Artificial leather product and process for producing same
AssigneeKvadrat A/S
InventorsDea Marcela Tuns, Ronni Aakermann Johansen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention relates to an artificial leather having a laminated structure and a process for producing such product. The artificial leather comprises a non-woven matt formed from bast fibres, more particularly fibres obtained from hemp plants. The fibres in the non-woven matt are impregnated with a polymer, such as a polyester or polyurethane. The artificial leather includes the non-woven matt as a discrete bottom layer in a laminated structure also comprising a discrete intermediate layer of a binder material and a discrete top layer of a polymer coating material.
Claims15
An artificial leather (10) having a laminated structure in the form of a plurality of discrete layers,
- said plurality of discrete layers consisting of a bottom layer (12), an intermediate layer (14), and a top layer (16),
- said bottom layer (12) being a non-woven matt comprising bast fibres and being free from synthetic fibres, said non-woven matt being impregnated with a polymer for binding and colouring said bast fibres, and said bottom layer (12) defining a bottom layer thickness,
- said intermediate layer (14) being a layer of a binder material, in which said intermediate layer (14) is in direct connection with said bottom layer (12) and in direct connection with said top layer (16) for gluing with said top layer (16), and said intermediate layer (14) defining an intermediate layer thickness,
- said top layer (16) being a polymer coating and defining a top layer thickness, and
- wherein said bottom layer thickness is greater than any of said intermediate layer thickness or said top layer thickness and said intermediate layer thickness is thinner than said top layer thickness.
Process for producing an artificial leather having a laminated structure in the form of a plurality of discrete layers,
- said plurality of discrete layers consisting of a bottom layer, an intermediate layer, and a top layer,
- said bottom layer being a non-woven matt comprising bast fibres and being free from synthetic fibres, said non-woven matt being impregnated with a polymer for binding and colouring said bast fibres, and said bottom layer defining a bottom layer thickness,
- said intermediate layer being a layer of a binder material, in which said intermediate layer is in direct connection with said bottom layer and in direct connection with said top layer for gluing with said top layer, and said intermediate layer defining an intermediate layer thickness,
- said top layer being a polymer coating and defining a top layer thickness, and
- wherein said bottom layer thickness is greater than any of said intermediate layer thickness or said top layer thickness, and said intermediate layer thickness is thinner than said top layer thickness,
- the process comprising the following steps:
- (a) forming a fibre layer by grinding a batch of raw bast fibres until reaching a mean fibre length of 2-100 mm, and separating shives from said batch of raw bast fibres until reaching a content of 0-3 wt % of the fibre layer,
- or
- (b) carding a plurality of said fibre layers and cross-lapping for forming a cross-lapped multilayer arrangement, needle-punching said cross-lapped multilayer arrangement, and by rolling forming a raw non-woven matt,
- (c) forming said non-woven matt comprising bast fibres impregnated with a polymer by passing said raw non-woven matt through a foulard bath of said polymer for impregnating the bast fibres,
- (d) separately providing a releasable paper, applying thereon a polymer coating layer to form a combined releasable paper—polymer coating layer and then subjecting it to a drying step,
- (e) applying a layer of binder material on the dry polymer coating layer of the combined releasable paper—polymer coating layer from step (d), subsequently laying on said layer of binder material, said non-woven matt comprising bast fibres impregnated with a polymer, and subjecting the thus combined releasable paper—polymer coating layer—layer of binder material, to a drying step, and subsequently subjecting the resulting dried product to a calendaring step, and
- (f) removing the releasable paper from the product obtained in step (e).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.