The Challenge Of Synthetic Leather To Natural Leather

Natural leather is widely used in the production of daily necessities and industrial products due to its excellent natural characteristics. However, with the growth of the world’s population, human demand for leather has doubled, and the limited amount of natural leather has long been unable to meet this demand. To solve this contradiction, scientists began to research and develop artificial leather and synthetic leather decades ago to make up for the shortcomings of natural leather. The historical process of more than 50 years of research is the process of artificial leather and synthetic leather challenging natural leather.

Scientists began by studying and analyzing the chemical composition and structure of natural leather, starting with nitrocellulose varnished cloth, and entering PVC artificial leather, which is the first generation of artificial leather. On this basis, scientists have made many improvements and explorations, first the improvement of the substrate, and then the modification and improvement of the coating resin. In the 1970s, the synthetic fiber non-woven fabrics were needle punched into nets, bonded into nets, etc., so that the base material had a lotus-shaped section, hollow fiber shape, and reached a porous structure, which was in line with the network structure of natural leather. Requirement; At that time, the surface layer of synthetic leather can be made into a microporous structure polyurethane layer, which is equivalent to the grain surface of natural leather, so that the appearance and internal structure of PU synthetic leather are gradually close to natural leather, and other physical properties are close to those of natural leather. Index, and the color is more vivid than natural leather; its normal temperature folding resistance can reach more than 1 million times, and low temperature folding resistance can reach the level of natural leather. The emergence of microfiber PU synthetic leather is the third generation of artificial leather. The non-woven fabric of its three-dimensional structure network creates conditions for synthetic leather to catch up with natural leather in terms of base material. This product combines the newly developed PU slurry impregnation and composite surface layer processing technology with open pore structure, exerts the huge surface area of superfine fibers and strong water absorption, making the superfine PU synthetic leather possess bundled superfine The inherent hygroscopic properties of natural leather made of collagen fibers are comparable to high-grade natural leather in terms of internal microstructure, appearance, texture, physical properties, and wearing comfort. In addition, microfiber synthetic leather surpasses natural leather in terms of chemical resistance, quality uniformity, large-scale production and processing adaptability, and waterproof and mildew resistance.

Practice has proved that the excellent properties of synthetic leather cannot be replaced by natural leather. From the analysis of domestic and foreign markets, synthetic leather has largely replaced natural leather with insufficient resources. The use of artificial leather and synthetic leather for the decoration of bags, clothing, shoes, vehicles and furniture has been increasingly recognized by the market. Its wide range of applications, large quantities, and many varieties cannot be satisfied by traditional natural leather.

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