A trailer that is stronger yet lighter?
HAPERT AANHANGWAGENS, the innovative trailer manufacturer from home, is once again first in the market with a novelty.
Hapert presents the composite floor
At HAPERT Trailers, innovation is a continuous process. We’d love to take you through that. We also showed you this composite floor in March 2022 at De Groene Sector Vakbeurs in Hardenberg. The fact that this floor is now a reality can only make us proud at HAPERT trailers.
Since one of HAPERT’s core values is sustainability, we are investigating the possibility of eventually replacing the wooden floors with composite. For now, HAPERT offers the composite floor as an option. Wood is a beautiful material, but very heavy. Composite is half lighter, longer lasting, more durable and is easily recyclable.
The composite floor is produced locally, can be recycled endlessly, and has resulted in a significant weight savings of the trailer. In addition, a composite floor lasts much longer than a wood floor. Calculated over the total lifespan, in addition to all the benefits previously mentioned, composite flooring is also the cheapest option.
There are also several, easy repair options for the composite floor, but when the floor does come to the end of its life cycle, the composite floor can be fully processed and reused for various applications. HAPERT proactively invests in the sustainability and circularity of its products and processes, and this is another great contribution to this.
What is composite?
Composite is a durable, high-quality composition of materials. Composite is so strong and light that it can replace common materials such as wood and/or metals, for example. The new floor consists of thermoplastic composites with skin layers of fiberglass and polypropylene. It is a high-tech developed composite of long glass fibers in a matrix of polypropylene (PP).
Composite is built up like a lasagna; layer upon layer from fibers. Using these two materials, a durable, super strong and lightweight panel is created. The core of the composite floor is built from a honeycomb structure, which has a coating on both sides. The package is fused together to form a strong unit. The supplier of the composite panels has its origins in the antiballistic world. Therefore, this coating is constructed similar to what is common in bulletproof vests.
Extensively tested
At HAPERT Trailers, we choose to extensively test all innovations. So is the new composite floor. We tested the floor extensively in common use conditions such as impact, tensile strength, shear loads, abrasion and climatic conditions.
We are convinced that with the composite floor, the buyer will be cheaper in the end. The trailer becomes a few percent more expensive to purchase, but this is offset by its longevity and lower fuel costs. The plywood floor weighs 10 to 15 pounds per square meter, the composite four to six pounds. The use of composite can reduce the total weight of an enclosed trailer by about 250 kilograms and a tipper with a steel floor by as much as 120 kilograms. With a lighter trailer, you can drive more economically and also generate fewer emissions.