Aluminium Honeycomb Core 19.1mm Cell

Expanding the Aluminium Honeycomb

Important: wear gloves when handling the block.

Typically, aluminium honeycomb is supplied unexpanded as the expanded block is susceptible to damage during transport. Large-scale manufacturing uses specialized machines to expand it, but for smaller applications an alternative method is needed. This guide outlines a simple, manual way to expand the aluminium honeycomb.

Equipment Needed

You will need two wooden battens, each as wide as the honeycomb sheet and sturdy enough to prevent excessive flexing (2" by 4" wooden battens are ideal). Additionally, you will need a bag of long wood nails. These nails should be long enough to penetrate both the wooden batten and the honeycomb. For cutting the honeycomb, you'll need a steel ruler and a sharp, long-blade Stanley type knife.

Making the Expansion Tools

• Take one of the wooden battens and mark a series of dots along its length, spaced approximately 50mm apart.
• Hammer nails through the marked dots on the batten, ensuring nothing is underneath. The result should be a batten with regularly spaced nails poking through.
• Repeat this process for the second batten, so you have two identical battens with protruding nails.

Expanding the Honeycomb

You will need a flat working surface and an assistant for the expansion process.

• Begin by gently teasing out the first few cells of the honeycomb by hand on a flat surface. Avoid pulling too much at once to prevent kinking. This initial manual expansion provides material for the nails to grip onto without ripping through the edge cells. The sheets are deliberately cut oversize to allow a little waste at each end due to expansion.
• Repeat this process on the other side of the honeycomb.
• With an assistant, insert the batten tools on each side of the honeycomb and slowly apply tension to expand the honeycomb
• If the cells you've teased out by hand start to rip, stop and tease out more cells manually before resuming. Expect some distortion and stretching at the edges as the sheet expands
• Apply gentle but firm tension to expand the honeycomb, keeping the sheet as straight as possible.

Once you're satisfied with the expansion, remove the battens, and your honeycomb is ready for use in your project.

Cutting the Honeycomb

To cut the honeycomb, you'll need a sharp Stanley-type knife and a metal ruler.

• Measure and mark the desired cut on the sheet, using the metal ruler as the cutting guide.
• Start from one side of the planned cut and individually cut through each cell foil from top to bottom using the knife.
• Ensure each foil is fully cut before moving on to the next one to ensure a clean separation without catching or distorting the cells

Note: Avoid attempting to cut across the honeycomb in one pass, as it can tear and distort the cells.