Sheet structures containing natural polymers and microspheres
AssigneeTMG - Tecidos Plastificados e Outros Revestimentos Para a Indústria Autómovel, S.A.
InventorsAna Francisca de Sousa Marques Gonçalves Coelho, Elizabete Peixoto de Pinho, Luis Filipe Carvalho da Silva
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Abstract
The present invention provides a sheet structure comprising a carrier layer and a foamed cover layer which contains polyvinyl chloride, lignocellulosic based components and hollow microspheres, and a method for producing the sheet structure. The sheet structure can be used as an artificial leather, e.g. for flexible automotive interiors.
Claims11
A sheet structure comprising a carrier layer and a foamed cover layer which contains polyvinyl chloride, lignocellulosic based components and hollow microspheres, wherein the density of the foamed cover layer is less than 1500 kg/m3, and the hollow microspheres make up 15 to 90 vol % of the total volume of the foamed cover layer.
A process for preparing a sheet structure comprising the following steps:
- (a) providing a mixture of lignocellulosic based components, microspheres, and molten polyvinyl chloride,
- (b) heating the mixture to expand the microspheres,
- (c) applying the product of step (b) on a carrier layer, and
- (d) cooling the product of step (c) to obtain the sheet structure,
- wherein the mixture of step (a) is provided by mixing a prepaste containing polyvinyl chloride and microspheres with lignocellulosic based components or a pre-paste containing lignocellulosic based components.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.