Artificial leather composite material and method for producing same

An artificial leather multi-layer composite material comprising:

• (A) a facing layer film composed of a thermoplastic material and having facing and backing surfaces, said facing surface having a simulated leather grain texture thermally embossed thereinto by means of an embossing surface impressed thereinto at elevated temperature sufficient to permit said thermal embosssing and, in addition, simultaneous thermoplastic bonding of said facing layer to the barrier layer defined in (B) hereof, said backing surface of said facing layer thus being thermoplastically bonded during said thermal embossing thereof to;
• (B) the facing surface of a barrier layer having a facing surface and a backing surface, said barrier layer having sufficient strength under the conditions of said simultaneous thermal embossing of said facing and said thermoplastic bonding thereof to said barrier layer as to prevent cutting through of said barrier layer of (B) by said embossing surface;
• and
• (C) a backing layer having facing and backing surfaces, the facing surface of which backing layer is bonded to the backing surface of said barrier layer of (B) by means of an adhesive layer interposed therebetween.

A method for producing an artificial leather sub-composite material which comprises:

• (A) providing a embossing element having an embossing surface comprising a simulated leather grain negative;
• (B) providing a facing layer film composed of a thermoplastic material, said facing layer film having a facing surface and a backing surface and stacking said facing layer onto the embossing element of (A) with the facing surface of said facing layer of (B) being established in contact with the embossing surface of said embossing element of (A);
• (C) providing a barrier layer having facing and backing surfaces and stacking said barrier layer onto said facing layer film with the facing surface of said barrier layer of (C) being established in contact with the backing surface of said facing layer film of (B), said barrier layer of (C) having sufficient strength under the conditions of thermal embossing and thermoplastic bonding imposed hereunder to prevent cutting through thereof by said embossing surface of said embossing element of (A);
• (D) heating the resulting stacked assembly of (A) through (C) to a temperature sufficient to permit thermal embossing of said facing surface of said facing layer film of (B) and thermoplastic bonding of the backing surface of said facing layer film of (B) to the facing surface of said barrier layer of (C);
• (E) subjecting the stacked and heated assembly of (D) to pressure sufficient to (i) impress the simulated leather grain embossing surface of said embossing element of (A) into the facing surface of the thermoplastic facing layer film of (B), thereby to thermally emboss said facing surface of (B), and (ii) to simultaneously thermoplastically and continuously bond the backing surface of said thermoplastic facing layer film of (B) to the facing surface of said barrier layer of (C);
• (F) cooling the resulting thermally embossed and thermoplastically bonded sub-composite of (E);
• (G) removing the embossing element from the thermally embossed facing layer film of the-cooled, thermally embossed and thermoplastically bonded sub-composite of (F);
• and
• (H) recovering the resulting artificial leather sub-composite material as product.