Disclosed is a sole-type body member, which is a main body of a shoe sole or an insole, is laminated on the sheet-type coated cork, and is then pressed and heated so that a part of the sole-type body member is inserted into the main-body-coupling opening, thereby achieving coupling therebetween.

A method of producing a veneered element, including providing a substrate, applying a sub-layer on a surface of the substrate, applying a veneer layer on the sub-layer, and applying pressure to the veneer layer and/or the substrate, such that at least a portion of the sub-layer permeates through the veneer layer. Also, such a veneered element.

In a water sports board structure (3), a composite material shell (20) encloses a core (10) including a shaped body (11) made of a foam material obtained by a mixture of polylactic acid, preferably between 60% and 80% by weight, and of a polymer selected between an aliphatic polyester and an aliphatic/aromatic co-polyester. For the foam material, a biodegradable Ecovio EA material is preferably used, in particular Ecovio? EA200 or ECOVIO? 80EA2394EXP. In an exemplary embodiment, the shaped body (11) incorporates at least one, or preferably two cork longitudinal stringers (13) spaced apart from each other by about half the cross width of the core (10). The shell (20) can comprise a fibre layer (21,24), preferably of basalt fibres, impregnating with a resin, which can optionally form a resin layer (23,26) outside the fibre layers (21,24). A further resin-impregnated fabric layer (22) can be present between the core (10) and the fibre layer (21) of the shell (20). The above foam materials allow manufacturing boards that are at least 20% lighter than the conventional boards including polystyrene foam cores, and that have suitable elasticity while having excellent impact strength and/or resistance to abrasion, such a combination leading to high-performance water sports boards. Moreover, polylactic acid as well as the above aliphatic polyesters or aliphatic/aromatic co-polyesters are fully biodegradable, which allows environment-friendly disposal of the water sport boards of the invention, for instance, by composting, without forming any special waste.

Disclosed herein is a method of manufacturing a natural cork film, which includes forming a thin cork layer by slicing a prepared natural cork material, forming a fiber layer by attaching a fiber sheet to one surface of the cork layer formed in the forming a thin cork layer, pre-treating a lamination of the cork layer and the fiber layer formed in the forming a fiber layer, for preventing discoloration of the cork layer, and forming a resin layer by attaching a resin sheet to the fiber layer passing through the pre-treating a lamination of the cork layer and the fiber layer. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the manufactured cork film from naturally discoloring due to light and to significantly reduce a phenomenon such as brittleness or wrinkling caused when the cork layer is decolorized alone.

A covering element for a floor, wall and/or ceiling covering, in particular a laminate covering element, with an upper layer structure, a stability layer of wood and/or of a wood-based material adjoining the rear side of the upper layer structure, an elastic and/or acoustically damping layer adjoining the rear side of the stability layer, and a carrier plate adjoining the rear side of the damping layer.

Cork-based textile article and process for the manufacturing thereof In a cork-based textile article, comprising: a first substrate (F,1) comprising a natural/synthetic fabric or non-woven fabric obtained from a mixture of fibres and cork particles; and a second substrate (B,10) comprising an elastomeric polymer mixed with an amount of cork particles not lower than 5% by weight, and a curing agent, the first and the second substrates (1,10) being coupled therebetween at high pressure, so as to obtain a curing of the elastomeric polymer, whereby an effect wholly similar to leather, or suede or a biodenim, with a high cork content, is obtained.

A method is disclosed of manufacturing a transparent wear resistant surface layer (1). The method may include the steps of, applying a decorative material on a carrier, applying a dry powder layer comprising a mix of processed wood fibers, binder and wear resistant particles above the decorative layer, curing the mix to a decorative surface, including the transparent wear resistant layer, by applying heat and pressure on the mix. In a preferred embodiment the method includes the step of pressing the mix against an embossed matrix to create an embossed decorative surface with high wear resistance.

A floor element comprises a supportive layer, a reinforcement layer adjacent to the supportive layer, a top layer, and an outer layer. The arrangement has the supportive layer and the reinforcement layer between the top layer and the outer layer, and the floor element has, at its periphery, connection means for connection to another floor element. The supportive layer and the outer layer are composed of a cork material and at least the supportive layer and the reinforcement layer extend into the connection means.

A method of producing a veneered element, including providing a substrate, applying a sub-layer on a surface of the substrate, applying a veneer layer on the sub-layer, and applying pressure to the veneer layer and/or the substrate, such that at least a portion of the sub-layer permeates through the veneer layer. Also, such a veneered element.

Waterproof engineered floor and wall planks have a veneer layer bonded with a plastic composite core, and an underlayer, preferably an underlayer of cork.