Hexcel Honeycomb Finalist for "Best Use of Materials" Award

Hexcel's Aluminium foil honeycomb solution for impact absorption in cars has been shortlisted for an award in an annual competition held by Automotive World magazine.

Hexcel will discover whether their impact absorbing HexWeb honeycomb has won the "Best Use of Materials" category at the award ceremony to be held at the Cité des Science et de L'Industrie, Paris, on September 27th.

HexWeb was shortlisted due to its unique properties that are helping automotive companies to pass the US government's rollover safety requirements, while saving weight and increasing passenger compartment volume. The recent implementation of the FMVSS201 rollover protection mandate has required that vehicle designers and engineers allow for additional internal padding space, which has had the effect of increasing the roof and pillar thicknesses. HexWeb absorbs the most energy in the least space, thereby allowing additional headroom in vehicles such as the Nissan Quest. Engineers have found that HexWeb can sometimes be the only viable solution to difficult rollover certifications.

The Automotive World awards are to be presented, on the eve of the Paris Automotive Show, by Formula One star Ralf Schumacher and Richard Noble, the power behind the world land speed record breaking Thrust II car.