Artificial leather and method for manufacturing the same

Abstract

Disclosed are an artificial leather that comprises two or more types of short fibers made of different components and thus exhibits superior texture, flexibility, breathability and fullness and enables great weight reduction, and a method for manufacturing the same. The artificial leather includes a non-woven fabric having a fineness of 0.001 to 0.5 denier, and a polymeric elastomer impregnated in the non-woven fabric, wherein the short fibers are two or more types of polyester short fibers having different numbers of repeat units of —CH 2 —.

1 . An artificial leather comprising:
 a non-woven fabric comprising short fibers having a fineness of 0.001 to 0.5 denier; and   a polymeric elastomer impregnated in the non-woven fabric,   wherein the short fibers are two or more types of polyester short fibers having different numbers of repeat units of —CH 2 —.   
     
     
         2 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein number of the repeat units of each of the two or more types of polyester short fibers is two to four. 
     
     
         3 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein the non-woven fabric comprises 5 to 95% by weight of polyethylene terephthalate short fibers. 
     
     
         4 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein the non-woven fabric has an weight variation coefficient of 20% or less. 
     
     
         5 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein the two or more types of polyester short fibers have different elastic recovery at an elongation of 20% and a ratio of a maximum elastic recovery to a minimum elastic recovery at an elongation of 20% of the two or more types of polyester short fibers is 10 to 80%. 
     
     
         6 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein the two or more types of polyester short fibers have a length of 5 to 100 mm. 
     
     
         7 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein an elastic recovery of the artificial leather at an elongation of 10% is 80% or more. 
     
     
         8 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein a difference between a friction coefficient in a forward direction parallel to a nap direction of the artificial leather and a friction coefficient in a reverse direction of the forward direction is 0.30 or less. 
     
     
         9 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein the artificial leather has a compressibility of 8 to 50%. 
     
     
         10 . The artificial leather according to  claim 1 , wherein the artificial leather has a recovery rate of 80% or more. 
     
     
         11 . A method for manufacturing an artificial leather comprising:
 preparing two or more types of island-in-sea conjugate fibers, each comprising a sea component and an island component, wherein island components of the two or more types of island-in-sea conjugate fibers are two or more types of polyester polymers having different numbers of repeat units of —CH 2 —;   forming a non-woven fabric using the two or more types of island-in-sea conjugate fibers; and   eluting the sea components from the two or more types of island-in-sea conjugate fibers to form an ultrafine non-woven fabric.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 11 , further comprising impregnating a polymeric elastomer in the non-woven fabric before the formation of the ultrafine non-woven fabric. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 11 , further comprising impregnating a polymeric elastomer in the ultrafine non-woven fabric. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein the formation of the non-woven fabric is carried out using one or more of air-laid, wet-laid and carded/cross-lapped methods, and
 the formation of the non-woven fabric comprises homogeneously mixing the two or more types of island-in-sea conjugate fibers such that the non-woven fabric has an weight variation coefficient of 20% or less.   
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein the non-woven fabric has a unit weight of 100 to 700 g/m 2 .