Cork backing for coasters

[Kyebie]

Hi
can anyone help. The price of unisub cork backed coasters are virtually twice the price of plain back coasters.
I have been trying to source adhesive cork backing for coasters, preferably pre-cut to size, so it's just a case of peel and stick.
I can only source companies selling adhesive cork by the roll.
Does anyone know of a supplier of cork backing, we would be looking to order about 2000 pieces at a time.
fingers crossed someone can point me in the right direction.

[UK Printed Mugs]

You're not the only one who thinks coasters (with cork) are expensive but in this sublimation game then we are finding that sublimation is for more small print runs (thus higher blank prices) whereas melamine printed items are very cheap but larger print runs needed to offset costs. The cost of a blank cork backed sublimation coaster is the same price as a printed melamine printed cork backed coaster.

We recently lost a National Trust job of just 500 coasters as the cost of melamine printed coasters was literally half of sublimation route.

To answer your question then I don't think it is going to be possible let alone time efficient to stick cork to a regular coaster. A lot of time and money by manufacturers goes into the process of adhering securely the coated surface to a backing. Unisub cork coasters are very good and the bond between front and back is excellent and for us perfect quality for gift shops but home made I am not so sure.

[Kyebie]

Thanks for that bit of info, it's given me food for thought. Only problem with ordering printed melamine is getting quantities right. Fors and against with both sublimation and printed melamine.

[wayupnorth]

I used to make my own coasters and table mats from scratch using a laminated picture bonded to acp then bonded to cork. Cold mount double sided adhesive roll from Lion is very strong. The cork came from a company in Scotland (I think) and was about 1£/A2 sheet (ish). You can apply the adhesive direct to the cork sheet, remove the backing paper and press on the coasters. these are then cut out using a craft knife. The coasters/mats were always produced with square corners and trimmed using a corner rounder. This simplified production and minimised the number of trimming cuts.

I would quite happily use this technique for a run of 100 but it would be tedious for larger numbers. Also I had plenty of spare time. However substituting dyesub metal for the print/acp may be cost effective.