Questions and answers

Diab has sales offices all over the world and we also corporate with distributors. Find the contact information you need under Contacts here on our website.

Diab offers the widest range of structural core materials and grades with unique properties, including PET foam, PVC foam and balsa.

Our solutions benefit customers in a wide range of markets, including marine, wind energy, transport, aerospace and industry. Potential applications for these high-strength, weight-saving materials are limitless and can be used in many different application markets.

Diab provides several services:

Finishing is a service that refers to the machining of structural core materials. You can choose from a wide range, each serving a specific purpose. The right combination of core material, laminate and finishing allows you to save time, money and resources and affects the characteristics of your product.

Kitting refers to a Diab kit that is a tailor-shaped set of core elements. The kit can consist of simple pre-cut core panels or complex 3D shapes made with CNC routing. Each piece is pre-cut and then numbered to fit exactly into its designated place in the mold.

DIAB Technical Services partners up with you to help you maximize the benefits provided by the DIAB sandwich concept. We have a thorough knowledge of sandwich design, finishing and kitting, and our skills cover everything from hand lay-up to resin infusion. We help you choose the most appropriate design procedure for each specific case and, when necessary, validate the findings with in-house testing. Strategically located around the world, we provide advice and support wherever you are.

Our consultants in CCG (Composite Consulting Group) provide specialized composite technology services. With broad competence including everything from design and engineering to testing, tooling, process optimization and training, we ensure that you can realize the full value of your composite designs.

The basic idea is simple, the execution is a bit more advanced. Two thin, strong and stiff skins, made of fiber-reinforced plastics or solid material, are attached to a lightweight core by press-bonding lamination. The result is a component with a very high stiffness-to-weight and high bending strength-to-weight ratio. A variety of core materials is used to give the final product additional features, such as FST resistance or insulation.

Properties per weight will always be better for PVC foams, making them ideal for weight-critical aplications. PET is a thermoplastic core and can be recycled in the production process.

Looking at the overall life cycle, our products compensate for their carbon footprint in many applications thanks to the extremely long life for which they were designed. Sandwich core composite materials benefit the environment in many ways. Due to their low-density properties the cores themselves require only a small amount of raw materials. When applied, sandwich solutions enable lightweight, flexible and aerodynamic designs that reduce the fuel consumption of vehicles and vessels and open up for creative design opportunities. Continuously improving our products to reduce the environmental impact they might cause, we strive for sustainability in everything we do. We provide a wide range of sandwich core materials to fit different applications. The right core decreases both cost and carbon footprint throughout the application's life cycle.

You can significantly improve the manufacturing process and quality of composite applications with pre-cut parts (kitting). A Diab kit is a tailor-shaped set of core elements. The kit can consist of simple pre-cut core panels or complex 3D shapes made with CNC routing. Each piece is pre-cut and then numbered to fit exactly into its designated place in the mold. By eliminating the on-site cutting of flat sheets, you can reduce manufacturing time, save labor and material cost. In addition, with the easy assembly and exact fit, you can consistently achieve high quality in less time.

Diab has different certificates for quality systems, products and applications (sandwich designs for specific applications). Some of them are:
Quality - ISO9001/140001/18001/45001
Products - DNV/Lloyds etc
Specific applications - EN45545/EN13501 (train and construction final sandwich), FAR and others.

Our six manufacturing sites and fourteen sales companies in strategic locations around the world offer our full range of materials and services, including partners for production. See the map under Contacts for more information.

Diab offer a range of standard products, see our pdf with standard dimensions and thicknesses under Certificates & Datasheets.
We will always look at your request of special dimensions or product needs to see if we can assist.
Please talk to your Sales contact.

Thermal conductivity data can be misleading and should not be the only parameter to look at when selecting a foam core for insulation purpose. Both PVC and PET have good insulation properties but have a superior structural capacity compared to PU foam. The way the cell structure is constructed is important not only to moisture penetration especially in hot/wet conditions, but also to the strength and bonding capability to sandwich skins, important for loading conditions. PVC foam will be the preffered choice for those reasons.