Artificial leather
Encyclopedia
Artificial leather is a fabric or finish intended to substitute for leather
in fields such as upholstery
, clothing
and fabrics, and other uses where a leather-like finish is required but the actual material is cost-prohibitive or unsuitable.
-like surface were once used, principally for upholstery
purposes, such as the covering of chairs, lining the tops of writing desks and tables, and so on.
There was considerable diversity in the preparation of such materials. A common variety consisted of a web of calico
coated with boiled linseed oil
mixed with dryers and lampblack or other pigment
. Several coats of this mixture were uniformly spread, smoothed and compressed on the cotton
surface by passing it between metal rollers, and when the surface was required to possess a glossy enamel
-like appearance, it received a finishing coat of copal
varnish
. A grained Morocco
surface was given to the material by passing it between suitably embossed rollers.
Preparations of this kind have a close affinity to cloth waterproofed with rubber
, and to such manufactures as ordinary waxcloth. An artificial leather which was patented and proposed for use as soles for boots, etc., was composed of powdered scraps and cuttings of leather mixed with solution of guttapercha dried and compressed. In place of the guttapercha solution, oxidized linseed oil or dissolved resin
could be used as the binding medium for the leather powder.
s, are often used in clothing and fabrics. Artificial leather is marketed under many brands, including "leatherette," "faux leather", "Naugahyde
" and "pleather".
term for synthetic leather
made of plastic
. The term was coined by Amy Bach, when working in New York for Millis clothing. Upon the arrival of a new line, a plastic leather, Bach needed a way to advertise the product to customers without calling it plastic. She thus came up with the term Pleather. A portmanteau of plastic and leather, the term is sometimes used derogatorily, implying a cost-cutting Ersatz
for genuine hide. Besides cost, pleather may also be preferred because it is lighter than leather, or as an alternative to real leather citing reasons of animal cruelty. Pleather, being made of plastic, will not decompose as quickly.
Not all pleathers are the same. Polyurethane
is washable, can be dry-cleaned and allows some air to flow through the garment. PVC
pleather in contrast does not "breathe" and is difficult to clean. PVC cannot be dry-cleaned because the cleaning solvents can make the PVC unbearably stiff.
substitutes made from a plastic coating (usually a polyurethane
) on a fibrous base layer (typically a polyester
).
The term poromeric was coined by DuPont
as a derivative of the terms microporous and polymeric.
The first poromeric material was DuPont's ill-fated Corfam introduced in 1963 at the Chicago Shoe Show.
Corfam was the centerpiece of the DuPont pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair
in New York City
. Its major advantages over natural leather
were its durability and its high gloss finish that could be easily cleaned with a damp cloth. Its disadvantages were its stiffness which did not lessen with wearing, its relative lack of breathability, and easy confusion with non-breathable cheaper products. DuPont manufactured Corfam at its plant in Old Hickory, Tennessee
, from 1964 to 1971. After spending millions of dollars marketing the product to shoe manufacturers, DuPont withdrew Corfam from the market in 1971 and sold the rights to a company in Poland
.
Corfam is still used today in some products, an example being certain types of equestrian saddle girth
. Corfam shoes are still popular in uniformed professions where shiny shoes are desirable.
It is commonly used in Hewlett-Packard
, Targus
and Belkin
laptop cases, CD wallets, and other consumer goods.
It is made to look and feel like authentic leather
.
In Swedish, koskinn means cow's skin (ko means cow, skinn means skin), and in Danish koskind means cow's skin, causing much confusion for consumers.
layer.
Leatherette bound books
and 20th century cameras are good examples of leatherette. Leatherette clothing of various kinds (including lingerie
) also exist.
A disadvantage of plastic "leatherette" is that it is not porous and does not allow air to pass through it; thus, sweat can accumulate if it is used for clothing, car seat coverings, etc. One of its primary advantages, especially in cars, is that it requires little maintenance in comparison to leather, and does not crack or fade as easily.
During a fire, leatherette may cause serious skin damage, because it burns more vigorously than leather and can melt.
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
in fields such as upholstery
Upholstery
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...
, clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
and fabrics, and other uses where a leather-like finish is required but the actual material is cost-prohibitive or unsuitable.
Historic and upholstery uses
Under the name of artificial leather (not to be confused with the more modern Pleather) or American leather cloth, large quantities of a material having a more or less leatherLeather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
-like surface were once used, principally for upholstery
Upholstery
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...
purposes, such as the covering of chairs, lining the tops of writing desks and tables, and so on.
There was considerable diversity in the preparation of such materials. A common variety consisted of a web of calico
Calico (fabric)
Calico is a plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may contain unseparated husk parts, for example. The fabric is less coarse and thick than canvas or denim, but owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance, it is still very cheap. Originally from the...
coated with boiled linseed oil
Linseed oil
Linseed oil, also known as flaxseed oil, is a clear to yellowish oil obtained from the dried ripe seeds of the flax plant . The oil is obtained by cold pressing, sometimes followed by solvent extraction...
mixed with dryers and lampblack or other pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
. Several coats of this mixture were uniformly spread, smoothed and compressed on the cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
surface by passing it between metal rollers, and when the surface was required to possess a glossy enamel
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
-like appearance, it received a finishing coat of copal
Copal
Copal is a name given to tree resin that is particularly identified with the aromatic resins used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and other purposes...
varnish
Varnish
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss...
. A grained Morocco
Morocco leather
Morocco leather is a leather made from goatskin, dyed red on the grain side and then tanned by hand to bring up the grain in a bird's-eye pattern....
surface was given to the material by passing it between suitably embossed rollers.
Preparations of this kind have a close affinity to cloth waterproofed with rubber
Rubber
Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
, and to such manufactures as ordinary waxcloth. An artificial leather which was patented and proposed for use as soles for boots, etc., was composed of powdered scraps and cuttings of leather mixed with solution of guttapercha dried and compressed. In place of the guttapercha solution, oxidized linseed oil or dissolved resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
could be used as the binding medium for the leather powder.
Clothing and fabric uses
Synthetic leathers, at times made from plasticPlastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
s, are often used in clothing and fabrics. Artificial leather is marketed under many brands, including "leatherette," "faux leather", "Naugahyde
Naugahyde
Naugahyde is an American brand of artificial leather . Naugahyde is a composite of a knit fabric backing and polyvinyl chloride plastic coating. It was developed by United States Rubber Company, and is now manufactured and sold by the Uniroyal Engineered Products division of Michelin...
" and "pleather".
Plastic leather
The term pleather ("plastic leather") is a slangSlang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
term for synthetic leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
made of plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
. The term was coined by Amy Bach, when working in New York for Millis clothing. Upon the arrival of a new line, a plastic leather, Bach needed a way to advertise the product to customers without calling it plastic. She thus came up with the term Pleather. A portmanteau of plastic and leather, the term is sometimes used derogatorily, implying a cost-cutting Ersatz
Ersatz
Ersatz means 'substituting for, and typically inferior in quality to', e.g. 'chicory is ersatz coffee'. It is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement...
for genuine hide. Besides cost, pleather may also be preferred because it is lighter than leather, or as an alternative to real leather citing reasons of animal cruelty. Pleather, being made of plastic, will not decompose as quickly.
Not all pleathers are the same. Polyurethane
Polyurethane
A polyurethane is any polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links. Polyurethane polymers are formed through step-growth polymerization, by reacting a monomer with another monomer in the presence of a catalyst.Polyurethanes are...
is washable, can be dry-cleaned and allows some air to flow through the garment. PVC
Polyvinyl chloride
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...
pleather in contrast does not "breathe" and is difficult to clean. PVC cannot be dry-cleaned because the cleaning solvents can make the PVC unbearably stiff.
Poromeric imitation leather
Sometimes referred to as poromerics, poromeric imitation leathers are a group of synthetic 'breathable' leatherLeather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
substitutes made from a plastic coating (usually a polyurethane
Polyurethane
A polyurethane is any polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links. Polyurethane polymers are formed through step-growth polymerization, by reacting a monomer with another monomer in the presence of a catalyst.Polyurethanes are...
) on a fibrous base layer (typically a polyester
Polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
).
The term poromeric was coined by DuPont
DuPont
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
as a derivative of the terms microporous and polymeric.
The first poromeric material was DuPont's ill-fated Corfam introduced in 1963 at the Chicago Shoe Show.
Corfam was the centerpiece of the DuPont pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was the third major world's fair to be held in New York City. Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding," dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe";...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Its major advantages over natural leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
were its durability and its high gloss finish that could be easily cleaned with a damp cloth. Its disadvantages were its stiffness which did not lessen with wearing, its relative lack of breathability, and easy confusion with non-breathable cheaper products. DuPont manufactured Corfam at its plant in Old Hickory, Tennessee
Old Hickory, Tennessee
Old Hickory, Tennessee is a section of metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee, named in honor of President Andrew Jackson who was nicknamed "Old Hickory."...
, from 1964 to 1971. After spending millions of dollars marketing the product to shoe manufacturers, DuPont withdrew Corfam from the market in 1971 and sold the rights to a company in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Corfam is still used today in some products, an example being certain types of equestrian saddle girth
Girth (tack)
A girth, sometimes called a cinch , is a piece of equipment used to keep the saddle in place on a horse or other animal. It passes under the barrel of the equine, usually attached to the saddle on both sides by two or three leather straps called billets...
. Corfam shoes are still popular in uniformed professions where shiny shoes are desirable.
Koskin
Koskin is an artificial leather material commonly found in computer laptop cases.It is commonly used in Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, Targus
Targus (corporation)
The Targus Corporation is a United States-based manufacturer of accessories mostly related to mobile computing and photography.-Offices:The company has 45 offices worldwide and distribution points in 145 counties. It is headquartered in Anaheim, California, USA...
and Belkin
Belkin
Belkin International, Inc., is a Californian manufacturer of computer hardware that specializes in connectivity devices, headquartered in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California...
laptop cases, CD wallets, and other consumer goods.
It is made to look and feel like authentic leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
.
In Swedish, koskinn means cow's skin (ko means cow, skinn means skin), and in Danish koskind means cow's skin, causing much confusion for consumers.
Leatherette
Leatherette is a form of artificial leather, usually made by covering a fabric base with plastic. The fabric can be made of a natural or a synthetic fibre which is then covered with a soft PVCPolyvinyl chloride
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...
layer.
Leatherette bound books
Bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It usually involves attaching covers to the resulting text-block.-Origins of the book:...
and 20th century cameras are good examples of leatherette. Leatherette clothing of various kinds (including lingerie
Lingerie
Lingerie are fashionable and possibly alluring undergarments.Lingerie usually incorporates one or more flexible, stretchy materials like Lycra, nylon , polyester, satin, lace, silk and sheer fabric which are not typically used in more functional, basic cotton undergarments.The term in the French...
) also exist.
A disadvantage of plastic "leatherette" is that it is not porous and does not allow air to pass through it; thus, sweat can accumulate if it is used for clothing, car seat coverings, etc. One of its primary advantages, especially in cars, is that it requires little maintenance in comparison to leather, and does not crack or fade as easily.
During a fire, leatherette may cause serious skin damage, because it burns more vigorously than leather and can melt.
Others
There are many other materials that can be used as leather alternatives. Some of these materials are:- Vegetan — a shop-owned trade name for one grade of microfibre
- Lorica — a wide range of Japanese microfibres including gloss-faced ones, dyed and softened in Italy. A type of artificial leather promoted by Sidi, an Italian bicycle shoe maker.
- Birko-Flor — this proprietary material of BirkenstockBirkenstockBirkenstock Orthopädie GmbH & Co. KG is a shoe manufacturer headquartered in Vettelschoß, Germany. The company sells Birkenstock, a German brand of sandals and other shoes notable for their contoured cork and rubber footbeds, which conform somewhat to the shape of their wearers' feet...
is made of acrylic and polyamide felt fibres; a variation is made to replicate patent leatherPatent leatherPatent leather is a type of japanned leather that has been given a high gloss, shiny finish. The process was brought to the United States and improved by Newark-based inventor Seth Boyden in 1818, with commercial manufacture beginning September 20, 1819. Boyden's process, which he never patented,... - Birkibuc — another proprietary material of Birkenstock, made of the same materials, but designed to replicate the look and feel of nubuck leatherNubuckNubuck is top-grain cattle rawhide leather that has been sanded or buffed on the grain side, or outside, to give a slight nap of short protein fibers, producing a velvet-like surface. It is resistant to wear, and may be white or coloured....
- Vinyl also known as PVCPolyvinyl chloridePolyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...
- KydexKydexKYDEX is a line of thermoplastic acrylic-polyvinyl chloride alloy sheet grades. It is frequently used as an alternative to leather in the production of firearm holsters and sheaths for knives...
— an acrylic-PVC alloy produced by Kleerdex - Cork Leather — made from the bark of Cork OakCork OakQuercus suber, commonly called the Cork Oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.It grows to up to 20 m,...
trees - Ocean Leather — a little known versatile leather made from kelp
- RexineRexineRexine is the registered trademark of an artificial leather leathercloth fabric produced in the United Kingdom by Rexine Ltd of Hyde, near Manchester, England...
- a British proprietary brand of leathercloth used in vehicle trimming and bookbinding.
Notations
- Faux Real: Genuine Leather and 200 Years of Inspired Fakes, by Robert Kanigel. Joseph Henry Press, 2007.