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More panels foam up
Page 118
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• Metal-faced polyurethanefoam panels will be used in up to 10% of the 15,000 commercial vehicle bodies likely to be built in the next 12 months. says Richard Shepherd-Barron, managing director of Sudbury-based Edmunds Supplies.
His prediction also applies to half of the 2,500 refrigerated bodies included in the total.
His compaT'ty was recently appointed as the UK distributor for GRP/foam panelled multi-door refrigerated bodies from Cofi, Italy for trucks of 3.5 to five tonnes GVW. It is also the sole distributor for Graaf Isometal's lightweight, metalfaced polyurethane-foam panels which are used on about 700 vehicle bodies in Britain every year.
Graaf produces zinc-plated, steel, stainless steel and aluminium-faced panels, which it claims are less susceptible to damage and easier to repair when necessary than, say, the GRP/ ply panels used on dry freight or refrigerated bodies.
Delamination problems, says Shepherd-Barron, do not arise, and like-for-like they have a greater thermal efficiency. Foam densities can be varied to make the lower part thicker if required, and all panels are supplied pre-painted.
Over 20mm thick, the Graaf panels are lighter than an equivalent GRP/ply, and when used in super-cube or doubledeck trailers, they are selfsupporting.