Use of wood core in an autoclave cured part?

[DB-TACG]

(250F cure) Seems like the wood would be a sponge off the prepregs making the part heavier and requiring higher resin percentages on the prepreg to compensate. Maybe not? Balsa, MDF? Just trying to envisions what would happen during a 250F cure and some pressure.

Putting wood in there feels like the $10 saddle on a $50 horse but.....

 

[Compositepro]

Balsa is a commonly used core material. Sealers are used to to prevent resin saturation, if needed.

 

[DB-TACG]

Do you know what the process temperatures are and absolute pressure being succesfully used? This is with prepregs only. Most of Gurit's foams drop to 75C process temp at 2.5 bar. They dont give anything specific for the balsa other than dont exceed 120C but is that 1 bar or 5 or ?. Any idea?