THE QUALITY OF CORK AND CORK STOPPERS

Información del proyecto

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: MA2B900007

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de inicio 1 Marzo 1991

Fecha de finalización 31 Agosto 1993

Financiado con arreglo a

• Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the fields of raw materials and recycling - Renewable raw materials: Forestry and wood products (including cork) -, 1990-1992

Coste total

Sin datos

Aportación de la UE

Sin datos

Coordinado por

INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO
Portugal

Objetivo

The project aims at the improvement of the performance and quality of cork stoppers and simultaneously at a rationalization of design and production in an attempt to reduce costs. To achieve this it is required to understand properly the performance of a stopper. Performance depends on a complex combination of factors which will be identified and quantified in the project, allowing for the definition of quality grades for stoppers. Since the quality of a stopper is strongly dependent on that of the cork boards from which it is made, the question of cork quality will also be included in the project, and quantitative methods to evaluate quality grades will be developed. The proper design of stoppers and the treatments to which they are submitted will also be investigated. There will be a constant preoccupation in quantifying the parameters and properties on which the quality of stoppers and of cork depend, so that quality control in industry can be made on an automatic basis leading to reliable results.

The methodology can be summarized as follows. After identifying the factors affecting the performance of cork stoppers, various properties and structural aspects relevant to performance will be quantitatively evaluated. These include mostly various mechanical properties (friction between cork and glass, compression and stress relaxation behaviour), absorption of liquids and quality of cork. The design of stoppers (shape and size) and the methods used in their production and introduction in the bottles will be treated as parameters that may affect performance and will therefore be investigated. The results of the whole project will be tested industrially, both in factors concerning the design of stoppers and the methods to be implemented for the evaluation of the quality of cork and stoppers.

The project therefore covers a variety of research topics from relatively fundamental ones to totally applied ones. The more fundamental research is necessary because very little work of this nature has been done in the past. The present knowledge of stopper performance is essentially empirical and even the design of stoppers has developed on an empirical basis.

These studies comprise:

Identification of factors affecting the performance of cork stoppers.
Measurement of properties related to the performance of cork stoppers:

humidity of cork stoppers;
compression, stress relaxation and pressure on the bottle neck;
friction between cork and glass;
absorption of liquids, leakage in the stopper neck interface.

The extraction of cork stoppers:

the indentation by a cork screw, force of extraction;
effects of torsion in extraction;
fracture due to extraction.

Detection and quantitive evaluation of defects in stoppers and cork boards. Repercussion on performance:

lenticular channels (usually termed porosity);
wet cork;
nails;
furrows (cracks).

The cutting and mechanical surface finish operations of cork stoppers.
Effect of shape, size and introduction methods on stopper performance.
Surface treatments of cork stoppers.
Stoppers from lower quality cork boards. Recovery of cork stoppers.
Quantitive evaluation of cork stopper quality. Definition of quality.
Cork quality and price:

quantitive evaluation of cork quality and definition of quality;

humidity charts for cork.

Industrial implementation.

Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)

• ingeniería y tecnología › ingeniería de materiales

Programa(s)

• FP2-FOREST - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the fields of raw materials and recycling - Renewable raw materials: Forestry and wood products (including cork) -, 1990-1992

Tema(s)

Datos no disponibles

Convocatoria de propuestas

Datos no disponibles

Régimen de financiación

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinador

INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO

• Aportación de la UE: Sin datos
• Dirección: 1,Avenida Rovisco Pais 1 ; 1049-001 LISBOA ; Portugal
• Coste total: Sin datos