Thick curved honeycomb core with minimal forming

A ribbon for manufacturing a honeycomb structure having a plurality of honeycomb cells, an inner core surface, an outer core surface, and a curved core surface geometry, the ribbon comprising a continuous series of foldable sections arranged in sequence along the length of the ribbon, each of the foldable sections having a section top edge and a section bottom edge, and the section top edge and the section bottom edge in at least one the foldable sections being curved to match said curved core surface geometry of said honeycomb structure, the continuous series of foldable sections comprising alternating rectangular sections and trapezoidal sections formed by spaced-apart fold lines extending from a ribbon top edge to a ribbon bottom edge, said trapezoidal sections having an elliptical top edge and an elliptical bottom edge, such that when the ribbon is folded at the fold lines, the rectangular sections and trapezoidal sections form a series of semi-hexagonal shapes.

A honeycomb structure having a plurality of honeycomb cells, an inner core surface, an outer core surface, and a curved core surface geometry, the honeycomb cells having a tapered wedge shape with an inner hexagonally shaped face and an outer hexagonally shaped face, the inner hexagonally shaped face having an area smaller than an area of the outer hexagonally shaped face, said honeycomb structure comprising a plurality of ribbons folded to form a continuous series of half-cells, each of the half-cells having a shape approximately equivalent to half of the shape of a honeycomb cell in said plurality of honeycomb cells, and lined up side-by-side in a direction of a ribbon orientation to form the plurality of honeycomb cells, the ribbon comprising a continuous series of foldable sections arranged in sequence to form the ribbon, and a ribbon top edge and a ribbon bottom edge being curved when the ribbon is in a flat, unfolded state.

A ribbon for manufacturing a honeycomb structure having a plurality of honeycomb cells, an inner core surface, an outer core surface, and a curved core surface geometry, the ribbon comprising a ribbon top edge, a ribbon bottom edge and a continuous series of foldable sections arranged in sequence along the length of the ribbon, the ribbon top edge and the ribbon bottom edge being curved along the length of the ribbon when the ribbon is in a flat, unfolded state, said continuous series of foldable sections comprising a continuous series of alternating rectangular sections and trapezoidal sections formed by spaced-apart fold lines extending from the ribbon top edge to the ribbon bottom edge, said trapezoidal sections having an elliptical top edge and an elliptical bottom edge, such that when the ribbon is folded at the fold lines, the rectangular sections and trapezoidal sections form a series of semi-hexagonal shapes.