Composite laminated article and manufacture thereof

A method of making a composite laminated article, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing an inner layer of a closed cell foam of a thermoplastic material, wherein the thermoplastic material is composed of a blend of polystyrene and polyphenylene oxide (PS/PPO), wherein the closed cell foam comprises a plurality of expanded beads mutually welded together, each bead comprising a plurality of closed cells, wherein in each bead the closed cell foam has an average cell size of from 15 to 75 microns, at least 50% of the beads comprise first beads having a uniform cell size in which the maximum cell size is 100 microns and at most 50% of the beads comprise second beads having a non-uniform cell size in which the majority of cells have a maximum cell size of 100 microns and a minority of cells have a maximum cell size from more than 100 microns to up to 660 microns;
• (b) disposing the layer of closed cell foam between opposed outer layers each including fibre-reinforcement to form a sandwich construction;
• and (c) adhering an inner surface of each outer layer to a respective adjacent surface of the layer of closed cell foam by a resin, the resin comprising a resin matrix of a fibre-reinforced layer comprising the fibre-reinforcement and the resin matrix.