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Structural polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foam cores used in sandwich constructions in the transportation and building and construction fields will be exhibited at CAMX 2014, the Composite and Advanced Materials Expo, to be held October 14-16 in Orlando, Fl, by Armacell Benelux (Thimister-Clermont, Belgium). Representatives of the supplier will also deliver two presentations on the company's ArmaFORM PET foam core products at the co-located conference running October 13-16.

PlasticsToday Staff

September 15, 2014

2 Min Read
Structural PET foam cores to be introduced at Orlando show

Structural polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foam cores used in sandwich constructions in the transportation and building and construction fields will be exhibited at CAMX 2014, the Composite and Advanced Materials Expo, to be held October 14-16 in Orlando, Fl, by Armacell Benelux (Thimister-Clermont, Belgium). Representatives of the supplier will also deliver two presentations on the company's ArmaFORM PET foam core products at the co-located conference running October 13-16.

General Manager, Technical Service, Stefan Reuterlov will present: "Development of durable train floor concept compliant with EN 45545". The work has been carried out to evaluate the suitability of different material combinations, core and resin system for a train floor. The floor has to pass relevant standards including the new European EN 45545-2 flame smoke toxicity (FST) standard. The focus has been to design a lightweight floor system with high damage tolerance to give a long service life and trouble-free maintenance.

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PET-based structural foam cores are thermoformable.

Business Development Manager, B&C, Henri Chapelle will present: "PET core materials for structural sandwich application in building and construction". Over the past decades, sandwich structures have seen tremendous changes in design mainly due to the evolution of materials and processes. Among those, the core of sandwich structure is today key materials to design advanced composite efficiently. The presentation aims to substantiate attributes of PET foam cores for advanced composite sandwich structures in the building and construction sector.

Besides building and construction and rail, the structural PET foam core products are also used in the transportation, and marine and wind turbine sectors.

Key to the success of ArmaFORM PET is reportedly a combination of excellent fatigue properties, very good temperature stability compared with most other foam cores, as well as excellent compatibility with all resins and manufacturing methods. The foam cores can be thermoformed, boast excellent long-term thermal stability, and are limited in density variation (<5kg/m3).

In thermoforming processes, ArmaFORM properties are not degraded in terms of grid scoring or additional weight and costs because of surface layer resin ingress. The closed cell structure, meanwhile, ensures minimal humidity absorption, and it also reportedly reduces the risk of physical degradation. Furthermore, PET foam cores can be recycled at the end of their lifetime in a similar manner to the recycling of PET beverage bottles.

The ArmaFORM PET product family comprises three grades: the standard grade PET AC; the flame-retardant PET FR, and PET GR for highly ecological concepts. All Armacell PET foam cores are manufactured according to an energy and resource-optimized production process (100% re-use of material loss, no ozone-depleting HFH or CFC blowing agents).

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