Coffee Cup - Honeycomb Sandwich Structure

Step 4 Room for improvement & applications

I believe you can really make a strong structure with these materials, however there is room for improvement:

1. Arrange the array of cups more neatly (symmetrical).

2. When I applied the glue, I noticed that a lot of it was absorbed by the triplex. Therefore the bond with the cups was likely to be less strong. I neglected this fact.

3. I Added approximately 70 kg of weight where I should have used a vacuum bagging technique. This could have easily increased the "weight" tenfold (700 kg spread evenly). This was a deliberate choice as I wanted to keep the project simple.

4. Some of the coffee cups didn't have a flat surface anymore. Apparently, people often bite in these cups. This reduced the bond as well.

5. In the previous step you can see that one block (on which the beam rested) was slightly higher than the other one, resulting in high local tension probably.

So should we phone NASA and tell them that we have the new building block for their next spacecraft?
It all depends on the confidence that you have in your production process. 

Definitely: tables, doors, panels, hatches, shelfs
Probably: light construction elements.
Unlikely: aerospace!

Comments

[IOPort51]

this is great, good thinking! I think these would not be as thermally resistant or as strong as SIP's but a lot more cost effective for a lot of purposes. I am thinking about farm structures, chicken houses, rabbit hutches, small barns. Not taking away from the Styrofoam cup concept but free association brings me to the next obvious choice being aluminum drink cans. You could set a house on one of those!
I am looking forward to your next project, whatever it may be.

[bertus52x11]

Thanks!
In the discussions on the main page, you can find a discussion about using aluminium cans (Coke).

[zeeebus]

I was thinking the same thing about the walls.  Much like a SIP, but homemade and less styrine. 

I can imagine building a 8' tall frame using studs the same width as the height of the cup (If cup is a medium, it will be xx inches tall, therefore your stud should be a 2 X xx inches wide stud.). 

Put studs on 4' centers. (4' is probably too wide actually.  I think, you would have to place them just inside the width of the plywood so when you are actually attaching the panels to the framing of the house you can nest the panel into the framed wall bay and nail the existing frame to the panel frame.)

Temporarily screw a sheet of 4x8 OSB onto the frame and flip it over so the OSB (Plywood) is on the bottom of the frame. Lay the frame at a slanted angle (the laying angle of a drafting table, say). 

The angle would allow you to stack cups onto the entire field of the plywood between the studs with cups. 
Next, you would take a second sheet of OSB and, using a roller or air pressurized sprayer(not disposable aerosol type, but the kind used in finishing booths at furniture and body shops), coat the ply with laminate adhesive according to manufacturers instructions. 

Apply this sheet (when it is good and tacky and ready) to the frame.  Screw it permanently to the studs. Ideally (I'm making this up as I'm typing, so bear with me here) Ideally the contact of the cups onto the glued surface would be pretty uniform.  Maybe a stud that is just a hair narrower than the height of the cup would allow for the adequate uniform pressure to contact all the cups.  I guess you'd have to be careful not to crush them, though.

Next, you would flip the entire 4x8 coffee cup "sandwich" over so that the adhesive coated plywood is on the bottom. 
Remove the first sheet and coat appropriately.  Re-attach to frame, and VOILA!  You've just made your own Coffee Cup SIP! (Oh, (S)tructural (I)nsulated (P)anel)

The load is carried on the studs.  I think...By all means, use at your own risk... Any engineers out there should  probably put me in my place here.

I think the real SIPS have the studs a small distance from the edge of the ply, which allows them to nest with a second stud already attached to the bottom plate of the wall (the horizontal 2X___" that is already fixed to the floor of the structure)
Any thoughts?

Just a thought. 
Great Instructable!!

[bertus52x11]

Looks like you have written an Instructable! Add pictures and post it, I would like to see it! ;-)

[zeeebus]

Darn.  I was afraid that was what was happening!!!

Thanks for the reply.  Guess this gives me the summer project I was wondering about.  We'll see.  I would really like somebody to tell me if this sort of thing would be dangerous at all.  I'm concerned about structural soundness primarily, and fire secondarily.  Anybody???

By the way...you should have definitely beat the coffee cake entry and winner.  I didn't read any of the comments on the thing because I didn't think it was all that great of an idea.  Now that I've looked at it, I'm wondering if the wax on the inside of the cup wouldn't enter into my reproductive system, or some other remarkably unfortunate place!!!

I'll start collecting cups and stuff for the SIP.

[mrmarshall1]

this sort of thing could be used to make walls for houses. it would be strong, light and thermally insualating thanks to the small pockets of air in the cups would provide..good job!

[bucklipe]

Another aspect to gluing up the project would be to paint on a layer of glue to the boards and let them dry or at least get tacky. This seals the surface so that new glue will adhere better. Do the same with the rims and bottoms of the cups. If you choose to let them dry, reapply glue to the rim and bottom of the cups and assemble and compress it. If you can reassemble it while tacky (not likely), compress it. Re-test the strength after this...