Bonded leather
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Bonded leather or reconstituted leather is a material made of varying degrees of genuine leather combined with other substances to give the appearance of leather at reduced cost. Bonded leather can be found in furniture, bookbinding, and different fashion accessories. Examples of products that are most commonly constructed with different varieties of "bonded leather" are: Bibles, diaries, art books, desk accessories, hymnals, bags, belts, chairs, and sofas.
There are different types of bonded leather, but the type being used on upholstered furniture today is a polyurethane or vinyl product, backed with fabric and then a layer of latex or other material mixed with a small percentage of leather fibers in the product's backing material. The leather content contained in bonded leather upholstery is about 17%. None of it is contained in the surface of the bonded leather. The polyurethane surface is stamped to give it a leather texture.
In the home furnishings industry there is much debate and controversy over the ethics of using the term "bonded leather" to describe a vinyl upholstery product.
Other types of bonded leather include fragile paper-backed bonded leather constructions used to cover books and desk accessories. These bonded leathers may contain a greater proportion of leather and have some leather content in the product's surface, hence there may be an actual leather smell.
There are manufacturers who call their chemical treated leather, bonded leather.
[edit] External links
- Bonded leather making headway, Furniture/Today, February 2008
- For consumer's sake, let's not call it 'bonded leather' "Furniture/Today", July 2007
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