Nippon Antenna is an international manufacturer of antennas. For their European research and development centre located in Itzehoe, Germany, Hahlbrock built one of the world's largest light-weight Radome in seamless GRP sandwich construction with an external diameter of approximately 26 meters (86 ft). Under the hemi-spherical building Nippon Antenna will carry out future tests of modern automotive antenna systems. The consistent application of computer-aided manufacturing techniques to all materials and shaping moulds ensures a highly accurate spherical shape.
The Radome consists of 86 segments,each 6.35 meters (21 ft) long. The large-size sandwich segments are assembled with utmost accuracy on site. The segments are glued seamlessly to one another with a groove and tongue connection and joined on both sides with identical covering fibreglass components.
To meet the required extraordinarily high dielectrical properties Hahlbrock chose an exclusive selection of materials and designs that are absolutely free from metallic components and that enable to achieve constant material thicknesses.
