The use of Cork

Cork represents an attractive solution for numerous industries. Everyone from Wine lovers to astronauts and supermodels should be grateful to the cork oak for its extraordinary bark.

The drinks business has already explored some of the many processes that transform this raw material into the stopper you remove from the bottle of wine you drink in a party with your friends or in a romantic dinner.

Cork is a material, harvested for commercial use primarily from Suber (the Cork Oak), which is endemic to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. Once the trees are about 25 years old the cork is traditionally stripped from the trunks every nine years. The trees live for about 300 years.

Because of its impermeable, buoyant, elastic, and fire retardant properties, it is used in a variety of products, the most common of which is wine stoppers. The montado landscape (Alentejo) of Portugal produces approximately half of cork harvested annually worldwide.

Cork's bubble-form structure and natural fire retardant make it suitable for acoustic and thermal insulation in house walls, floors, ceilings and facades. The by-product of more lucrative stopper production, cork board is gaining popularity as a non-allergenic, easy-to-handle and safe alternative to petrochemical-based insulation products.

Cork is being used in several solutions as is the example of musical instruments; used as the core of baseballs and cricket balls; Light buoyant and flexible Surfboards;  in spacecraft heat shields and fairings, cork’s property as an insulator made it an ideal solution for NASA engineers working to tackle the extreme heat experienced by rockets as they blast through the earth’s atmosphere.

Racehorses use extra-light shoes made from aluminium with a layer of cork, it is possible to cushion some of the impact stress on a horse’s legs, thereby reducing injury risk.

Even at the highest level of fashion, cork’s ability to combine style with comfort makes it a popular material, as shown by Yves Saint Laurent wedges.

Now, Cork has entered in the world of Mechanical Mods through Sobreiro Mods. 

Sobreiro Mods have created a model with certain characteristics that did not exist in the market: a flexible activation system, which assembly, tuning and maintenance were simple, practical and functional with the use of unique and excellent raw materials such as cork.

Suber means in Latin "Suberina" which is the element with the highest percentage in cork that gives properties of compressibility and elasticity with great results in the achievement of these Mods. The valorization of handmade manufacture, quality and precision of watchmaking were determining factors for the launching of this superb mechanical Mod.