A structural panel has one or more face sheets bonded by
adhesive layers to a core body having two outer plastic liner sheets fusion-bonded to linear ends of inner plastic truss elements spaced apart with open spaces therebetween extending in a plane direction of the plastic liner sheets. The sheet-to-sheet
adhesive bonding provides a high-strength laminate bonding that is very resistant to
delamination, simple and inexpensive, and can be carried out by a preferred continuous sheet bonding technique. The all-plastic core body is highly resistant to
moisture attack, and the open spaces between truss elements provide flexibility to accommodate
thermal expansion and contraction. The truss construction of the core body provides high compressive and
shear strength, while minimizing the amount of material required to be used. In one preferred embodiment, two
metal face sheets are used, and the core body has plastic liner sheets fusion-bonded to a
corrugated plastic core sheet. The
corrugated plastic core sheet can be formed by a continuous plastic
extrusion technique.
Diagonal plastic webs or perpendicular plastic I-beams may also be used for the truss elements. Another preferred embodiment has two
metal face sheets bonded to two plastic core bodies which in turn are bonded to a center foam core layer. A further embodiment has only one
metal face sheet bonded to one side of the plastic core body, allowing it to be used as
veneer or curved around rounded structures.