Transportation
Kenworth's T2000 Reaps Benefits of Balsa Core Sandwich Laminate
The Kenworth T2000 cab floor is a structural, monocoque, composite sandwich floor fabricated with a select grade balsa core and continuous fiberglass reinforced vinyl ester resin skins. The single-piece composite floor replaces the more costly multi-piece (over 100 pieces) metal floor assembly and provides a rigid assembly platform for the cab and sleeper sidewalls. This 2.24" thick constant cross section, single piece floor allows Kenworth to offer their customers improved thermal insulation, acoustic and vibration dampening, and damage resistant properties while reducing Kenworth’s assembly time and the cab’s weight. Sandwich panels manufactured with the CRTM™ automated pultrusion process are cost effective, lightweight, structural quality composite panels suitable for a wide variety of applications. Unlike typical wet bath pultrusion processes, Glasforms’ injection pultrusion process effectively minimizes volatile organic compound (V.O.C.) emissions and produces a part using lowest cost basic materials with an uniform thickness, consistent mechanical properties, and highly repeatable quality. Glasforms has the capability to fabricate high quality composite sandwich panels with tailored multi-axial fiber reinforcements, high fiber volume contents, and very low void content. These custom-engineered products are available with a wide variety of core materials including end-grain balsa, foam, or engineered woods (i.e. plywood). Laminate skin face sheets are also available with continuous fiberglass and/or carbon fiber reinforced polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy or custom resins. Glasforms also has the engineering and production expertise to design, fabricate, and assemble a custom product that fits your specific application with CNC routing and drilling machining capabilities. TECHNICAL DATA: Products: Truck Cab Floor Process: Continuous Resin Transfer Molding (CRTM™) Materials: E-glass fiber woven fabric in proprietary resin formulation with balsa core Properties: High flexural stiffness and strength to weight; thermal, acoustic and vibration dampening Sizes: 2.24" overall thickness, 87.5" wide x 118.5" long Molded For: Kenworth Truck Company |
