After that they are steamed in boilers to eliminate bugs contaminants and remove the outside layer of bark.
Manufacturing process of cork flooring.
Traditional cork flooring has a warm natural look that works best in spaces with an informal casual decor.
However newer manufacturing techniques have created cork floors that closely resemble hardwood marble or even concrete.
Cork s elasticity combined with its near impermeability makes it suitable as a material for bottle stoppers especially for wine bottles cork stoppers represent about 60 of all cork based production.
The stripped planks are stacked for 6 months outside while the wind rain and sun chemically transform the planks.
Cork has an almost zero poisson s ratio which means the radius of a cork does not change significantly when squeezed or pulled.
Cork flooring is cut from the bark of the cork tree with no single tree being felled.
The manufacturing process 1 using a specially designed hatchet the harvester slices through the cork layer on the trunk of the tree taking care not to cut deep enough to damage the living portion of the trunk.
Today s cork flooring can now be used almost anywhere provided it is kept well sealed.
Cork is an excellent gasket material.
Binders are then added to hold the ground cork together.
In fact cork flooring is actually a byproduct of the manufacturing of cork stoppers for wine bottles.
The bark regenerates after harvesting and the process can be repeated for years.
The manufacturing process for cork flooring generates almost no waste.
This also increases the corks flexibility.