Polycore

What ever happen to this subject thread, ...and the product Polycore???

 

More Polycore info...!!!!!!!


Go to www.polycorecomposites.com
They are the manufacteres of this product....

And see the inderpenant impact testing .... !!!!
it is on their video page ..

They show a 15kg weight comming down onto the glassed panel re peatedly in the one spot bouncing as it goes!!!!!

The test is in two parts ... showing a light lay up ... and a heavyer lay up
and with the heavyer lay up it really is impressive!

you can engineer fantastic strenght into your boat as this core can be used with any glass combination....

The core used in the video is the PP8H core with the .8 shear and 2.2 compressive strenght
beware of the imitations on the market.... as they do not weld the core to the scrim the same way Polycore is welded..

The impact testing proves that!

Cheers Maggie

 

Polycore can be strip or curfed to form curves

Polycore

Has been used to build some great sea going boats with lovely curves....

Example....

You can layer 2 sheets of 4mm or 6mm and form a tight shape... the thinner sheets can form a tight bend or funnel just like cardboard can...
or
You can strip layer 4mm 6mm 10mm 12mm 15mm to form a hull shape.
or
You can very gently heat the thicker core panels to bend over a mold.....
or
You can curf and cut slices in one side of the thick core sheet
and bent it that way as well.


As for the filling it is no different to working and filling with foam etc..

Cheers Maggie

 

I spent some time exploring that website and watched the videos after reading this thread yesterday. As far as I could determine, all the content on the website including the testing videos is at least 5 years old (same as your last post here), giving the impression that it's either gone out of business or that there is little demand for the products. What's going on? Was it the 2008 crash or ?

 

We are still going .... strong and we traded right through the down turn!

But like most of the marine industry we had to down size.

As you may know....
About 80% of the marine boat building industry had dissapeared over the past 4 years
the world down turn...was a difficult time.....for the marine industry.


But due to us down sizing quickly and lowering our over heads we have found that we can now supply a far lower priced panel... which is a win for our industry.

It is true we have not re vamped our web site for quite awhile.. as we felt it told its own story.... with honesty.

No other composite panel company has offered their panels to be tested and abused to the true drop test code!
We allowed a out side tester to conduct this with no direction from us as we wanted the video to show what we had to offer.

The fire treatment was also some thing we can not alter
and we felt that it should stand as it is on our site as well.

As no other composite company has come close to what we have with a F.R fire treatment too a bare core.

I must say ...It has been the home builders that has kept our panel going while the down turn was affecting all major boat manufacters here in Australia and the world ..... and I wish to say .... Thank You for you support.

P.S

During this time we have not been idle
We have done alot of R and D
and we will show you some other new products soooon!

Such as a new UV and F.R resin applied to our core

We also have developed a new resin glass combination with the Polycore panel that is so tuff it will blunt diamond bits and blades !
The Military is very intrested with this panel...

We have also partnered with another company into the solar market and are about to release a new generation lithium battery that can be from 1kw to 100kw in a compact light weight power storage plant !!!!!!

We see this new battery as the next step in trippling working hours with marine electric motors....

Cheers Maggie

 

Maggie, congratulations on persevering through the dark times.

I think what would interest many of the membership here are boat construction examples using your material. There were some photos of a polycore catamaran on your website but the link is no longer useful.

Fortunately, I was able to find another website with more detail and photos.
This is a cat named "Lyra", designed and built by Ian Cambell:

http://www.buildacat.com/lyra1.html
http://www.buildacat.com/lyra2.html
http://www.buildacat.com/lyra5llaunch.html

 

Specifics about Polycore vs Nidacore, etc

Hi Maggie,
I am VERY interested in this subject of polypropylene honeycomb cores. Later today I will post a new subject thread about the possibilities of using a 'polycore' decks and superstructures on 3 vessels designs I am working on.....with steel hulls underneath.

Please realize that I am in the USA, so likely I would prefer to source a 'poly-core' material here rather than far offshore,....makes economic sense if that is possible. But of course your specific product and auxiliary materials may supersede this?

You seem to indicate that your specific poly-core material is superior to US products such as Nidacore, and Plascore. Could you explain this more thoroughly,...what specifics make your honeycomb a better one??

I was previously following the Solidary Island catamaran project closely (a project that utilized your product), and was sorry to see them take themselves off the market likely due to these economic times. BTW I've been a long time advocate of multihulls myself, yet all 3 of these new vessels I'm considering are all monohulls

 

Hi Tomas,
Thanks for posting those links and photos. I had previously run across a reference to that vessel for two reasons,..
1) it had a 'mast-aft', and
2) its construction of polycore.

But I might offer up a question. Does the polycore in that first photo look to be cylindrical sections bonded together rather than hexagonal cells ??

 

I see the typical tell-tale triangular feature created by tangent circles (added sketched outline).

 

Hi
The cells with Polycore PP8H are round in shape

Please do not work with hex shape cells as they are far weaker as a structure.
This is due to the larger cell diamiter and the cross section
of the hexicon shape it self....

Cheers Maggie

 

Clarifications

Can you more fully explain this?....what the difference is?

I would like to see some samples of this core, as I'm VERY interested in this product for a couple of new designs I have in mind.

Are these actually 2 different grades of PP core, or 2 different grades of panels?? I'm a little confused with some wording.

I can't get that referenced site to come up?

 

Clarifications (continued)

I can't get that site to come up either. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they were (are) the manufacturers of the panels, not the PP core itself?

I believe I remember seeing some very good web pages dealing with the making of the panels, and the joining together of the panels. Was this on the old Solitary Island 12M catamaran website? Can these still be accessed?

The "they" in this reference I assume is the Chinese product? How about this USA product called Plascore, ...is it as good as the PP core you utilize?
http://www.plascore.com/

To tell the truth I'm not really impressed with this presentation....very amateurish. I need something more to put together a decent sales presentation to any client. Do you have more?

Can I get more info on this?...either privately or on the forum.

 

Round vs Hexangonal Cell Structure

It appears that both Polycore and Plascore are both utilizing round cell core structures. Am I to assume they are both superior to Nidacore?....and would it be correct to assume that the Polycore and the Plascore are equals?....or are there other differences?

 

From our findings, cores with round cells posses lower shear strength (0.3-0.5MPa) compared to those with hexagonal shapes (0.6-0.8MPa). We use round shapes only for small boats and non-structural elements.

 

Greetings all......


Well I have not been to the Plascore web site for a while.....

And to put all of your minds at rest as to the superior PP honeycomb core it is the Polycore PP8H core!

Please go to their web site and see the figures..

Polycore PP8H is...
Comppressive strenght 2.2 MPa and 319 Psi (far stronger)
Plascore is 1.89 Mpa and 275 Psi ( far weaker)

Polycore Compressive modulus 97 Mpa and 14,069 Psi
( stronger)
Plascore is 79.2 Mpa (weaker)

Polycore PP8H Shear strength 0.8Mpa and 116 Psi (stronger)
Plascore shear strength 0.58 Mpa and 85 Psi (weaker)

Polycore Shear modulus 19 Mpa and 2,756 Psi (stronger)
Plascore shear modulus 15.2 Mpa ( weaker )


Also I did see two shaped cells on the web site
one hex and the other round .... I would definatly not want a hex cell as it is weaker again....

the other thing I noted was the scrim it is not like the Polycore PP8H scrim ...

our scrim is a 45 gsm resin take up
and the PP8H also has a advanced sub film under the scrim which stops 99% of resin filling the cells....

This is very important as resin is money and if you are filling the cells with excess resin you are adding weight to you boat !

Please Note...
Beware of fraud...
People are saying they are selling Polycore(TM)
But they are not!!!!!!!!!!!

I was told a fellow bought Polycore PP8H last week
He planed to build a very large boat...

And just by chance he wanted to call us to ask some further questions on the core.....

After speaking to him it turns out the core he bought is a
low grade imitation core.... and not what he should have.

And dare I say shops that sell to the public and pray on their lack of knolage they are going to end up in court!

So .......
Please before you buy any PP core please email us at Polycore(TM) maggie@polycore.com.au
head office to confirm you do have the right core!