caravan & motorhome
Crash and safety requirements, recycling obligations and range losses with electric tow vehicles act on motorhome construction simultaneously. NECTO addresses them with one structure: a load-bearing cabin of mono-material metal, insulating, repairable and recyclable.
Reference project
Reiseziel Zukunft – the C.CORE at Dethleffs
The vehicle and the concept behind it, presented by Dethleffs.
dethleffs.de/unternehmen/reiseziel-zukunft
Structure
The cabin carries the load.
Because the cabin is built as a monocoque rather than a frame with cladding, it distributes loads across a large area; the high number of support points in the core makes it torsionally stiff. Cabin and chassis are each designed to be self-supporting – joined together, they achieve a higher overall stiffness than either part reaches on its own.
Because the body itself is load-bearing, the chassis requires less material. The flat underbody improves the drag coefficient compared with the rugged underbody surfaces of conventional bodies. For electric tow vehicles, every kilogram saved translates directly into range.
Safety
The structure absorbs the forces.
Belted seats, benches and furniture are anchored directly in the NECTO structure, which reduces the risk of parts coming loose in a crash. Core height and strut density can be set locally, so the structure is reinforced precisely where it matters – for example in the side impact zone, where occupants in the dinette are particularly exposed. In less critical areas it stays correspondingly lighter.
The low material elongation during stamping leaves a large deformation reserve in the sheet, which can be used deliberately for crash structures.
Functional integration
Insulation, heating and cabling sit inside the component.
Unlike closed cores, the NECTO core is open and ventilated. Only about one percent of its volume is sheet metal, the rest is still air – the wall insulates without an additional insulation layer. Condensation, which collects in encapsulated cells, is avoided by the ventilation.
Cables and tubes are inserted before joining or pulled through afterwards. Temperature-controlled media flow through channels in wall and floor areas and heat or cool the cabin across its surface; photovoltaics integrated into roof and wall areas supplies the energy.
Geometry
Large sheets, few joints.
NECTO sheets are produced in large formats and then bent and folded, so cabin parts are made from a few large elements rather than many small ones. The model is the art of folding: three-dimensional bodies from a single sheet, with little offcut, few joints and a distinctive formal language. Dedicated bending and folding techniques were developed and tested for the C.CORE.
Windows and doors are set flush into the surface; the curved cabin edges require no applied corner profiles.
End of life
Mono-material – no disposal problem.
Leisure vehicles today consist largely of bonded sandwich panels with a foam core. At end of life these composites can hardly be separated. A NECTO cabin is mono-material metal: welded or clinched, it remains a single material, is repairable and returns to the material loop without downgrading. A disposal cost becomes a scrap value.
Custom-made solutions
The NECTO structure can be customised to your requirements.
Your body can be optimised for different application scenarios. This includes optimisation
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Body weight – lighter than a conventional structure
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Torsional stiffness for off-road and all-wheel-drive vehicles
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Local reinforcement of crash zones and the side impact area
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Thermal insulation without an additional insulation layer
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Integrated cabling, media channels and surface heating
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Flat underbody for a lower drag coefficient
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Vehicle-integrated photovoltaics in roof and wall areas
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Mono-material recycling at end of life
Production
No special machinery required.
Cutting, stamping and joining are state of the art; depending on the component, an existing punching machine or servo press is equipped with the appropriate tool. Offcut is minimal because almost the entire sheet is used.
Series production takes place at the licensee on their own equipment. MATRIX-Module supplies the design, the tooling concept and joint prototyping.
