The Challenge of PU Leather to Natural Leather

Natural leather is widely used in the production of daily necessities and industrial products due to its excellent natural characteristics. However, with the growth of the world population, the demand for leather has doubled, and the limited quantity of natural leather can no longer meet this demand. To solve this contradiction, scientists began researching and developing artificial leather and synthetic leather decades ago to compensate for the shortcomings of natural leather. The research history of more than 50 years is the process of artificial leather and synthetic leather challenging natural leather.
Scientists started by studying and analyzing the chemical composition and organizational structure of natural leather, starting with nitrocellulose lacquer cloth and entering PVC synthetic leather, which is the first generation of artificial leather products. On this basis, scientists have made various improvements and explorations, first in the aspect of substrate, and then in the modification and improvement of coating resin. In the 1970s, non-woven fabrics made of synthetic fibers underwent processes such as needle punching and bonding, resulting in a lotus shaped cross-section and hollow fiber like structure of the substrate, achieving a porous structure that meets the requirements of natural leather's mesh structure; At that time, the surface of synthetic leather could already achieve a micro porous polyurethane layer, which was equivalent to the grain size of natural leather, gradually making the appearance and internal structure of PU synthetic leather similar to natural leather. Other physical properties were close to the indicators of natural leather, and the color was more vibrant than natural leather; Its room temperature bending resistance reaches over 1 million times, and its low-temperature bending resistance can also reach the level of natural leather.
The emergence of ultra-fine fiber PU synthetic leather is the third generation of artificial leather. The non-woven fabric with its three-dimensional structural network has created conditions for synthetic leather to surpass natural leather in terms of substrate. This product combines the newly developed PU slurry impregnation and composite surface layer processing technology with an open pore structure, and utilizes the huge surface area and strong water absorption of ultrafine fibers, making ultrafine PU synthetic leather have the inherent moisture absorption characteristics of natural leather with bundle shaped ultrafine collagen fibers. Therefore, whether from the internal microstructure, appearance texture, physical properties, and people's wearing comfort, it can be comparable to high-end natural leather. In addition, ultra-fine fiber synthetic leather surpasses natural leather in terms of chemical resistance, quality uniformity, adaptability to large-scale production and processing, as well as waterproofing, mildew resistance, and other aspects.
Practice has proven that the excellent properties of synthetic leather cannot be replaced by natural leather. From the analysis of domestic and international markets, synthetic leather has also largely replaced resource scarce natural leather. The use of artificial leather and synthetic leather for the decoration of bags, clothing, shoes, vehicles, and furniture has been increasingly recognized by the market. Its wide range of applications, large quantity, and variety cannot be met by traditional natural leather.