Lightweight Panels

[henrik_o]

I was wondering if the sudden lust for lightweight panels has smitten the US as well, this being all the rage in Europe right now (as witnessed by Interzum and LIGNA+).

Yeah, it's the Return of the Honeycomb. It's been brewing for a couple of years, but 2007 seems like the big breakout. Egger has a complete line ready, I hope Decospan is right behind them, and with the surge in hardware solutions --Hettich winning awards for their Hettinject system-- things seem to finally reach that point of convergence where the pieces suddenly fit.

I'm quite excited about this. Much lower material prices, much easier machining, the ability to do huge thickness dimensions as single sheet rather than boxes, much easier on your back, and so on and so forth.

It has great promise. Is this something that is beginning to break into the US market as well, and does anyone here have any experience working with the material? I can see a problem with vacuum setups, etc.

[henrik_o]

For some convenient links, here's Egger's page for their range of panels (http://se.egger.com/scan-eng/scan-products-wood-based-panels-lightweight-boards.htm), and here's Hettinject (pdf) (http://www.hettich.com/images/media_hg/Flyer_hettinject_ENG.pdf).

For more info about the approach, visit the Ligna or Interzum sites, there's a wealth of info (and hype) there.

[Brady Watson]

Henrik,
I haven't worked with that material before, but ANY honeycomb/torsion box type panel is really great for lightweight projects. I have worked with variations of this product & it is nothing short of amazing: http://www.nida-core.com/english/nidaprod_lamin_veneers.htm

-B

[henrik_o]

Brady,

Thanks, that's a great site for comparison. Haven't got my quote from Egger, but preliminary indication is that this material should be 1/2 to 1/5th the cost of a mdf/blockboard substrate. Huge thickness dimensions is where it really shines, since it means not only that you save on materials but you also don't need to torsion/otherwise around the problem.

About a year ago, I was asked to price a very sturdy looking 'kitchen island' product that the prospective customer paid approx. $10,000 for from their producer, and I thought I should easily be able to do it for less, but I actually came out 20% on top of that price. I've played with this new material and my preliminary quote, and I should easily be able to turn about a $5000 profit on such a job with these materials.

I dunno if the "heavy" (1.5"-2") 'look' really took off in the US, but it's quite huge in Europe right now, and this material is a godsend for this.

[bleeth]

"Old Fashioned" Marine technology comes to terra firma!!! I think it has been a good twenty years since I first used Hexcel for on board cabinetry to keep the weight down on yacht installations. In those days the whole process was too expensive to bother using for anything that didn't require the low weight/high strength modulus. It is interesting building a unit that will handle hundreds of pound of electronics, yet is so light you can lift it up with one hand. For the areas requiring "solid fill" for the mounting of hinges, etc, we would route out a pocket and epoxy in blocks. For value engineering they would be plywood, and to do it as ultimately as light as possible it would be klegicell high density foam with a threaded insert or dowel epoxied in the right spot. Remarkably similar to the Hettinject system. Maybe the developer used to be a boat builder.

[dray]

I JUST GOT USED TO MDF!!!!!!

=)

[henrik_o]

Dave,

Yeah, it's kinda funny to hear Egger et al talk about their "revolutionary" product, when it's been used in boat-building for a long time.

Then again, it is a bit new this time around in that the main interest is seemingly not related to the lighter weight but to lower costs. As I understand it, 'old generation' honeycombs are fairly pricey. I think the current offerings are relatively high price as of now, but there's whispers that some of the huge production units in Europe will switch over some of their lines from chipboard to lightweight this year or next, and that should drive down prices significantly.

Still too early to say if it will take off according to hype, but it is quite clear that the both the biggest panel producers and the biggest hardware companies here in Europe are investing heavily in R&D and production lines. I don't think they'd be spending this kind of money unless they were reasonably certain the volume is there -- you don't build entirely new extremely costly production lines without a high certainty of good ROI.

Danny,

Heh, yeah. However, as I understand your operation, you don't edgeband or do very little of it, and paint all installs, right? This material demands edgebanding, so for your application MDF is probably still going to be superior.

In my application (well, one of them; libraries) we switched from MDF to blockboard due to weight. There was a harsh price penalty, but there was just too much time lost in handling with mdf, way too much time. Now, with this material, it will be even lighter and it should be less costly than a mdf substrate.