100% natural and renewable, cork is the bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus Suber L.)
Made of suberin (its biggest constituent), lignin, polysaccharides, tannins and ceroids. It also has a residual moisture content of 5%.
No other material, artificial or natural, combines the range and depth of the properties cork is naturally endowed with.
Density: Natural Cork 160 - 260 kg/m³, Granulated Cork 60 - 160 kg/m³, Agglomerated Cork 140 - 600 kg/m³, Corkrubber 450 - 1 200 kg/m³. As reference: Water 1 000 kg/m³, Human body 1 010 kg/m³
When it is compressed, the air inside the cell is squeezed to a smaller space. The cell walls are flexible, recovering the original shape.
When pressure is released, compressed cork will bounce back to its original shape.
With impact, the cell walls deform, absorbing energy without damaging the cell structure.
Temperature and humidity have a slight effect on cork, so it resists to deterioration and weathering.
The air inside the cells make it an excellent insulator, leading to very low thermal conductivity, over a wide range of temperatures.
Where most of the synthetic materials fail, cork retains its properties. Cork’s thermal degradation begins only above 200ºC.
Cork acts in two ways, reducing the airbone noise reflection and reducing the sound waves transmission through the cell walls.
Water absorption is avoided by the closed cellular structure. Water covers only the exposed surface.
Cork is a flexible material, even at very low temperatures, as a result of the constituents (Suberine) and geometry of the cell walls.
Due to its basic material and surface characteristics, cork transmits a smooth touch.
Cork’s normal temperature is very close to the human body; it therefore feels warm to the touch.
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