Belgian company EconCore actively licenses its technology for the continuous production of polypropylene (PP) honeycomb core materials, to companies around the world in various industry sectors. The advantage of being able to produce core materials with optimized performance-to-weight ratios, at high speeds, in high volumes, and with the lowest possible costs, has reportedly brought the honeycomb structure &#; once reserved for aerospace and low volume, less cost-sensitive domains &#; to mass markets.
Lightweight, foldable and durable storage and delivery boxes utilize a PP-based honeycomb structure.
Reusable foldable sleeve packs with heavy duty layer pads collapse to take up to 80% less volume on the return trip.
The early breakthroughs for EconCore&#;s technology were in packaging, with the company&#;s first licensee in Japan (Gifu Plastics) focusing on lightweight high-performance solutions made with polypropylene honeycomb-cored sandwich panels. Over time, the advantages offered by an efficient material geometry produced with an efficient technology have attracted many more new users focusing on packaging &#; and other sectors too &#; with EconCore&#;s licensing footprint now also including automotive, transportation, building and construction, and PP core materials for composites.
Packaging remains the cornerstone of EconCore&#;s licensing business, with the largest share of licensing dedicated to applications in this sector. Building on this experience and the growing market share for honeycomb materials in packaging materials, EconCore technology is now a more attractive opportunity than ever for packaging companies as they plan new investments.
The honeycomb structure is recognized as optimal in terms of material utilization for performance. A comparison of the different core structures used today in packaging confirms this view. Consider the conventional fluted design (widely known as twin-wall corrugated), with its direction-specific structure: although rigid and strong in the longitudinal (machine) direction, these properties are much lower in the cross direction. Packaging materials made with a true honeycomb core structure have superior and more directionally-balanced performance than the conventional fluted design &#; and they also weigh less.
Cup-shaped core structures, also common in packaging, exhibit a more balanced bi-directional performance in general, compared to fluted structures. However, in terms of compression strength and weight, the true honeycomb structure significantly outperforms cup-shaped core materials.
Whereas the non-isotropic design of the fluted structure clearly explains the imbalance in performance, for cup-shaped structures the reason is due to the production process. During the forming process to make the cup-shape core, the material is stretched severely and unevenly, leading to very thin walls in the cup tops and a reduction in mechanical performance. This is particularly acute for thicker packaging parts, as the stretching increases directly with thickness increase.
The true honeycomb core structure created by the EconCore process, with its hexagonal cells initially oriented horizontally and then folded vertically with adjacent walls all connected to each other, shows greater rigidity, a higher flexural modulus, higher flexural strength and higher compression strength. It is well known from aerospace applications that a hexagonal honeycomb is overall the best design for sandwich structures. With the EconCore technology, this core geometry is available for industrial packaging applications.
The growth in reusable industrial packaging for honeycomb core materials has been very evident over the last few years &#; especially among European automotive OEMs who use collapsible sleeve pack systems for internal transportation of parts to their various assembly locations. It is estimated that upwards of 20% of this market is made up today of sleeve packs made using EconCore technology. Growth is continuing at a rapid pace.
The mechanical performance of products made using EconCore technology, with their honeycomb structure in the package walls, contributes to the growth in the OEM market. Consider sleeve packs having an areal density of g/m², one set made with true honeycomb core made using EconCore technology and another set made with a cup-type core: the compression strength for the honeycomb core is on average 65 percent higher than for the cup-type core. The honeycomb core sleeve packs also show more consistency of performance.
These results show that honeycomb core materials are clearly raising the bar in performance and are emerging as the new standard in reusable industrial packaging. This superior performance provides a great opportunity for the sleeve pack producer to reduce weight per piece, leading to dramatic bottom-line benefits through reduced material and energy costs and potentially at even higher output speeds.
Since the first production line using EconCore technology for honeycomb panels was started up, the development and commercialization of a broad range of products to meet various needs in packaging, some geographically specific, has taken place. In Japan for example, Gifu Plastics, which invested in a second production line to meet the market demand, has developed a variety of sleeve boxes to meet specific customer needs; these include boxes with four-side opening and closing, sleeve boxes with a transparent view section integrated into the packaging, and boxes with aluminum frames for exceptionally heavy goods, to mention a few.
Gifu Plastics is also extending into other industrial packaging/logistics solutions, such as lightweight washable pallets with honeycomb core materials, as well as layer pads for protection of goods during transport and for in plant material handling. Gifu Plastics also has a range of foldable storage and delivery boxes of various dimensions, components for carry-carts, container covers and even partition walls for logistics facilities.
Italian thermoplastic packaging manufacturer Karton of uses EconCore technology for producing industrial packaging solutions that are setting a new standard in performance. Honeycomb core sandwich panels made by Karton are used for sleeve packs in collapsible reusable packaging systems that significantly out-perform alternatives. By combining its expertise in packaging with the technology to produce true honeycomb structured materials, Karton is delivering a world-leading solution that benefits the user of reusable packaging solutions with high performance per unit weight and the potential to increase reuse cycles. Extending its range of honeycomb core packaging materials, Karton is also offering solutions for automotive component logistics with heavy duty layer pads to protect delicate and costly automotive components during transport.
Since installing its honeycomb panel production line, EconCore technology user Röplast of Turkey had focused largely on developing its business for automotive interior cladding applications. However, Röplast recently took a major step forward by extending its offering to include reusable industrial packaging. Its HexaPak reusable packaging system is proving popular in the Turkish market, especially for intra-and inter-site logistics.
HexaPak foldable containers collapse to take up to 80% less volume; this makes them ideal in the reusable industrial packaging cycle, where goods are loaded and transported, with empty containers then either being refilled to continue their path in the logistics chain, or are collapsed and returned to the source location for reuse. HexaPak, made using EconCore technology, delivers high performance-to-weight, with the number of cycles that containers can withstand potentially being greater than traditional packaging.
As the name suggests, honeycomb is a hive built by bees. It is composed of several hexagons. This structure is not only high in strength, but also exquisite and material-saving. When packaging with honeycomb paper, while reducing the use of materials, it can also provide reliable buffer protection for the wrapped items, so that the items are not damaged during transportation and reduce costs. Today, we will talk about the honeycomb packing paper.
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Honeycomb paper is made based on the principle of honeycomb structure in nature. It uses glue bonding to connect corrugated paper into countless hollow three-dimensional regular hexagons to form an integral stress-bearing part &#; the paper core, and bond the surfaces on both sides. A new type of environmentally friendly and energy-saving material with a sandwich structure made of paper.
Compared with various other plate structures, the honeycomb sandwich structure has the largest strength/mass ratio, so its finished products have a good performance/price ratio, which is the key to the success of honeycomb paper.
The honeycomb sandwich structure is approximately isotropic, has good structural stability, and is not easily deformed. Its outstanding compression resistance and bending resistance are the most important characteristics required for box packaging materials.
Honeycomb packing paper is made of flexible paper core and tissue. It has good toughness and resilience. The unique honeycomb sandwich structure provides excellent cushioning performance and has a higher energy absorption value per unit volume among all cushioning materials. , high-thickness honeycomb paper can replace the EPS plastic foam cushion that is widely used today.
The interior of the honeycomb sandwich structure is a closed chamber filled with air, so it has good sound insulation and thermal insulation properties.
Honeycomb paper is entirely made of recyclable paper materials and can be 100% recycled and reused. Waste products and leftover materials from the corrugated box production process can also be die-cut and bonded to make honeycomb corrugated sheets of various shapes. Cardboard buffer lining can be degraded and absorbed by nature even if it is discarded. It is a good green and environmentally friendly packaging material.
Bees use the least amount of materials to build the largest and strongest hive. According to scientific research, the geometric structure of the honeycomb forms an overall structure like an arch bridge, thereby increasing the compressive strength of the surface by 100 times. The honeycomb cardboard adopts a honeycomb structure, so it also obtains the maximum volume and volume with the least material consumption. Maximum strength and stiffness.
Honeycomb paperboard has a core structure and has excellent buffering and vibration isolation functions, which is close to EPS.
The honeycomb holes of the honeycomb core have a closed structure, which is filled with air and does not circulate with each other, so it has good heat insulation and sound insulation properties.
By changing the thickness and weight of the core paper or changing the pore diameter and core column height of the honeycomb core, the honeycomb paperboard can obtain different strengths and stiffnesses.
Honeycomb cardboard is an all-paper material that is easy to undergo special processing to obtain special properties such as waterproofing, flame retardancy, mildew resistance, and curing enhancement. This is one of the reasons why honeycomb cardboard can be widely used.
Since honeycomb cardboard has been dried by infrared rays or microwaves during the production process, it is equivalent to disinfection and sterilization. Therefore, export does not require fumigation and is exempt from quarantine. This can replace wood to a certain extent and be used for the packaging of export products.
Honeycomb cardboard is pollution-free during the production process, can be recycled, and is easy to dispose of, so it can replace EPS as a cushioning material.
Honeycomb paper has a wide range of applications. Currently, there are nine main application areas, namely: inner packaging, outer packaging, paper pallets, honeycomb furniture, honeycomb lightweight walls, automotive industry, health centers, missile military industry, advertising display racks, etc. wait.
The manufacturer&#;s production capacity determines its delivery speed and the manufacturer&#;s strength. In general family workshops, the quality is very unstable, sometimes good and sometimes bad, and there is no guarantee of product qualification rate. Therefore, the manufacturer&#;s production capacity and strength are crucial.
Be sure to look at the expansion of the honeycomb paper core. Some adhesives are used unevenly, do not stretch well, and have different pore sizes, all of which affect the use of the honeycomb packing paper core. You must carefully look at which type of paper it belongs to. It is worth mentioning. Yes, I found that many paper cores look very beautiful, but are broken when scratched. In this way, the reuse rate of a honeycomb paper core is often almost 0.
Price is a reflection of value. As the saying goes: cheap goods are not good. Although this statement is somewhat absolute, it is not unreasonable. Generally, from materials to labor to transportation, it is impossible to make anything lower than 0,7usd/kg, so Believe in your own eyes and don&#;t be greedy for petty gains while saving costs.
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