Portugal corcho carbonization process synthetic cork leather for corcho bags and corcho shoes

Short Description:

The production process of red wine corks is to cut the oak bark, grind it into particles, purify, mix adhesives to form, bake, polish, test, and test air permeability. A series of processes are used to make red wine corks, including special processes such as custom marking and burning line patterns, and finally used to seal wine bottles.
Collection of oak bark
Workers use an axe to cut the bark of a century-old cork oak tree, and then use a stick to pry the bark off. The oak bark obtained is the raw material for making red wine corks. A cork oak tree can usually live for 300 years and can harvest bark up to 15 times. The peeled oak bark will be sent to the cork processing plant.
Processing of oak bark
First, the factory will cut the oak bark into small pieces, then grind the small pieces into particles and store them in a large bag. Then pour the cork particles in the bag and these huge high-pressure golds into the silo that feeds the purification equipment, which is used to purify the cork particles.
Purification of oak particles
Then the workers filled each autoclave with tons of cork particles, and then started the compressor to heat and pressurize the carbon dioxide to convert it into an environmentally friendly solvent that is a semi-liquid gas. The next step is for the workers to inject the solvent into the autoclave and clean the cork particles inside for 3 hours. Then the quality inspectors take samples from each batch of purified particles for inspection to ensure that there are no impurities or harmful substances. When the cork particles pass a series of inspections
Mixing of oak particles
They can be mixed with food-grade adhesives, and then the mixed particles are sent to the CNC molding machine, where the size of the cork can be adjusted at any time through the mold to meet the needs of different wine bottles.
Molding of oak particles.
Then the machine presses the cork particles into the mold and sends them to the oven for baking for a few minutes. The originally loose particles become elastic corks, and the cork is still in its initial shape at this time.
Polishing of oak plugs.
Next, use a CNC machine to grind the bevel edges at both ends of the cork to make it easier to insert into the wine bottle.
Oak cork inspection
Then each cork will be checked by a camera to see if they have defects, and then several samples will be tested for air permeability by this machine to measure how much oxygen flows through the cork into the bottle, because different degrees of oxygen penetration can make the red wine taste the best
Special cork production
Some wineries’ corks also need special custom markings to make them look more like traditional corks. Therefore, this type of cork requires several more steps in the production process. The machine will use a laser to burn a line pattern on the surface of the cork to imitate the texture of natural cork, and finally print the winery’s trademark letter on the cork to seal the bottle.