Kevlar Honeycomb

[Mrtrom]

Does anyone know how tough kevlar honeycomb really is, any do you think it could help protect your robot this year?

[Zyik]

isnt there a thread on this?

[EricH]

isnt there a thread on this?Yes...and no. The other thread was asking "Can it be used?". This thread is, "Is it strong enough?"

The answer: I don't know. I've never played around much with honeycomb materials. I do know that corrugated plastic is plenty strong in the right place, as is lexan.

[Lord_Jewie]

I was looking at the web and thought this might help.

http://www.plascore.com/honeycomb/para-aramid-honeycomb.asp

[comphappy]

Some of that stuff is made to stop a person traveling at terminal velocity. So it depends on what you have.

[Brandon Holley]

That stuff is killer strong....we were considering using it for our ramp platforms last year.

[AHS1599]

How do you cut it or otherwise shape and work with it?

[flightofone]

The honeycomb itself isn't very strong, but is combined as a core in a sandwich with FRPs like fiberglass, kevlar or carbon fiber cloth outer layers. That produces about the strongest, lightest construction possible. There are a number of practical problems with actually making the panels, including epoxy resin toxicity, cutting it (there are special shears), avoiding having the core material soak up the resin (pre-preg with approriate films works for this), avoiding voids (vacuum bagging), and heat curing.
If you are just thinking about it now, you may want to buy pre-fabricated panel material or use aluminum, as there is a steep learning curve to the fabrication. Nomex is another popular core material - slightly less expensive than Kevlar honeycomb. It makes a great off-season activity to build up the expertise.