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About Cork Boards
About Cork Boards - Bulletin
Board Displays, Handling Display and Acoustic Insulation
Needs
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It's easy and quick to post items on a natural cork board.
Just tack up your paperwork and decorative materials using
thumb tacks or staples, and your material can be repositioned
and removed often and without fuss from bulletin boards.
Schools and businesses are able to post and cycle announcements,
decorations, lists, and reports easily and frequently. In
the home, families can post important "to-dos" and messages.
A variety of sizes and designs work for you.
The cellular structure of this naturally harvested and renewable
material has made it the most well-known and efficient insulator
for acoustics, heat and mechanical vibration. That's important
to ensure all students or meeting attendees can hear and
understand everything being presented in the room. Designing
your classroom, office, or meeting room with several natural
corkboards helps absorb room sounds.
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Cork's unique qualities
of flexibility, elasticity and compressibility allow it
to recover quickly from push-pin holes pressed within it.
In fact, a cubic inch of cork has been shown to withstand
a pressure as great as 14,000 lbs without breaking down,
and it retained 90% of its original form afterwards. Obviously,
a cork board can withstand your heavy use and last an extraordinarily
long time.
Classroom acoustics is a major
concern and cork boards provide a functional solution.
According to educational and acoustic experts, pleasing
architectural designs that have been incorporated into many
modern schools often make it difficult for students to concentrate.
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Hard floors,
concrete walls, lots of windows, high ceilings, writing
boards, other noises present in schools, as well as school
equipment that cause reverberation and distortion or are
unable to absorb/dissipate this disruption are causing schools
and teachers to find ways to make classrooms quieter so
learning can be supported. Placing a natural, unpainted
cork board (or several boards) within every classroom offers
a significant acoustical benefits while also offering plentiful
wall space for displays.
Since their original creation
in 1891 to insulate temperature in cold storage areas, cork
based boards have evolved to become the silent work-horse
in schools and industry whether framed by themselves or
designed in combination with a whiteboard, chalkboard, placed
on an easel, or covered with decorative fabric.
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The evergreen Cork Oak (Quercus
Suber L) is grown commercially most favorably in areas bordering
the Mediterranean Sea. Portugal and Spain supply approximately
75% of the world's cork. In fact, cork is vital to the economy
of the Mediterranean where as many as 80% of people in some
areas depend on this crop for their income.
The organic properties of cork
have been appreciated for centuries. Thousands of years
ago it was already being used as able fishing floats, shoe
soles, and bottle stoppers. It began to be utilized for
its able display, temperature in the 1890s, and cork acoustic
insulation features, whether used as bulletin board displays,
wall covering or as flooring, became evident later.
Unlike just about ever other
commercial furniture and office product used in schools
and businesses whose manufacturing processes often utilize
artificial ingredients or processing, cork's advantage is
based on its natural features and its' renewable harvesting
features.
The growing prevalence of alternative
synthetic products are endangering the existence of these
forests and eco-friendly businesses in the Mediterranean
region.
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Natural cork is a renewable
resource
harvested from the live bark of the Cork
Oak Tree, Quercus Suber L.
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Areas along the Mediterranean
costs,
from Western Europe to Northern Africa
are climates where Cork Oak thrive.
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The Cork Oak is the only tree
that can regenerate itself after every harvest. To
ensure good tree health, strict laws and inspections are
imposed on the sapling and on cork stripping. The year a
tree was last stripped is painted on the bark to monitor
its harvesting.
A Cork Oak tree is allowed to
grow to a height of 120 centimeters and a circumference
of 70 centimeters for approximately 20 years before its
first harvest, and, thereafter, the tree is harvested once
every 9 years during the standard harvest season of May
or June through August. Skilled harvesters use a special
tool to make precise incisions and then strip the bark from
the tree. This material is then exposed to the elements
for several months to purge the sap and stabilize the natural
textiles.
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At the factory, cork bark is
boiled to remove the woody outer layer and also increase
the bark's elasticity. The bark's then dried in factories
for several weeks. The tree cork is then sorted by thicknesses,
then further sorted into various quality ratings which decide
the suitable manufacturing use and price.
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Every harvest serves a purpose.
The first "virgin cork" has a more irregular structure and
is ground up for use in cork insulation, composition cork,
and decorative items, including some corkboards. The second
harvest, nine years later, results in "reproduction cork"
that is usually granulated for use in flooring. Third and
subsequent harvests generally result in the quality "amadia"
cork that is made into wine stoppers, with excess from this
"stamping" process being ground up for other uses including
cork boards.
No part of the Corn Oak tree
bark is ever wasted, oak trees are farmed, and oak does
not suffer fatal damage through bark stripping.
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For additional information and
statistics on the use of cork and the cork industry, contact
the Natural Cork Quality Council at
www.corkqc.com |
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