Hsinchu, Taiwan, May 14, 2021 - Taiwanese manufacturer General Silicones (GS) announces its patented Compo-SiL^® vegan leather fabric overcomes the barrier of silicone rubber's chemical inertness. The patented technology allows textile and product designers to quickly adhere the vegan leather material to textiles, metals, and other surfaces using standard adhesives.

Patented Layer for Fast and Secure Silicone Leather Adhesion

Untreated silicone rubber-based leather is hard to apply to any surfaces due to its chemical inertness. Thanks to over 50 years of silicone manufacturing experience, GS developed a technology to add a micrometer thin layer of water-based Polyurethane (PU) material on the inner side of the silicone leather.

The PU layer serves as an interface to further process the vegan leather with standard adhesives to textiles or different substrates.

As the sole purpose of the PU layer is to allow adhesion, it is ultra-thin. Thus effectively minimizing the PU plastic content of Compo-SiL^® vegan leather to a significantly low value.

Outer Vegan Layer Matches Natural Leather

GS modifies the outer layer of the vegan leather to the customer's specifications. Modifications include embossment, colors, and thickness of the fabric to match the touch and feel of natural leather products and additional requirements of the planned application.

Environmentally Friendly Silicone-based Leather

Silicone has already been proven to be harmless to the environment. The solvent-free production process of GS silicone leather has a low ecological footprint and does not create or use dangerous chemicals during production, use, or disposal. Compo-SiL^® vegan leather is not only an attractive alternative to traditional faux and animal leather but as well to other vegan leather products.

Extending Product Lifetime, A Mind Set for Circular Economy

Slowing down the aging of products and prolonging the product replacement cycle adds significant economic and ecological benefits to final products.

The properties of silicone give Compo-SiL^® leather far better durability than other leather alternatives. The excellent combination of silicone's chemical and mechanical characteristics, like excellent thermal stability, high water repellency, resistance to ozone, UV, and other oxidative degradations, make Compo-SiL^® vegan leather a superior material.

Protecting products and apparel with Compo-SiL^® can prolong product lifetime to a much larger extent than plastic-based products would do.

Contrasting Properties of Compo-SiL^® Vegan Leather

Silicone-based vegan leather products offer distinct benefits compared to natural leather, plastic, and alternatives with high PU content:

• Outstanding Inherited Silicone Properties: Starting from durability, excellent elastic properties, chemical inertness, and low carbon footprint, make Compo-SiL^® vegan leather an excellent leather alternative.
• Functionalization: Having silicone as the principal constituent of Compo-SiL^® vegan leather allows the material to be easily adapted to incur properties like flame retardancy and anti-bacterial qualities.
• Surface Modification: Compo-SiL^® vegan leather can be made with diverse colored surfaces and textures depending upon the requirements. Glossy and matt surface properties are easily obtained along with unique textures.
• Design Freedom: Starting with sustainable, eco-friendly silicone material and the possibilities of numerous surface modifications and functionalizations, Compo-SiL^® vegan leather gives designers enhanced design freedom to bring their conceptual design into a sustainable vegan product for any industry.
• Textile R2R Manufacturing: Compo-SiL^® vegan leather supports roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing. Production can be scaled up quickly with growing demand. Integration of Compo-SiL^® vegan leather with other textiles is achieved using exiting R2R processes without requiring changes to existing production lines or supply chain changes by the textile manufacturer.
• Seamless Electronic Integration: Flexible Hybrid Electronics is one of the fastest-growing markets that require sustainable, lightweight, decorative, customizable, flexible, and durable materials. Compo-SiL^® vegan leather can be modified to provide a smart touch surface, and the integration with electronics is now easy due to the PU interfacial layer.

Sourcing managers and manufacturers wanting to know more about vegan leather products can contact the sales team of General Silicones at compo-sil@gsweb.com.tw for more information or visit www.compo-sil.com.

About General Silicones

General Silicones (GS) was founded in 1970 in Taipei, Taiwan, and is now represented worldwide – including Europe, China, Japan, and South-East Asian countries. GS is a major distributor of silicone materials and an active silicone products manufacturer with ISO 9001, IATF 16949, and ISO 14001 certifications. The company has manufacturing plants in Hsinchu, Taiwan; Wujiang, China; and Bac Giang, Vietnam. With decades of experience in this field, GS has the ability and capacity to provide a wide range of silicone products for many industries, including medical, automobile, consumer products, electronics, and IT. GS listed on Taiwan's Emerging Stock Market in 2011 (TPEx: 4730). For more information about GS, please visit www.generalsilicones.com. For more information on Compo-SiL^®, please visit www.compo-sil.com