Composite Panels

Eplate is increasingly chosen by our clients as a high-performance replacement for Tufnol or Acetal across a wide range of applications. Fibrefusion’s Eplate is trusted within the marine, defence and energy industries, where long service life and reliability are essential.
We typically manufacture and stock Eplate up to 10mm thick, with thicker plates available on request to any specification.

Fibrefusion supplies Eplate with peel ply on both sides. This is easily removed to reveal a perfectly clean, keyed surface that is ready to use or bond immediately — no further preparation required, saving you valuable time on the job.

Beneath the top surface, the core and base layers can be configured from a broad selection of materials to meet each client’s specific structural and weight requirements. The tread plate can be produced as a thin, lightweight sheet — ideal for body dress panels on vehicles or as a sole plate — or as a thicker sandwich construction suited to more demanding environments such as marine engine rooms.

Key Benefits

• Lightweight — significantly lighter than metal alternatives
• Low profile — minimal build height for tight or flush installations
• Non-conductive — safe for use in electrical or sensitive environments
• Hygienic — easy to clean with no corrosion or rust concerns
• Pattern-matched — because the mould and production process share the same workflow, panels can be precisely matched so the tread pattern runs continuously and seamlessly across large or complex surfaces

A Smart Alternative to Metal

Whether you’re outfitting a marine vessel, a specialist vehicle, or an industrial space, Fibrefusion’s tread plate delivers the strength and grip of traditional metal plate with the added advantages of composite construction — lighter, longer-lasting, and tailored to your exact specification.

Sandwich Material Construction
There are three components to any sandwich material: the facing, the core and the glue that holds it all together. Each of these will affect the material’s weight, strength and performance characteristics. Generally, the faces are extremely strong, while the core is lightweight and much weaker, but with an excellent adhesive, the benefits of both can be realised.

Composite Panel Facing Materials
Facing materials vary enormously. They can be purely functional or purely cosmetic. Most are a combination. Facing materials are either composite or non-composite. Non-composites, i.e. timber veneers, metallic sheets, plastic sheets, melamine, etc., are manufactured first and then incorporated into the sandwich. Composite facings can be laminated directly onto the core material, reducing manufacturing time and the finished composite panel’s weight, or they can be premanufactured, but many are only cured during the sandwich finishing process.

The Core
The second part of the sandwich is the core. The core of the material performs two principal functions: it keeps the sandwich faces the correct distance apart during bending or compressive loading, and it prevents them from sliding over one another under shear loads. For this, core materials need to have suitable strength and stiffness qualities.

Apart from the aerospace industry, which generally uses honeycomb or corrugated materials, the most commonly used core materials for sandwich construction are expanded thermoset and thermoplastic foams. These foams can be closed-cell, open-cell, or a mixture of closed- and open-cell. Almost any polymer can be foamed, but the most frequently used in sandwich structures are polyurethanes (PUR), polystyrenes (PS), polyvinylchloride (PVC), polymethacrylimides (PMI), polyetherimides (PEI) and polyphenolics (PF). Some can be performed on complex shapes before they are faced, and some, such as polyurethanes (PUR), can be foamed between the pre-constructed faces of the sandwich, allowing even more complex shapes to be made in these materials.