Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B27—WORKING OR PRESERVING WOOD OR SIMILAR MATERIAL; NAILING OR STAPLING MACHINES IN GENERAL
  • B27J—MECHANICAL WORKING OF CANE, CORK, OR SIMILAR MATERIALS
  • B27J5/00—Mechanical working of cork

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a process for manufacturing natural cork stoppers and to stoppers produced by such a process.
• corking of bottles containing wines for aging is carried out using natural cork stoppers, traditionally made from planks from cork oaks whose dismantling or emergence preceding dates from 9 to 11 years, cut in strips whose width corresponds to the height of the plugs and the thickness is at least equal to their diameter.
• corks are made by contractors who cut them out of each strip of natural cork with a cookie cutter.
• the cork is likely to be exposed to the weather or to dirt, leading to the formation of mold and odors which, if the caps are poorly cleaned later, will affect the quality of the wine.
• caps is done also with a rather low yield of about 30%, and waste are recovered Fonne chipboard, unsuitable for coming into contact guard wines.
• the present invention relates to a novel method for manufacturing an corks, used for bottle corking containing wines for aging and a lower cost than natural cork stoppers made according to the conventional method described above.
• the invention also relates to a cork stopper, characterized in that it is constituted by at least two sections of natural cork arranged end to end and assembled using a food adhesive.
• a stopper according to the invention can advantageously consist of three sections of natural cork arranged end-to-end and assembled using a food adhesive, the section of natural cork intended to come into contact with the wine preferably having a higher height. or equal to a third of the height of the stopper.
• the cutting of the plugs according to the invention can be carried out entirely automatically, with a more rational use of the material reducing the proportion of waste, in a factory close to the cork oak plantations, therefore without the aforementioned drawbacks. related to the cost of labor, the transport of cork and the monitoring of the material.
• FIG. 1 illustrates the traditional method of manufacturing cork stoppers
• FIG. 2 represents a plug obtained by such a process
• FIG. 3 illustrates a process for manufacturing cork stoppers according to the invention
• FIG. 4 shows a plug obtained by such a process.
• FIG. 1 a strip of bark 1 of cork oak, used for the manufacture of natural cork stoppers according to the traditional process.
• the bark strip 1 has a crust 2 on its upper face, and its width is equal to the height of the plugs to be produced.
• the latter is standardized, usually chosen to be 38, 45, 49 or 52 mm.
• the plugs are successively cut with a cookie cutter by means of a machine called a tubeuse, comprising a cutting tube 3 cylindrical of revolution, sharpened at one end, and driven in rotation about its axis of symmetry.
• the relative displacement of the cutting tube 3 and the bark strip 1 is carried out under manual control, and the manufacturing tolerances are usually more or less 0.5 mm for a nominal diameter of 2 mm.
• the cutting tube 3 must be as thin as possible so that its external diameter is less than the thickness of the bark strip 1. Due to its thinness, the cutting tube 3 is subject to erosion and ovalization, causing an increase in manufacturing tolerances.
• FIG. 2 shows a plug 4, manufactured by the traditional method described above, associated with a reference frame of orthogonal axes X, X and X.
• the axis corresponds to the longitudinal axis of the plug.
• the thickness of the bark strip 1 is measured along the X axis.
• the plug 4 is compressed radially until its diameter is reduced to approximately 15 mm, which corresponds to approximately 65% of its nominal diameter.
• the stopper 4 tends to resume, by elasticity, its nominal diameter.
• the standardized diameter of a neck being 21 mm, therefore less than the nominal diameter of the plug 4, the latter does not return to its nominal diameter but remains compressed radially in the neck, which makes it possible to obtain a hermetic closure.
• the time required for the plug 4 to pass from a diameter of 15 mm to a diameter of 21 mm is of the order of ten seconds.
• This duration can constitute a factor limiting the rates of the bottling chains, because the bottles cannot be laid down until the corking is not hermetic.
• the layers of food glue have been designated by the references 8 and 9 in FIG. 3.
• Any non-toxic glue which has sufficient adhesion to withstand tensile forces when uncorking can be used as food glue.
• the plates 5, 6 and 7 are assembled, for example, hot and under pressure.
• cork block 11 by assembling several plates 5, 6 and 7 individually cleaned beforehand allows, for an equal volume of cork, better elimination of impurities than in the prior art, because the cork surface exposed to cleaning agents is superior.
• each stopper 10 is constituted in the example described by three sections of natural cork coming respectively from the plates 5, 6 and 7, arranged end-to-end and assembled by the layers 8 and 9 of food glue.
• cork cells have substantially the same orientation in each plate 5, 6 or 7 of the cork block 11 as in the bark strip 1 described with reference to FIG. 1, since each plate is obtained by cutting a sheet of natural cork just like the bark tape 1.
• each plug 10 according to the invention is cut with its longitudinal axis parallel to the axis X, that is to say that there n is not cut in the thickness of the cork board using a cutting tube oriented parallel to the plane of the board as in the prior art, but using a cutting tube oriented perpendicular to the plane of the board.
• the orientation of the cork cells is different in the plug 10 and is more advantageous.
• the plug 10 returns more quickly by elasticity to its nominal diameter and the time required to obtain a hermetic closure is therefore reduced.
• the cork test pieces came in one piece along the X and X axes, to simulate the radial compression of the known plugs 4, and the other test pieces along the X and X axes to simulate the radial compression of the plugs 10 along the 'invention.
• the cutting of the plugs 10 in each cork block 11 is easily automated and can be carried out with better efficiency and lower manufacturing tolerances than in the prior art.
• each plate 5, 6 or 7 preferably has a thickness less than or equal to 24 mm, which makes it possible to use natural cork which is thinner, and therefore less expensive than that used for the manufacture of stoppers according to the traditional process.
• the thickness of the section of natural cork intended to come into contact with the wine is chosen so that the wine cannot reach the food adhesive, and the height of this section is for example equal to at least a third the height of the plug 10.
• cork can be cleaned in better conditions and in this way we reduce the risk of mold formation which can impregnate odors and which can affect the quality of the wine.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Forests & Forestry (AREA)
• Closures For Containers (AREA)
• Food-Manufacturing Devices (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=9503341

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Cited By (2)

Families Citing this family (3)

Citations (3)

• 1997
  • 1997-02-05 FR FR9701281A patent/FR2759014B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 1998
  • 1998-02-03 HU HU0001725A patent/HUP0001725A3/hu unknown
  • 1998-02-03 CN CN98802569.8A patent/CN1247495A/zh active Pending
  • 1998-02-03 NZ NZ337062A patent/NZ337062A/en unknown
  • 1998-02-03 IL IL13121598A patent/IL131215A0/xx unknown
  • 1998-02-03 WO PCT/FR1998/000190 patent/WO1998034769A1/fr not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1998-02-03 EP EP98905480A patent/EP1015198A1/fr not_active Ceased
  • 1998-02-03 AU AU61052/98A patent/AU6105298A/en not_active Abandoned

Patent Citations (3)

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