Honeycomb Composite Core Measurement

Honeycomb measurement on the mill that is 25 times faster than a CMM.

Developed over several years of field, production, and lab testing, CellGage is designed to determine exactly the honeycomb characteristics that customers require. There are generally three types of customer needs:

  • Customers who are interested in inspecting honeycomb directly after it has been machined: In this case, customers are replacing a CMM in a lab. The inspections either take place on the milling machine or in an area next to the milling machine. Advantages include measurement of the honeycomb immediately after it has been machined (but before it absorbs moisture or otherwise deforms), fast cycle times (typically minutes instead of hours), saving time by not moving the part in and out of the CMM lab, and freeing up the cutting machine so it can be used to mill more material. CellGage can perform a full 3D inspection of the core include surface profile.
  • Customers who are interested in characterizing cell parameters or global parameters of the core: This is typically related to observability studies or the honeycomb raw material manufacturer, who inspects the core as it is being expanded to ensure that it meets specifications. CellGage can measure many cell heath parameters including, cell width, cell height, cell size, cell skew, and cell depression.
  • Customers who are interested in researching core behavior, such as expansion, heating, moisture, or compression: In this case, they set up the system to image the core every 30 seconds and make a video showing the core’s changes over time.

The hardware can be optimized for specific speed, accuracy, fields of view, cost, and portability. CellGage can do more inspections in less time compared to a CMM or laser tracker and is more accurate than other optical technologies such as white light scanners, structured light scanners, or laser line scanners.

CellGage has been used on a wide range of core colors, core sizes, and core materials, and has been used in a wide range of environments and part sizes. We have successfully measured aluminum honeycomb, Kevlar™ honeycomb, Nomex™ honeycomb, and flex core.