BASF prepares for Shanghai show
26/07/2016
At the event, BASF will showcase an automotive dashboard made from leather using newly developed finishing top coat and specialty polymers such as Relugan Soft AP and Relugan AG. The company has said these chemicals can “significantly enhance” the tear-strength properties of leather.
Relugan AG is based on a terpolymer with what the company calls “a well-balanced distribution of molecular weight that enables remarkable filling effects in leather collagen”. For its part, Relugan Soft AP imparts “ optimal softness and fullness” to leather, while retaining the advantages of polymers such as high levels of heat resistance and low odour. According to BASF the product also improves sustainability performance by reducing oxygen demand in wastewater treatment and acetaldehyde emissions from leather.
“Our customers today have significantly higher requirements for leather performance in terms of look and feel, light and rub fastness and consumer safety,” said BASF’s vice-president for leather chemicals, Matthias Halusa, in the build-up to ACLE. “Industry experts in our global research and development centre in Shanghai, with our application teams all over the world, are committed to innovating and offering new solutions for tanneries that live up to these changing and demanding requirements, while ensuring that leathers are produced in a more sustainable process.”
Last year, BASF introduced its 3S (superior, secure, simple) surface coating system for corrected-grain leather that it says fulfilled the requirements of footwear manufacturers for high-quality finishing. With the deterioration in the quality of some raw material, 3S provided what the company claimed is “the perfect solution” for corrected grain.
The concept is now extended with 3S 2.0 to include full-grain leather that requires high-performance results, especially in natural touch and elegant finishing. Leathers made with BASF’s 3S surface coating system can be used to produce different footwear finishing such as embossed, waxed, patent, smooth and natural types.
As part of 3S 2.0, the newly launched Astacin Top LN can meet demand for all types of water-based patent leather with high gloss, BASF said. Performance of the 3S system is further enhanced by the addition of three new acrylic binders, Corial Binder SN, Corial Binder HC, and Corial Binder CF for natural and elegant finishing with excellent print retention.
For waterproofing, the company now offers PolyDry, a polymeric waterproofing system that is driven by the next generation of Densodrin that has withstood the test of time since 1980. While conventional waterproofing systems have limited stability, PolyDry comes with functionalised silicon compounds, BASF has said, together with specialty polymers that provide consistent performance and higher efficiency. Additionally, it enables improved sustainability performance with shortened processing time and reduced water consumption by up to 30%, which thereby leads to lesser effluents and results in up to 20% faster drying.
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