Cork is an out-of-the-ordinary material that combines a set of properties that no artificial material has been able to replicate. It is in increasing demand in sectors such as sustainable construction, aeronautics and aerospace industries, mobility, design, architecture and the arts, landscaping and sports. For this reason, investing in R&D enables further development of these sectors and, due to cork’s unique characteristics, also helps us confront the future challenges facing our planet. There is no need to reinvent the wheel (or, in this case, the cork stopper). We just need to find innovative ways to apply it.
Miguel Cabral, Amorim Cork’s director of Research and Development, is adamant: over recent years, while the world seemed to be closing in and slowing down, “very significant progress has been achieved for cork stoppers in terms of combatting TCA”. Winning the war against the Trichloroanisole compound - the archenemy of cork stoppers - continues to be a key focus of Amorim Cork’s R&D+i. Not only by developing completely new technologies, but also by perfecting and optimising existing technologies, to increase efficiency, reliability and productivity. The 2021 launch of Xpür - a supercritical fluid technology, developed for technical stoppers, enables “any granulate with a certain concentration of TCA, whatever it may be, to be treated and returned to non-detectable values”. By ensuring that all cork granules deliver non-detectable TCA performance, the technology guarantees the quality of all of Amorim’s technical stoppers. There are currently three reactors installed in Amorim Cork’s factories, and six more will be in operation by the end of the year. “Extraordinary” progress has also been achieved for natural cork stoppers. By means of a thermal desorption process, known as Naturity, launched in 2021, “natural cork stoppers are treated prior to NDtech analysis, which means that NDtech has a much higher productivity because the rejection rate is much lower”, explains Miguel Cabral. All natural cork stoppers produced at Amorim Cork undergo the Naturity cleaning process, prior to eventual individual stopper-bystopper analysis, using the unrivalled NDtech technology. And if one thing epitomises innovation, it is that it is in constant evolution. This is precisely what occurs with a technology such as NDtech, that Amorim Cork launched in 2014, but which continues in “permanent development”. The installed equipment currently achieves “extraordinary productivity” and “excellent results”, but there is always room for further improvement. For example, through development of a new algorithm, that is more effective in detecting TCA, and makes it possible to reduce the number of “false positives”. These are artificial intelligence and deep learning systems applied to the world’s most prestigious stopper. But we don’t rest on our laurels. We are continuing to use science carefully to study the complex interaction between cork and wine. This is another area that has merited growing attention from Amorim Cork. Over recent years a number of scientific studies have been published, based on research that has shed new light on this subject, for both still and sparkling wines. Based on our research findings, it is possible to segment the product portfolio and offer solutions that are increasingly adapted to each wine. Because the closure may not make the wine, but it will certainly play an “oenological role” in its evolution. This is confirmed by science. Finding the right stopper for each wine!
In 2020, when Amorim’s most recent R&D+i report was drawn up, Amorim Cork Flooring had just launched Cork Signature, a fully customissable programme of flooring solutions that enables 17,000 different combinations of colours, shapes, finishes and even installation methods. Roberto Teixeira, the unit’s R&D director continues to defend customisation as a business strategy, but believes that the added value of the company, and of cork, fundamentally depends on differentiation. “There has to be a direct association between [cork] and sustainability and also with certain characteristics, properties and solutions that are differentiating factors in the market. We are talking about a premium product, which therefore has to be good in all its components, not only in terms of sustainability and circularity, but also for its functional and aesthetic components.” He is therefore committed to a true return to its roots, to the material and to Nature, with ever greater appreciation of cork and an increasing focus on sustainability. This vision includes projects that were already under development, such as Dekwall, a collection of wall coverings with cork visuals, which is now being developed to provide greater resistance of this material to any kind of wear and tear, in domestic or commercial uses. Transversal to these goals is the commitment to increasingly invest in products without plastics of fossil (or oil) origin, to continue investing in circular economy practises and, by 2024, eliminate the use of compounds such as PVC. A 100% green product will also be launched by 2024, that combines cork with renewable compounds, such as biopolymers made from plant waste. For Roberto Teixeira there is an evident need to invest in innovation in order to meet these objectives. “The world is in constant movement, it is always changing and we have to be at the forefront of innovation to be pioneers in the market.
Whereas in 2020 Corkeen - the revolutionary solution of impact-absorbing surfaces for playgrounds, leisure and recreational areas - stood out as one of Amorim Cork Composites’ principal commitments, today it is difficult to choose just one project or even one segment in which ACC has been making its biggest investment. With applications ranging from mobility to energy, sustainable toys or the aerospace industry, there is only one constant factor: the ongoing ambition to add value to cork. Eduardo Soares, Director of Innovation explains that in order to achieve this goal “innovation is not only fundamental, it is an integral part of our strategy”. In the mobility area, cork responds to the increasingly urgent need to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint, and has naturally emerged as the preferred sustainable material, due to its negative carbon footprint. It also provides an answer to “one of the safety issues that most concerns users and developers of all electrical technology”, i.e. fire resistance, by providing thermal insulation solutions for electric batteries. This characteristic also makes it stand out in the aerospace industry as the ideal material for the coating of satellites. In the energy sectors one of the key developments has been the use of a pioneering solution that combines cork with recycled polymers in the floating photovoltaic power plant in Alqueva (and in future new plants). The solution has been developed by the i.cork factory - Amorim Cork Composites’ pilot factory and innovation hub - whose creation represents an important milestone in the company’s R&D+i history. Creation of the new ACC Design Studio department promises to be a new innovation and creativity hub that will strengthen the company’s commitment to product design. After the success of the first collection, which sold 100,000 units in its first year, a new collection of three sets of building blocks has already been announced and will arrive in shops next Christmas. The cornerstones of all these projects are both innovation and sustainability - Corticeira Amorim’s main pillar. According to Eduardo Soares, Amorim Cork Composites is “what we call an ambidextrous company. Our right foot is what sustains the company in terms of turnover, i.e. through current applications in areas such as construction, sealing and flooring.... The left foot is the part that is oriented towards innovation. And with innovation comes research and development as a necessity.”
For Amorim Cork Insulation, explains the company’s CEO, Carlos Manuel, innovation does not mean reinventing the product, but rather “innovating throughout its applications. We have a 100% natural material that responds to all sustainability considerations”. The focus is therefore not on “continuous improvements but on continuous advancements” of this material based on cork’s out-of-the-ordinary characteristics. A truly dynamic process, Research & Development + innovation within this unit seeks to offer solutions to the many challenges posed by architects, engineers and landscape architects, while simultaneously responding to the real challenges of people’s daily lives and the future of the planet. A prime example is the MDFachada solution, that has revolutionised the sector, in which cork is clearly visible on the outside of buildings. The solution has been used to create decorative designs for a wide range of aesthetic purposes. Along the same lines, the use of by-products from the production process in new solutions for natural turf, initially designed for use in football stadiums, is now also being used in landscaped roofs of buildings or in vertical gardens on building façades, making it possible to reduce water consumption in irrigation, maintain a specific humidity level and minimise thermal variations. But innovation at Amorim Cork Insulation goes far beyond the fields of architecture and interior design. It also contributes to protecting people and the planet. For example, the Corksorb product, developed to mitigate hydrocarbon spillages in the oceans, caused by large oil tankers, is currently being tested in order to respond to yet another important environmental issue: water treatment. “To respond to the risk of fire but also to climate change, there is also the wall vaporisation system, which consists of applying cork to exterior walls with a technological system that administers water on very hot days, or even in the event of fire. An ongoing commitment to the circular economy is also part of this environmental concern. “We have recently strengthened our activity in terms of recycling in order to fully integrate ourselves within the circular economy.
At Amorim Florestal, R&D+i is already so extensively developed that in recent years it has been divided into different branches, in order to provide a more specialised response to each requirement. On the one hand, forestry research, which is divided into three distinct sub-areas, and industrial innovation, that is more focused on processes and products. Within the field of forestry research, José Pedro Fernandes, director of R&D+i in the area of Fundamental Forestry Research, explains the different “lines of attack”: firstly “a forestry support office that aims to respond to and provide support for the most diverse issues related to forestry.” Secondly, “a strand of Applied Forestry Research, i.e. everything that can be achieved in the field, in terms of new plantations or plantation models, installation support systems, controlled irrigation systems, fertilisation systems, new cork oak forest management models or farming models”. And finally, Fundamental Forestry Research, which is his direct field of work.“All three are part of the Forestry Intervention Project (FIP), launched in 2013, which is based on a fundamental pillar of innovation in this unit: sowing the seeds of tomorrow today. José Pedro Fernandes explains that this project arises from the realisation of a problem in guaranteeing viability in new cork oak plantations. “Today we have cork oak plantations with mortality rates above 50% and without any guarantee of growth or cork production and, therefore, of economic viability. For this reason, we realised that we had to implement a cork oak selection and improvement programme that will enable us to select specimens found in our cork oak forests that have premium characteristics which distinguish them from others and will help them to propagate. “These characteristics include attributes such as faster growth, better vegetal formation or greater production of cork, and also greater resistance to the infestations and diseases that exist in the cork oak forest and, increasingly importantly, offer greater resilience to climate change. Therefore, through the phenotypic selection of trees within the cork oak forest that have these characteristics, we have developed a programme for the propagation of these trees in conjunction with a biotechnology company and a university research body (among several entities with which protocols have been established). Alongside this programme and to compensate for the fact that the cork oak is a slow-growing tree, we are also developing genetic and molecular analysis to identify and select specific molecular markers associated to each of these characteristics, making an early selection and validation of the best specimens. In this way, Amorim Florestal is planting for the future, enabling it to produce and supply new plantations with high-quality cork oak trees, with a differentiated guarantee of growth and survival, while also guaranteeing more and better cork.
