| Honeycomb structures are used in a variety of applications because of their outstanding performance in providing structural strength while reducing weight. Current honeycomb production is too slow and too costly to target the corrugated cardboard market. To overcome this, partners in a EU (EUREKA) research project created an innovative and cost-effective process to produce a honeycomb packaging material from a single continuous sheet of corrugated cardboard. The new honeycomb material uses less raw material and has a higher resistance to compression than double fluted corrugated cardboard. It can also be recycled. The new material is patented by K.U.Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) and represents a replacement market worth € 4.5 billion a year just for Europe (for double fluted cardboard). A spin-off company is expected to market the technology and to produce the structural honeycomb products that could be good news in a wide range of horticultural applications. www.alphagalileo.org Tel 0032 27770969, E-mail: Julie.sors@es.eureka.be www.eureka.be |
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