Matt (Staff) (04/07/2012)

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Hi Lisanty,

There are very many different types of core materials that you can use in a composite laminate ('sandwich' composites), we stock some of the more popular or easy to use core materials and so given the wide range available I'll only summerise the ones we stock.

The idea of all core materials is to increase the thickness of a panel without increasing its weight, cost or layup time (depending on the core material and the production priorities) as much as solid reinforcement would. Because in a panel under load it's really the innermost and outermost skins that do the majority of the work and because increasing the thickness of a panel increases its stiffness significantly, low density core materials can be very effective in creating stiff, light panels.