BALSAWOOD CORES FOR COMPOSITE MATERIAL SANDWICH PANELS AND METHOD OF THEIR MANUFACTURE

A method of manufacturing a core for a composite material sandwich panel， the method comprising the steps of: providing a sheet of balsawood with opposite major surfaces， with vessels and axial parenchyma cells of the balsawood extending between the opposite major surfaces in a thickness direction of the sheet; coating a layer of a curable resin composition onto respective opposite major surfaces of the sheet of balsawood; and curing the curable resin composition， wherein the resin composition is applied and cured so that the coating layer of cured resin composition unevenly fills or only partly fills outermost ends of at least some of the vessels in the balsawood and thereby provides， at least in the vicinity of at least some of the vessels， a non-planar outer surface of the coating layer of the cured resin composition over the opposite major surfaces. A method of manufacturing a core for a composite material sandwich panel， the method comprising the steps of: providing a sheet of balsawood with opposite major surfaces， with vessels and axial parenchyma cells of the balsawood extending between the opposite major surfaces in a thickness direction of the sheet; coating a layer of a curable resin composition onto respective opposite major surfaces of the sheet of balsawood; and curing the curable resin composition， wherein the resin composition is applied and cured so that the coating layer of cured resin composition unevenly fills or only partly fills outermost ends of at least some of the vessels in the balsawood and thereby provides， at least in the vicinity of at least some of the vessels， a non-planar outer surface of the coating layer of the cured resin composition over the opposite major surfaces.