PU synthetic leather is the leather made from the skin of polyurethane. Now it is widely used for decoration of luggage, clothing, shoes, vehicles and furniture. It has been increasingly recognized by the market. Its wide application range, large quantity and many varieties are not satisfied by traditional natural leather. The quality of PU leather is also good or bad. Good PU leather is even more expensive than leather, with good shaping effect and bright surface.
01: Material properties and characteristics
PU synthetic leather is used to replace PVC artificial leather, and its price is higher than PVC artificial leather. In terms of chemical structure, it is closer to leather fabric. It does not need plasticizer to achieve soft properties, so it will not become hard and brittle. At the same time, it has the advantages of rich colors and various patterns, and the price is usually cheaper than leather fabric, so it is welcomed by consumers.
The other is PU leather. Generally, the reverse side of PU leather is the second layer of raw leather, which is coated with a layer of PU resin, so it is also called film cow leather. Its price is relatively cheap and its utilization rate is high. With the change of technology, it is also made into varieties of various grades, such as the imported two-layer raw leather. Because of its unique technology, stable quality, novel varieties and other characteristics, it is the current high-grade leather, and its price and grade are no less than the first layer leather. PU leather and genuine leather have their own characteristics. The appearance of PU leather is beautiful and easy to take care of. The price is low, but it is not wear-resistant and easy to break; Genuine leather is expensive, troublesome to take care of, but durable.
(1) High strength, thin and elastic, soft and smooth, good breathability and water permeability, and waterproof.
(2) At low temperature, it still has good tensile strength and flexural strength, good light aging resistance and hydrolysis resistance.
(3) It is not wear-resistant, and its appearance and performance are close to those of natural leather. It is easy to wash, decontaminate and sew.
(4) The surface is smooth and compact, which can be used for a variety of surface treatment and dyeing. The variety is diverse and the price is relatively low.
(5) Water absorption is not easy to expand and deform, and it is environmentally friendly.
02: Product process and classification
Nubuck leather: After being brushed, light yellow and colored, its surface is processed into a top layer similar to the fine hair of suede leather. As it is a kind of top leather, although the strength of the leather is also weakened by the drawing process to a certain extent, it is still much stronger than ordinary suede leather.
Crazy horse leather: It has a smooth hand feel, is more flexible and strong, has elastic feet, and the skin will change color when pushed by hand. It must be made of natural head layer animal skin. Because the horse skin has natural smoothness and strength, most of them use the head layer horse skin. However, because this leather making process takes a lot of time, has relatively few raw materials, and has high cost, Crazy horse leather is only common in the middle and high-end leather market.
PU mirror leather: the surface is smooth. The leather is mainly treated to make the surface shiny and show the mirror effect. Therefore, it is called mirror leather. Its material is not very fixed.
Ultrafine fiber synthetic leather: it is a new type of high-grade artificial leather made of extremely fine fibers. Some people call it the fourth generation of artificial leather, which is comparable to high-grade natural leather. It has the inherent moisture absorption and air permeability of natural leather, and it is superior to natural leather in chemical resistance, water resistance, mildew resistance, etc.
Washed leather: The retro PU leather, which was popular two years ago, is to apply a layer of water-based paint on the PU leather, and then add acid to wash it in water to destroy the structure of the paint on the surface of the washed leather, so that the raised areas on the surface fade to show the background color, while the concave areas retain the original color. Washed leather is artificial. Its appearance and feel are very similar to leather. Although it is not as breathable as leather, it is lighter and can be washed. Its price is much cheaper than leather.
Moisture cured leather: It is a plastic product made by a certain processing process, which is a mixture of polyvinyl chloride resin, plasticizer and other additives, coated or pasted on the surface of the fabric. In addition, there are also double-sided PVC artificial leather with plastic layers on both sides of the substrate.
Discolored leather: It is made by adding discolored resin into the PU surface layer and BASE layer of the leather, soaking, then processing for release paper overlaying or embossing, and printing. After the thermal pressure of the hot press, the surface of the hot pressed discolored leather is subjected to a similar carbonization reaction, mimicking the mark left by the scorched leather when it is exposed to high temperature, resulting in a darker color scale of the color of the hot pressed surface, so it is called hot pressed discolored leather.
Post time: Dec-19-2022