PANELS UTILIZING A PRECURED REINFORCED CORE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME

摘要

A mass transit flooring assembly including a plurality of sandwich panels. The sandwich panels (30) include a top skin (54), a bottom skin (58), a perimeter defining closeout (46), and a core (50) between the top (54) and bottom skin (58) and within the closeout perimeter (46). The closeout (46) includes mating surfaces used to connect adjacent panels. The core is a precured reinforced core including a plurality of phenolic ribs and foam strips positioned in an alternating fashion. The precured core is manufactured by impregnating a layer of fabric with phenolic resin between two foam cores and stacking in a similar alternating fashion to create a bun. After the bun is cured at a constant pressure and temperature and cooled, the bun is cut along a plane perpendicular to the plane of the layers to provide a precured reinforced core panel ready to be inserted as a core in a sandwich panel.