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Views: 105 Author: CAIWING LEATHER Publish Time: 2023-01-11 Origin: CAIWING LEATHER
| Table of Contents | |
|---|---|
| 1 | About Faux Leather |
| 2 | The Development of Faux Leather |
| 3 | PVC Leather |
| 4 | PU Leather |
| 5 | Silicone Leather |
| 6 | The Development Trend of Faux Leather |
| 7 | The Relationship Between Faux Leather and Genuine Leather |
With the development of human society, the imbalance between the supply of natural leather and the growing demand has become more and more prominent, which can no longer meet the needs of people for the extensive use of leather fabrics. At the same time, the natural leather industry is also faced with the downward pressure caused by the shortage of raw hides, low production efficiency, low utilization rate, environmental protection and the enhancement of consumers' awareness of animal protection, and the space for future development is limited. Since the 1930s, people have started to use various chemical materials and methods to manufacture substitutes for natural leather, namely faux leather. Today, the development of faux leather is changing rapidly, it has completed the historical transformation from early simple imitation to high simulation and has been recognized by the market. Faux leather has the advantage of wide application range, large output, diversified quality that genuine Leather is really hard to catch up.
Faux leather is a coated textile made of polymer resin material and impregnated on the textile.
Faux leather, Artificial leather, synthetic leather and microfiber leather are one of several names. There are three main types of an faux leather according to different basic materials: polyurethane ("PU"), polyvinyl chloride (PVC or"vinyl") and silicone.
At the beginning of the development of faux leather, the purpose was to make up for the shortage of genuine leather sources.
In the 1930s, scientists analyzed the chemical composition and structure of natural leather, imitated the manufacture of faux leather coated with PVC polymer material, replacing natural leather for industrial application.
In 1953, Germany first obtained a patent for polyurethane leather. In 1962, it realized mass production of polyurethane leather in Japan. Later, with the increasing demand for polyurethane leather, the technology also developed by leaps and bounds along with the output, developing polyurethane leather, microfiber synthetic leather, water-based PU leather, solvent-free synthetic leather, etc.
In recent years, with the continuous progress of new materials and technologies, silicone leather has gradually entered people's daily use. The product adopts liquid silicone rubber innovation research and development, specially creating for human who pursuit ultimate comfort touch and health.
Silicone synthetic leather not only has skin-friendly touch, but also has high abrasion resistance, stain resistance, aging resistance and flame retardancy, and this product has reached a whole new level in each performance. Especially in the anti-wrinkle, fire retardant, easy to clean, keep new performances, silicone leather has absolute advantages.
PVC leather obtained is an artificial plastic product obtained by mixing polyvinyl chloride resin, plasticizer, stabilizer and some of chemicals that coating or laminating them on a textile substrate. It is similar to genuine leather in appearance and has excellent characteristics such as bright color, light gram weight, high strength, abrasion resistance, flexibility, acid and alkali resistance, etc. Moreover, PVC leather is low cost and convenient to process.
In terms of application, PVC leather can be used to manufacture bags, furniture, clothing, cars, yachts, floors, wallpapers, tarpaulins, etc. And it is widely used in industry, agriculture, transportation and daily life.
PU leather is a plastic product whose appearance and performance are closer to natural leather obtained by combining the coating formed by polyurethane resin with the base. Among them, microfiber leather is made into three-dimensional structure by finishing fibers, using needle or spun lace, and then through wet polyurethane impregnation, weight reduction, skin grinding and other processes, finally forming polyurethane synthetic leather.
As PU leather has soft hand feel, natural luster, soft color, cold resistance, excellent breathability, moisture permeability, and strong sense of leather, it is widely used in footwear, apparel, furniture, bags, automobiles, especially in the fields requiring high breathability and comfort , that will be more suitable than PVC leather.
Silicon leather is made of silica gel as raw material, combined with different backing cloth, such as woven fabric, knitted fabric, microfiber. It has the advantages of flame resistance, odor free, abrasion resistance, environmental protection, easy cleaning, high and low temperature resistance, acid and alkali resistance, QUV resistance, heat aging resistance, resistance to twists and turns, disinfection, and perfect color fastness.
Because of its unique performance, silicone leather can be used in sports equipment, aerospace, automobile interior, baby products, health-care, marine & yachts, indoor and outdoor furniture, handbags.
With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and strict control of pollution all over the world, the environmental protection production and R&D of "green ecological artificial leather" has become the new direction of artificial leather. After decades of development, the early PVC and PU materials can no longer meet the new development needs and directions. With this, some emerging environmental protection production technologies and new material applications have emerged one after another, such as thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer coating (TPU), solvent-free polyurethane technology, water-based polyurethane tanning technology and silicone materials.
Solvent-free synthetic leather is a new type of clean production process developed in recent years. No solvent will be used in raw materials and processing, no flammable and explosive phenomena will occur, no pollution will be caused to the ecological environment, and no harm will be caused to the health of workers. Solvent-free leather products are environmentally friendly and energy-saving, with good mechanical properties, abrasion resistance and aging resistance.
Waterborne polyurethane leather is made of water base PU resin, produced by dry foaming or water-based impregnation technology. The production process of water-based PU leather is safe and environmentally friendly, energy-saving and consumption-reducing, without environmental pollution. It is better than traditional PU leather in aging resistance, physical properties, environmental performance, hand feel, breathability and moisture permeability.
The functionality of silicone leather is the best among all new materials. It is not only having the characteristics of safe and clean production technology but also has excellent functional performances, such as odorless, non-toxic, high and low temperature resistant, good electrical insulation, easy to clean, weather resistant, flame retardant, anti-bacterial and mildew resistant and chemically stable. With these excellent properties, silicone leather has great potential for application in the market of functional requirements.
Leather is a long history of traditional products, leather products with its nice grain, good skin-friendly by people's favor. With the improvement of living standard and consumption ability, people's aesthetics will be return to the basics and natural, for this category of people, leather is more popular with them.
Faux leather and synthetic leather are based on synthetic materials, standardized industrialized production. With the progress of technology, many properties of synthetic leather have been comparable with genuine leather, physical properties, processing adaptability have exceeded genuine leather. Faux leather’s development and application make up for the problem of insufficient natural leather resources, enrich the leather products market.
Faux leather is a cross science integrating leather, textile, chemicals which belongs to a new development direction in light chemical engineering. With the progress of new materials and technologies, artificial leather has become an independent industry. Faux leather and genuine leather have their own strengths in the field of use and performance. They are interdependent in the market, differentiated and constantly innovated to meet the diversified applications.
