Plastic panels promise to reduce weight
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By David Wilcox A LIGHTWEIGHT plastic panel material promising to slash the weight of truck bodies was launched in the UK at last week’s CV Show.
VersaMax, made by French company VersaPlast, has been available elsewhere in Europe for a few years – but is only coming to the UK now thanks to the recent appointment of Panelite Composite Solutions of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, as sole distributor.
Plastics fabricator Strongs Plastic Products, based in Tamworth, has built the first VersaMax body in the UK, using 20mm-thick panels. It is a 3.6m-long, 14m3 box body on a 3.5-tonne GVW Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Apart from the load-retention tracking and an aluminium rear shutter, there is no metal in the body: the rear frame, corner joints and sub-frame are all made from polypropylene.
The entire body, including shutter and sub-frame, is claimed to weigh just 310kg, about 200kg less than an equivalent body in GRP/ply. However, Strongs’ prototype has a 20mm-thick floor: production versions would probably need a 75mm-thick floor, available with a wear-resistant, anti-slip coating.
VersaMax has inner and outer skins made from a woven mixture of polypropylene and glass fibre strands. The core is a honeycomb of polypropylene tubes. The panels, claimed to be highly impact-resistant and recyclable, are
available in a range of thicknesses from 5mm to 100mm. Panel heights of up to 5m are possible, with unlimited length, so even the sidewall for a double-deck trailer could be a one-piece panel. A 20mm-thick VersaMax panel weighs just 3.6kg/m2 and is claimed to match the stiffness of a conventional 17mm-thick GRP/ply panel, which weighs about 12kg/m2.
By cutting the inner skin, the panel can be folded and plastic-welded to create a rigid right-angle joint. Alternatively, corner joints can be made using conventional extrusions, allowing easy panel replacement.
The material is similar to the German-sourced Omnia panels that have been available in the UK for several years.
However, Panelite Composite Solutions claims that VersaMax is cheaper than Omnia, which makes it a more viable choice for truck operators and bodybuilders.