Synthetic Leather

報告人 : 張益誠
DEC. 2. 2001
 The introduction of leather

*Cow skin
Grain
*Kangaroo skin

Genuine leather *Calf skin

Suede *Pig skin
*Sheep skin

*Cow skin
Leather NuBuck
*Calf skin
PVC Leather woven base

Synthetic leather PU Leather woven base

PVC Leather
Regular fiber nonwoven
Man-make Nonwoven base PU Leather
leather
Microfiber nonwoven
 Genuine leather Synthetic leather
．Price ．Conpetitive Price
．Recycle Process
．Pollutation
．Waste reducing
．Labor ．Less labor
．Good durability
．Durability ．Easy to stock
．High strength
．Multi-layer cutting
．Cutability
．High Usable rate
．Quality Consistency ．Good quality consistency
．Colorful surface
．Surface variation
．Good color uniformity
．Quantity ．Adjustable capacity
Why Do We Develop Synthetic Leather?
Influence factors
． Nature environment change---concerning
ecology,herd,forest
． For human living habit change---food
． Labor---making genuine leather need much labor
． Technology---Hi-tec finish,diversified finish
． Price---competitive & reasonable price
． Environmental---Waste Reducing
． Quality---stable and consistent
． Supply---adjustable
． Functional---anything you want
 Progress of Synthetic Leather

● 1855 Pyroxylin( 火棉膠 ) leather(England)

● 1930 Casting PVC leather(USA 、 Germany)
● 1958 Calender PVC leather (Japan)
● 1959 Nylon leather(USA)
● 1962 Dry process leather(USA)
● 1963 Wet process (USA)
● 1965 Synthetic leather(Japan)
● 1971 Synthetic leather of microfiber(Japan)
 The Application of Synthetic leather

● Shoes
Sport shoe5 、 Casual shoe 、 Lady shoe
● Bag
Briefcase 、 Lady bag.
● Apparel
Skirt 、 Coat 、 Jacket 、 Pants
● Furniture
Sofa 、 Cover of car seat 、 Upholstery
 The Application of Synthetic leather

● Others
(1)Miscellaneous goods( 雜加工 )
Belt 、 Camera case 、 Basketball 、
Watch belt 、 Jewel case 、 Soccer 、 Hat 、
Glasses case 、 Volleyball.
(2)Industrial materials
Polisher( 磨光機 ) 、 Parts for machines.
 Comparison between synthetic leather and
genuine leather
Material Genuine Microfiber Synthetic Wet PU Dry PU
Evaluation leather Synthetic leather leather leather PVC
Characteristic leather (woven) (woven)
Weight x ◎ ◎ ○ ◎ x
Strength
◎ ◎ ◎ △ △ △
(In general)
Cutting x ◎ ◎ ◎ ◎ ◎

Bending Smooth ◎ ◎ ○ ○ x ○

Backing fray ◎ ○ ○ △ x x

Shoe-making ◎ ◎ ◎ ○ △ △

Hand feeling ◎ ◎ ○ △ x x

◎Excellent ○Good △Moderate ╳Bad

Comparison between synthetic leather and
genuine leather
Material Genuine Microfiber Synthetic Wet PU Dry PU

Evaluation leather Synthetic leather leather leather PVC

Characteristic leather (woven) (woven)

Dyeing fastness △ ○ ◎ ○ ○ ○

Washing x ○ ◎ ○ △ ○

Moldability △ ○ ◎ △ x ○

Hydrolysis ○ ◎ ◎ △ △ ◎

Cool proof ◎ ◎ ◎ ○ △ x

Air permeability ◎ ○ ○ ○ △ x

Preserve △ ◎ ◎ ○ ○ ○

◎Excellent ○Good △Moderate ╳Bad

 Comparison between synthetic leather and
genuine leather
Material Genuine Microfiber Synthetic Wet PU Dry PU

Evaluation leather Synthetic leather leather leather PVC

Characteristic leather (woven) (woven)

Dimension
x ○ ◎ ◎ ◎ ◎
stability
Price
x ○ ◎ ◎ ◎ ◎
stability
Environmental
x ◎ ◎ ○ ○ x
protection

◎Excellent ○Good △Moderate ╳Bad

Materials used in making synthetic leather
PU
§ Resin
PVC
§ Solvent
§ Filler
§ Surfactant
§ Pigment
§ Release paper
Woven
§ Base nonwoven
§ Finishing agent
 Manufacture of PU synthetic leather

Dry Process

Paint preparation Consisted of PU resin 、 pigment 、 solvent 、 filler.

Skin coating Coating on release paper and dry to get a PU skin

with texture.

Adhesive coating Coating the binder.

Lamination Laminate with the base material.

 Manufacture of PU synthetic leather

Dry Process

Dry Make the synthetic leather dry.

Curing 60~80℃ after 24~48hr to assure the PU resin cross

link enough.

Separating Peel off the release paper and get an dry-process

synthetic leather.

Finishing Make the feeling of gloss-mat 、 Color cosmetic and

hand-touch.
 DRY PROCESS FLOW CHART

BASE MATERIAL
( FABRIC, PAPER, …etc. )

TOP LAYER BINDER

RELEASE
PAPER COATOR OVEN COATOR LAMINATION OVEN COOLER SEMI-
PRODUCT

release paper

CURING ROOM PRODUCT

 Wet process:semi-product

Paint preparation Consisted of PU resin,solvent(DMF),filler,surfactant.

Pre-dipping Make PU solution enter woven or nonwoven.

Coating Assure the surface evenly and add the hand-touch of

sponge.

Coagulation Make the H2O to extract with DMF to the solidification

of the PU resin,and get the porous structure (Follow
Chart).
Washing Water temp.40℃~90℃to drive DMF out fully.

Drying We get the wet-process PU semi-product after drying.

Wet process:semi-product

DMF diffuse H2O enter

Surface curing
film.

porous form PU layer.

fiber substrate

DMF diffuse H2O enter

Water tank
WET PROCESS FLOW CHART

COATOR PREDIPPING FABRIC

COAGULATION BATH WASHER OVEN COOLER SEMI-PRODUCT

 Wet process PU finish

Wet process PU semi-product

Buffing Colors finish Dry process lamination

Surface finish Emboss Surface finish

Surface finish

Suede product Grain product Grain product

Nubuck product
The Processes of PVC
Leather
1.Casting Process

The casting process is similar to the dry PU

process. But the casting component and high oven
temperature (from160℃ to 200℃) are different from
PVC and PU processes. The release paper is needed to
pass high temperature during the dry process. We can
obtain hand touch and appearance similar to genuine
leather by embossing method.
 The Processes of PVC
Leather
2.Calender Process

Mixing The mixture consist of stabilizer agent 、 foaming

agent 、 pigment and plasticizer.

Blending Using the rollmill machine blend the mixture and

increase the temperature at the same time. Then the
mixture will become the higher viscosity PVC.

Calender Control the thickness by the calender machine.

Lamination Laminate the PVC film on the various base like

woven,knitted,and nonwoven etc.
 The Processes of PVC
Leather
2.Calender Process

Foaming To make the PVC leather have sponge construction.

Blending Emboss the Top face with Texture.

Calender Make the feeling of gloss-matt 、 color and hand-

feeling.
 CASTING PROCESS FLOW CHART

FABRIC

TOP LAYER FOAM LAYER BINDER PRODUCT

RELEASE
PAPER COATOR OVEN COATOR OVEN COATOR LAMINATION OVEN COOLER RELEASE
(1st) (2nd) (3rd) PAPER
CALENDER PROCESS FLOW CHART

Raw Material

Blending
Fabric

Product
Edge-cutter

Squeeze Roll Calender Lamination Oven Embossing Cooling Roll Winder

roll
Paint Preparation Post Equipment
 Partition of the Synthetic Leather

P
VC
P
VCS
pon
geL
ayer

S
ubstrate
 Partition of the Synthetic Leather

D
ryP
U
D
ryP
ULayer

S
ubstrate
 Partition of the Synthetic Leather

WetPU
DryPULayer

Wet PULayer

Substrate
The evolution of synthetic leather is from the PVC layer
laminates woven to PU layer laminates woven to PU layer
combines nonwoven.

The fiber of nonwoven are developed from regular fiber

(about 1~6 denier)to microfiber(0.1~0.0001 denier).

The microfiber is similar to protein fiber of genuine leather.

The product of microfiber synthetic leather is the close to
genuine leather.
REGULAR FIBER NONWOVEN BASE

GRAIN TYPE NUBUCK TYPE

S-2100L WINTEX
S-3000T S-3000B
CHARON AURORA
COSMIC
GALAXY
CHARON
HIGH DENSITY NONWOVEN BASE

GRAIN TYPE NUBUCK TYPE

S-2000T S-2000B
S-2000T LIGHT S8500B
S-6000T
S-8500T
MICROFIBER(0.15D)NONWOVEN BASE

GRAIN TYPE SUEDE TYPE

ML-3050 MS-3020
VIGOR MOOSE SUEDE
MITTEN ASTRO
MARCH LODEN
HAPPY STAR
SUPER MICROFIBER(0.001D)NONWOVEN BASE

GRAIN TYPE SUEDE TYPE NUBUCK TYPE

FLAIR KIWI BUCKLEY
SPRINT KS-1010
KL-1050 KS-1020
EUREKA KOALA
KK-1010 KOALA2
KK-1040
 What is the synthetic leather of microfiber
Definition of 1 Denier ：
The fiber of length 9000m and its weight is lg.
The denier of fibers and diameter are shown below:
Fiber Mean denier(den) Mean diameter(μ m)
Cotton 1.1~1.9 11.5~20
Wool 1.5~10 11.5~63.5
Silk 0.9~6.3 10~29
Hemp 1.9~3.0 16~20
PET 1~6 10.1~24.8
Nylon 6 1.5~6 13.6~27.3
Acrylic 1.5~6 13.5~27.0
Rayon 1.5~3 11.9~16.8
 Different fine fiber and its appellation
denier Diameter(μ m) Appellation 1 Appellation 2
>6 >24.8 Heave denier
6 24.8
3 14.3
Normal
1.2 11.1
1 10.1
0.8 9 Fine denier
0.1 3.2
Micro Fiber
0.01 1.0 Micro Fiber

0.001 0.3 Super-Micro Fiber

Comparison of diameter between microfiber
and other fibers.

Super microfiber :0.5μ m

Microfiber :5μ m

Silk :12μ m

Cotton :15μ m

Wool :20μ m
Artificial leather
(regular fiber)
DryPULayer

Wet PULayer

Substrate
(Regular Nonwoven
impregnatedwithPU)
d
1.0~6.0 fiber
Artificialleather
(microfiber)

DryPULayer

Substrate
MicroFiberN onw oven
impregnatedwithPU )
d
1~0.01 fiber
A
rtificialleath
er
(superm
icrofiber)
D
ryP
ULay
er

(S
uperM
icroF
iberN
onw
oven
im
pregn
atedw
ithP
U )
d
0.01~
0.001 fiber
 Attention of using synthetic leather

UV-LIGHT

White leather must test UV-light because it

will by yellowing under UV-light.The
fluorescent leather can not avoid yellowing
under UV-light.
 Attention of using synthetic leather

JUNGLE TEST
It can be simulated by jungle test that how long will
leather be used. The time of Jungle test is 1 week
for lady shoes, 2 weeks for sport shoes,4 weeks for
garment,5 weeks for furniture and 10 weeks for
cars.Jungle test takes long.
There are some methods to reduce test time that the
result can be shown after one day or 0.5 hr by
NaOH 、 KOH test. The new method can easily
apply to quality control of products.
 Attention of using synthetic leather

COLOR MIGRATION
A method can test color migration while different
materials combine or laminate together.
Specially ,the color of PVC 、 PE foam,TPR may
have color migration by DOP penetration by PVC
or dyed cloth generates color migration by
DOP.Especially,the polyester fiber of dispersion
dye is bad and suede products of microfiber are not
suitable to combine with PVC or deep-color
products.
 Attention of using synthetic leather

BONDING STRENGTH
The genuine leather must be sander to laminate
before, but the synthetic leather is not sanded and
sewed to laminate now. Therefore,bonding strength
is important for shoes-making .It is no problem to
use that bonding strength is more than 32N/cm. It is
also considered that what kind of shoe-designed.
Some cases of failure bonding are cause for poor
binder or hydrolysis failure.
 Attention of using synthetic leather

FLEXABLITY
Flexibility test is used to simulated the material of
shoe is inflected for a long time and can see if the
surface of material cracks or not.
The products of mirror-like surface and hard
products are less flexibility . It must be notified for
low-temperature flexibility that the material will be
used at cool zone.
 Attention of using synthetic leather

WATERPROOF
It is necessary to provide water proof material for
wet surrounding , as golf shoes, soccer shoes, and
so on, Touching grass, the shoes will be wetted and
will feel uncomfortable. There are Maeser and
Bally methods.
 DEVELOPING DIRECTION OF
ARTIFICIAL LEATHER
ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION

1. SOLVENT FREE PU.

2. RECYCLED FIBER.
3. WATER BASE.
4. HARMFUL INGREDIENT FREE.
(AZO Stuff/PCP/Heavy Metal)

5. PVC REPLACEMENT.
 DEVELOPING DIRECTION OF
ARTIFICIAL LEATHER
FUNCTIONAL

1. EASY MOLDING MATERIAL.

2. HIGH ABRASION.
3. STRETCHABLE.
4. WATERPROOF.
5. HIGH BONDING STRENGTH.
6. HIGH MOISTURE ABSORPTION.
7. BREATHABLE.
8. COMPOSITE MATERIAL.
GENUINE LEATHER-LIKE
1. SOFT.
2. LOW ELONGATION.
3. HAND FEELING.
COMFORTABLE AND HEALTHY
1. ANTI-INSECT.
2. MILDEW PROOF.
3. FIREP ROOF.
4. ANTI-ELECTROSTATIC.
5. LIGHT WEIGHT.
DIVERSIFIED AND FASHIONABLE FINISH

1. TEXIBLE-LIKE.
2. REFLECTIVE.
3. MATCHING THE TREND OF APPAREL.