Honeycomb expansion machine

Customer

Aeronautic

Our client, who has recently joined a French and international industrial group, specialises in the design and manufacture of equipment based on composite panels, for the interior fittings of rail, air and sea transport.

Manufactured product

"Honeycomb "slices

Honeycombs are structures used to increase the strength of an element, while ensuring a high degree of lightness. Often placed in the centre of a sandwich structure, honeycombs can be made of aluminium, composite, cardboard or plastic.

Objective

Stretching aluminium honeycomb panels in an automated way, using an expansion machine.

Problematic issues

The honeycomb expander must offer perfect repeatability and very short set-up times, and a high level of automation.

Solution and result

LF Technologies has designed and developed an expansion machine according to the customer's specifications in order to perfectly meet the required application.

The expansion machine consists of two crossbars, one fixed and one mobile, positioned in such a way that the bottom stops form an introduction corridor for the honeycomb "slice" to be stretched. The slice is introduced laterally by means of a slide and held under slight pressure by the mobile crosspiece.

30 needles descend, by means of about 30 cylinders (15 per crossbar), and thus initiate the pointing corresponding to the penetration zone, before crossing and engaging in the lower guide bushes, thus giving the authorization for the pulling cycle. The machine has a total draw stroke of 4500mm. The maximum tensile force is up to 10,000N.

The distance between the needles is motorised and controlled. During the stretching process, the needles are automatically moved closer together to accompany the natural shrinkage of the product in width.

The expansion machine is equipped with an electric control panel to control the whole machine. A PC manages all the functions of the machine and an interface screen allows the display and adjustment of the various parameters.

Safety is ensured by 4 emergency stops, a cover system to protect the lowering area of the needles and regulatory safety features such as light barriers to safely remove the pallets from the finished products.

The equipment offers the following benefits