The present invention relates to a new process for manufacturing cylindrical
cork bodies and the final product resulting from this new process for manufacturing closures for beverages (e.g., carbonated wines, still wines, beers, etc.) or washers which are used in multi-piece
cork stoppers and which is based on the lamination of a sheet of natural
cork after it has been cooked and flattened (1), with strips of a thickness of between 0.06 mm and 2 mm (2), the individual cleaning of each strip (3), the gluing of the thin strips with specific food-grade glues used in the cork sector, which after being selected (4), are glued in such a way that the natural irregularities of the cork are offset, making it possible to compose a homogeneous cork parallelepiped (5).Next, the parallelepiped composed of microlayers of cork is sliced and tubed according to the traditional manufacturing process for natural corks or washers. The tubing in the production process can be carried out parallel to the direction of the laminated sheets (6), perpendicularly (7), or obliquely (8). The corks and washers produced by this new manufacturing process exhibit all the physical and visual characteristics of natural cork.