Application of PVC artificial leather, microfiber leather and real leather as automobile interior leather
Jan 10, 2023
PVC artificial leather, microfiber leather and real leather are three common important materials used for automobile interior leather. As an automobile interior leather material, the industry has some basic performance requirements for it, such as light resistance, heat and humidity resistance, color fastness to rubbing, abrasion resistance, flame resistance, tensile strength, tear strength, sewing strength, feel, durability, easy cleaning, etc.
PVC artificial leather is the first to be used as vehicle seat covering material. PVC artificial leather, also known as PVC coated fabric, is a material formed by mixing and coating PVC powder resin, plasticizer, ultraviolet absorber and other additives on the base cloth. The production process of PVC leather and PVC wear-resistant leather is similar, but the performance orientation of the two materials is different, and there are some differences in the formula of PVC dense layer and surface layer. At present, the common production processes of PVC artificial leather include calendering and coating.
Superfiber leather is a new material rising with the development of textile technology. The surface layer of the superfiber leather is a thin layer of polyurethane coating, and the bottom layer is the base material prepared by using ultra-fine fiber non-woven fabric through impregnation with polyurethane resin. Ultra-fiber leather not only has a similar structure to natural leather, but also its appearance perception and touch are close to natural leather. It is difficult to distinguish the difference between the two in appearance. Therefore, microfiber leather is now commonly used to replace leather on car seats.
The cost of leather is much higher than that of artificial leather, and the most commonly used in automobiles are the first layer of cow leather or the second layer of cow leather. Real leather will only appear in high-end models of luxury brands; Some models that are not very expensive will not use 100% complete leather even if they use leather. Instead, they will be made of regenerated leather, which is ground by leather slag and leather fiber and bonded by high-pressure adhesive, or use leather in some places where the seats are frequently contacted, and other parts will be made of artificial leather.
Leather has the highest comprehensive use cost due to its high unit price and low utilization rate; Ultra-fiber leather and wear-resistant PVC leather are usually used for the main fabric of seats. The price is moderate, and the utilization rate of the two is equivalent. However, because of the higher complexity of raw materials and process, the comprehensive use cost of ultra-fiber leather is higher than that of wear-resistant PVC leather; PVC leather is often used as seat auxiliary fabric with the lowest comprehensive cost. At present, most of the artificial leather seats on the market are made of PU polyurethane synthetic leather, which is low in cost and durable. Its function and practicability are not even worse than that of leather; Some luxury brands' low-profile cars are also equipped with artificial leather seats.
Look at the comparison of different leather materials. The microfiber leather is mainly composed of the base layer prepared by the superfine fiber non-woven fabric impregnated with polyurethane resin and the polyurethane surface layer coated by dry method. Due to the large void ratio of the microfiber nonwoven fabric itself, it still retains a certain void ratio after being soaked in polyurethane. It can not only achieve the effect of leather in appearance, but also close to leather in structure. The ride comfort is better than PVC leather, which is equivalent to leather. The dermis is made of raw animal skin, with porous structure inside. The dermis material has good permeability.
Seat covering leather is commonly used for covering materials such as PVC leather, PVC wear-resistant leather, perforated PVC leather, microfiber leather, perforated microfiber and leather. There is little difference in mechanical properties between PVC leather and PVC wear-resistant leather. Because the formulations of the two materials are roughly similar, only the formulation of the PVC leather surface layer is slightly different from that of the surface layer, and the mechanical properties mainly depend on the performance of the fabric backing; The tensile strength and tear strength of PVC abrasion-resistant leather decreased seriously after punching; The mechanical properties of microfiber leather are superior to that of leather in all aspects, and the strength after punching has declined, but still maintains a high value. This is because the structure of microfiber leather and leather is a 3D mesh structure composed of microfiber, and the fibers are "bonded" with each other. The punching does not damage the microstructure, so the strength and the strength after punching are both high.
The wear resistance of leather, microfiber leather and PVC wear-resistant leather are basically the same, and the three are significantly better than PVC leather. The polyurethane coating on the surface of leather and microfiber leather is attached to the substrate with a network cross-linking structure, which is beneficial to improve the wear resistance of the coating; Compared with PVC leather, the formula of the paint layer on the surface of PVC wear-resistant leather contains wear-resistant silicon additive, and the formula of the PVC dense layer contains PVC powder resin with higher degree of polymerization, so the wear-resistant performance is significantly better than that of PVC leather.
As a new type of material, microfiber leather has excellent mechanical properties, color fastness, environmental protection and cost economy. It also has strong abrasion resistance and can still maintain high tensile strength after punching, so it can give stylists more choices in modeling design. The application prospect of microfiber leather in automobile seats is broad. Even with the development of interior design and the progress of material technology, the decline of the price of microfiber leather will bring new growth points for its application. For example, the door guard, sun visor, steering wheel and ceiling and other components may be widely applied to microfiber leather materials.
