, low flash point and, last but not least, easiest possible processing make Cormaster Nomex Honeycombs the ideal candidate for applications in the aerospace industry especially. The lightweight material has long since proved its worth in aircraft construction both as floor tiles inside the cabin and as elements in the outer skin or tail-planes of aircraft. Various manufacturers put their faith in the product’s performance. For instance, when the new Airbus A380 takes off on its maiden flight next year, it will also have the Schütz material on board.
There are several applications for the material in helicopters and in modern train construction, too – as well as in motor racing, where entire cockpits, spoilers and body elements are produced on a Cormaster base. And when, in the coming winter season, the World Cup ski jumpers set out to leap further than ever, Schütz will have given their equipment the necessary stability and lightness.
With Cormaster, therefore, Schütz rang in a new era in modern yacht construction by producing entire hulls in the innovative material. In 1993, the Container, built according to exactly the same principle, became the first German high-performance yacht to win the unofficial world championship of ocean-going yachts by gaining a sensational victory in the Admirals Cup.
Schütz is one of only a handful of companies around the world capable of producing this type of lightweight material.
The polyamide sheets are first partially printed (in strips) with an adhesive specially developed for the purpose by Schütz and then placed slightly offset, one on top of the other. Pressure is brought to bear on the stack so that the sheets stick together. These are then expanded mechanically, creating a hexagonal cell shape reminiscent of a giant honeycomb. The resultant block is then heated and dipped in a special phenol mixture to stabilise it and can then by sawn into slabs of varying size.
Cormaster Nomex Honeycombs from Schütz – a many times proven and versatile lightweight material for the future with a high-tech character due in no small measure to up-to-the-minute, highly automated production technologies, in-house test laboratories, great flexibility of production as well as, necessarily, the highest quality standards.
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