What is Cork Board?
Cork is a completely natural, renewable material that comes from the outside layers of the cork oak, a tree that typically grows in the Mediterranean region. Cork is far more renewable than other wood products due to the method of cultivation: cork is hand-stripped from the outside of the tree and the tree remains unharmed and uncut. The cork oak forests in Portugal, one of the leading exporters of cork, account for almost 4.8 tons of carbon dioxide retention each year due to photosynthesis. After the first 20 years, cork can be cultivated every nine years--about 14 times during the lifetime of an average tree. The first two cultivations yield the lower grades of cork. It is this cork, along with scraps of high-grade cork, that goes into the creation of cork board, a type of cork sheet made from heated and compressed cork pieces. Sometimes binders are added for more heavy-duty, industrial applications. Does this Spark an idea?
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History
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Cork has been used for thousands of years in the Mediterranean region for various products including fishing tackle, roofing, and bottle stoppers. In the 1600s, cork replaced wood and cloth to become the standard for European wine closures, when Dom Perignon adopted the technique for stoppering his champagne.
Composition
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Cork board is an aggregate sheet of cork created from cork granules heated and compressed to form a sheet. Sometimes a binder is added to make the sheet more cohesive and durable. Examples of binders used in the process of making cork board are concrete and rubber. The addition of rubber into the cork creates a sheet of rubbercork, used mainly for industrial endeavors, such as for joints in cars and machinery, and some floor coverings.
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Production
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The process of obtaining cork begins by harvesting the cork from the cork oak tree, Quercus Suber L, grown commercially in areas near the Mediterranean Sea, where growing conditions are appropriate. The cork comes from an outside layer of the cork tree and may be harvested 20 years after the tree is first planted. The first harvest results in the collection of "virgin cork." After nine years, the cork may harvested again from the tree, resulting in "reproduction cork." After another nine years, and at every interval of nine years thereafter, the result of the harvest is "amadia" cork, the highest quality of cork. Cork board materials come from the lowest quality of cork, the "virgin cork" and waste from the production of other types of cork products, such as wine stoppers. The cork is treated and ground for use in cork board.
Function
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Cork board is primarily used for bulletin boards, flooring, and sound insulation. The cork absorbs sound naturally and thus makes for good acoustic panels for a room where large groups gather, such as a classroom. Cork bulletin boards are common due to the elasticity of the cork allowing pins and other small objects to be inserted and removed without destroying the board.
Environmental Considerations
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The process of stripping cork from the cork oak does not do damage to the tree and cork can be harvested many times from the same tree, at intervals of every nine years. Therefore, cork is one of the more environmentally friendly products out there. Cork is also biodegradable.
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