Cork Granules

Cork granules are made from the bark of the cork oak tree and there is a wide variety available in both granule size and density. The cork granules from the insider layer of the bark are low-density, soft and elastic and in high demand, whilst the granules from the outside layer of bark are high density, more woody and brittle. There are also a wide rnage of intermediate densities available and each density is suited to different applications. Cork granules are also divided by size from 0.2mm to 12mm in various different bands and cork powder is also produced as a byproduct of cork manufacture.

The lowest density cork granules (55-65 kg/m3) are generally used for wine corks and bar-top corks, internediate densities (70-165 kg/m3) are used for example for decorative products, cork lids and cork flooring and high density granules (170-250 kg/m3) are use mainly for outdoor usages, such as infill for artificial turf and in agriculture. The price of granules reduces steeply as the density increases and you can read more about cork granule densities here.

 

Cork granules are made by grinding up all the cork bark, then passing them through a heat chamber to sterilise them; they are then sorted by density and granule size using mechanical processes and sold in standerdised categories (so for example 75-80 kg/m3, 0.5-1.0mm). Generally the cork granules are sold in big bags, although there is also the option of using larger sacks (typically 0.25 m3).

Most cork granules are used to make agglomerated cork in various different speciifications, where different specifications of granules are bonded together which can either be moulded into cork stoppers or made into blocks/sheets which can then be transformed into a wide variety of cork products. Here at CorkLink we supply both the cork granules themselves as well as products made out of agglomerated cork.

Expanded cork granules are a completely different form of granules thar are generally used for insulation and are produced in a completely different way to natural cork granules.

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