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Composition leather is made from recycled leather off-cuts, trimmings and shavings that would normally be sent by the leather industry to landfill. The type of leather specifically used in the manufacture of composition leather is called ‘wet blue’. This raw material, which is duck-egg blue in colour (hence the name), comes straight from tanning.〔http://www.lttsolutions.net/glossary.asp〕 The shavings are bonded to a fabric layer commonly using a process such a hydro-entanglement to force the leather dust into the fabric layer. The product is then finished, typically with a polyurethane based system to give a resemblance of leather. The amount of leather shavings within the final product typically constitute less than 50% of the product. ==Characteristics== Composition leather claims to enable a higher cutting yield than leather. This is because the material is man-made from leather fibres, produced in rolls 1.4 m wide and is not derived from leather hides, as in traditional leather. However, composition leather has stretch characteristics along its warp and weft which it inherits from its fabric substrate. Consequently, it stretches more in one orientation than the other. When orientation is considered, the yield of composition leather is comparable or worse than real leather. A leather hide at its widest point is 914 mm (36”) and 2,286 mm (90”) long, whereas composition leather is available, cut to length, from a roll width of 1.4 m (55”).〔http://www.irvingtanning.com/leather_glossary.htm〕 This in turn results in less wastage and reduced material costs. Composition leather gives a uniform finish with minimal batch-to-batch variation. It has no natural defects that are associated with real leather made from leather hides (which will always bear the marks of its natural origin). While composition leather has uniformity benefits, it must be remembered that these benefits come at a cost, which is that composition is a manmade product and is not leather. Composition leather cannot be classified as leather. The characteristics of leather from hides can show up as: *''Healed scars'': Resulting from barbed wire damage or by the horns of other cattle. *''Growth marks'': Quite pronounced in the neck area. *''Grain variation'': Varying from being loose in the belly and flank areas to relatively tight across the backbone. *''Shade variation'': Each hide is different with varying grain structure, which means the dyes and finishes used penetrate to differing degrees. This means that uniformity is not always possible.〔http://www.muirhead.co.uk/Muirhead/UnderstandingProperties.aspx〕 Composition leather is up to 50 per cent lighter than traditional leather and can be up to 30 per cent lighter than moquette. For commercial transport companies such as those operating bus or coach services, this weight reduction allows them to save on fuel consumption.〔http://www.busandcoach.com/featurepage.aspx?id=3413&categoryid=3〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Composition leather」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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