Bringing it all together for sandwich panels
The EU-funded project 'Coordination Action on advanced sandwich structures in the transportation industry' (Sand.core) worked to foster the application of innovative sandwich structures in the European transport sector, especially with regard to the maritime and rail sectors. Team members aimed to realise this by consolidating, benchmarking and complementing previous research work as well as evaluating the most up-to-date and relevant knowledge and experiences. One outcome of these activities was the production of a best practices handbook that also shares the results of research and experiences with the European research community and industry. Catalogues for sandwich structures, methods and test data were created, thereby harmonising pertinent knowledge and information. Risk assessments were conducted and cost/benefit estimations carried out, following which new design solutions for certain sandwich applications were developed and optimised. Sand.core’s efforts to disseminate important information included the launching of a public website, exploitation activities and a number of workshops. The project's approach proved to be of benefit to industry, the educational system, the general public and even the consortium itself, thus laying the groundwork for possible future collaboration.
