Aluminum honeycomb panel is a lightweight and high-strength composite material widely used in aerospace, building decoration and other fields. Its production process is complex and precise, requiring multiple key steps from raw material selection to finished product delivery. The following is the complete production process of aluminum honeycomb panels from raw materials to finished products:

1、 Raw material preparation

1. Aluminum foil selection

The core material of aluminum honeycomb panel is aluminum foil, usually selected from aluminum alloy grades such as 3003 and 5052, with a thickness range of 0.03-0.1mm. Aluminum foil needs to have high purity (≥ 99.5%), good ductility, and corrosion resistance. Before production, the aluminum foil needs to undergo surface cleaning treatment to remove oil stains and oxide layers, usually using chemical cleaning or ultrasonic cleaning processes.

2. Adhesive preparation

The bonding between honeycomb core and panel adopts specialized structural adhesive, such as epoxy resin or polyurethane adhesive. Adhesives must meet high shear strength (≥ 10MPa), aging resistance (-40~80 stability), and environmental protection requirements. Some high-end applications may add flame retardants or nanomaterials to enhance performance.

2、 Honeycomb core manufacturing

1. Aluminum foil printing

Using gravure printing technology to coat adhesive lines on the surface of aluminum foil, the width of the adhesive lines is usually 0.5-2mm, with a spacing of 5-10mm to form a grid shape. The adhesive thread pattern determines the hexagonal aperture size of the honeycomb core (commonly 3mm-20mm), and the printing accuracy needs to be controlled within ± 0.1mm.

2. Stacked curing

Stack the printed aluminum foil in layers of 100-500 and cure it in a hot press at a pressure of 0.5-1.5 MPa and a temperature of 120-180 for 30-90 minutes. This process forms block shaped blanks by bonding between adhesive layers, and the curing curve needs to be precisely controlled to avoid bubbles or delamination.

3. Stretch forming

The solidified billet is unfolded vertically by a dedicated stretching machine, with a stretching speed controlled between 0.5-2m/min, to ultimately form a continuous three panel processing

1. Aluminum plate pretreatment

The panel is made of 0.5-3mm thick aluminum plate, which undergoes processes such as degreasing (alkaline washing concentration of 5% -10%), acid washing (nitric acid concentration of 10% -15%), and chroming treatment (chromate film weight of 0.5-2g/m ²) to form a conversion film and enhance bonding performance.

2. Numerical Control Forming

Cutting, folding, punching and other processing are carried out through CNC machining centers with an accuracy of ± 0.1mm. Building boards also require surface treatment such as fluorocarbon spraying (PVDF coating thickness ≥ 25 μ m) or anodizing (film thickness 10-25 μ m).

4、 Composite process

1. Laying of adhesive film

Lay thermoplastic adhesive film (such as PE, PP) or epoxy adhesive film between the panel and the honeycomb core, with a unit area adhesive amount of 150-300g/m ². Aviation grade products will be pre impregnated and laid in a vacuum environment.

2. Hot pressing composite

Using multi-layer hot press or continuous hot press line, maintain pressure at 0.8-2.5MPa and temperature at 140-200 for 30-120 minutes. Temperature gradient control is key, and the heating rate is usually 2-5/min to avoid thermal stress deformation.

3. Cold pressing and shaping

Immediately after hot pressing, transfer to a cold press machine and solidify in a 10-25 water temperature circulating cooling system, maintaining a pressure of 0.5-1MPa and a cooling time of no less than 30 minutes. This step can reduce internal stress and ensure the flatness of the board surface (≤ 1mm/m).

5、 Post processing procedure

1. Edge trimming and cutting

Use a diamond saw blade or high-pressure water jet (pressure ≥ 300MPa) for cutting, with a cutting roughness Ra ≤ 6.3 μ m. The building board needs to be chamfered with a 45 degree angle, with a chamfer width of 1-3mm.

2. Quality inspection

-Mechanical properties: testing peel strength (≥ 4N/mm), planar compressive strength (≥ 1MPa)

-Dimensional tolerance: diagonal difference ≤ 2mm/m, thickness deviation ± 0.1mm

Minghong Home produces aluminum honeycomb panels using high-quality raw materials and centralized procurement, which has significant advantages in unit cost and quality.