How Artificial Leather Works

The working principle of automotive artificial leather mainly includes three main types: PVC artificial leather, PU artificial leather and microfiber artificial leather. Each type has its own unique production process and characteristics.

PVC artificial leather
The main raw material of PVC artificial leather is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and its production process includes coating method and calendering method. The coating method is to coat PVC plastisol on the pretreated fabric base, and then make it through plasticizing, embossing, cooling, winding and other processes. The calendering method is to mix PVC resin with plasticizer, apply paste on the base fabric by roller coating, and then make it through thermal compounding, plasticizing, foaming and other processes12. The advantages of PVC artificial leather are simple production and low cost, but the disadvantages are airtightness, hard feel, poor comfort and poor aging resistance.

PU artificial leather
The main raw material of PU artificial leather is polyurethane (PU), and its production process includes wet method and dry method. The wet method is to mix PU with solvent, impregnate or coat it on the base fabric, and replace the solvent with water to form a porous film. The dry method is to mix PU resin with filler and then apply it to the base fabric through a scraper or roller. PU artificial leather has good air permeability and feel, but poor wear resistance and high production cost 23. High-end PU artificial leather is even more expensive than genuine leather and is closer to the texture of natural leather.

Microfiber artificial leather
Microfiber artificial leather (microfiber leather) is a composite of microfiber non-woven fabric and PU resin. Its production process includes weaving microfiber non-woven fabric, then impregnating the fabric in PU resin, and then making it through coagulation, washing, post-treatment and other processes. Microfiber artificial leather has excellent wear resistance, cold resistance, air permeability and aging resistance, but the manufacturing cost is high and the process is complicated .

Environmental protection and application scenarios
PVC artificial leather has poor environmental protection due to the use of chemical materials, and is often used in economical products. PU artificial leather is usually more environmentally friendly than PVC, and has a softer feel and better air permeability, so it is more popular in some application scenarios .