Artificial leather

As artificial leather is to be understood from a textile fabric or non-woven fabric with a coating of plastic, as a rule of the composite. It is natural fibers or synthetic fibers, which are coated, in many cases with soft PVC. These coatings can be made ​​compact or foamed, depending on the application. Often the surface is grained, so that it resembles a leather structure.

Application examples for artificial leather jackets, belts, shoes, especially sport shoes, bags, balls (eg footballs ), folding roofs and switching bags (flexible panels ) for automobiles, seat covers or furniture such as sofas and armchairs. Modern faux leather coated instead of PVC with polyurethane. In order to obtain a certain softness of the coating that is required for the handle and the material is appropriate abundance and carrying and seating comfort, the coating is given a foam structure. This PVC is mixed with, for example, chemical blowing agents which generate gas bubbles in the thermal drying of the coating. Polyurethane receives a foam structure by coagulation, chemical blowing agents or dispersions by mechanical stirring.

In product and in advertising is often artificial leather with the syncretic concept of faux leather ( faux, French: false) called. For many products (eg upholstery ), the term is increasingly used textile leather, but to consumers must not be used.

The use of synthetic leather instead of real leather has different reasons. Artificial leather based PVC plastisol are priced quite cheap and very sturdy, polyurethane synthetic leather, unlike leather machine washable and dry off without induration. Therefore, the latter are often used for sports shoes. Since synthetic leather accrues on the textile carrier materials as continuous material, the blank is much easier than with leather and it is always the same surface quality produced. The manufacturing process is much faster than leather, because the elaborate tanning process is eliminated. In addition, artificial leather are not tied to the market availability of certain animal skins.

Leatherette names and brands

• Clarino
• Lederol
• Napalonleder
• Skai
• A well-known under the name Viledon artificial leather was brought in 1938 by Freudenberg on the market.

Ethical and ecological aspects

Ethical issues that are involved in rearing and killing of animals for the production of leather, do not occur with synthetic leather, so it can be classified from the perspective of animal welfare as an ethically acceptable alternative to leather. However, the majority of leather produced comes from slaughter of cattle and swine from the meat production and thus represents a forced accumulation product represents the world slaughtered in 2008 animals are indicated with nearly 300 million cattle and 1.3 billion pigs.

Regarding climate change, the cattle is considered problematic because of the quantities of methane produced and the consumption of green areas. But it can be argued that real leather is a renewable natural product, whereas, unless constructed according to the present state of the art synthetic leather on textile substrates such as cotton, is entirely dependent on the petroleum chemistry as synthetic resins, solvents and plasticizers (for PVC plastisols ) are used. It various chemicals and in the subsequent coating (Leather finishing ) are, however, synthetic resins such as acrylics and polyurethanes used in the tanning of leather. The question is which, so the products, leather or leatherette sustainable, has not yet been conclusively answered.