Durability
Abrasion Resistant
Sileather® silicone fabrics are highly durable and abrasion resistant, thanks to our unique silicone. Silicone is already used in many industrial applications, ranging from sealants in commercial building windows to gaskets in automotive engines to baking molds that can be put into your oven. With its tough and stable construction, our silicone fabrics resists many outside forces, while maintaining an incredibly soft touch.
Sileather® upholstery fabrics are all 200,000+ Wyzenbeek double rubs, over 130,000 Martindale, and 3000+ Taber, so they are all commercial grade ready and can withstand high amounts of traffic. Not in the contract market? Not a problem - our fabrics can also withstand the harsh bleaching of the sun, salt water spay of the ocean, extreme temperatures in the tropics or the north pole, and everyday hospital cleaning.
Stain Resistant
Our fabrics can resist continuous exposure to chlorinated water, so you can use our fabrics for swimwear too!
Silicone is a perfect material for our coated fabrics, as our silicone material is highly stain resistant. The stain resistance performance of silicone leather is mainly determined by its low surface tension. Among all the known organic polymers, the surface tension of silicone is the polymer with the lowest surface tension other than fluorocarbons and fluorosilicone polymers. The silicone surface tension can be as low as 20 mN/m.
Generally speaking, the surface tension of less than 25 mN/m of the polymer has a great anti-fouling effect (that is, the polymer and liquid surface contact angle greater than 98). According to lab testing and experimentation, silicone fabrics are strongly resistant to most of the contaminants such as lipstick, coffee, mascara, sunscreen, denim blue, marker pen, ballpoint pen, mustard, tomato sauce, red wine, etc. Simply using water or detergent can easily to remove most of the common stains. However, silicone leather is not resistant to hair dye, and silicone leather is intolerant to organic solvents.
*What chemicals or cleaners should be avoided?
We need to avoid the hair dye, hydrocarbon solvents (such as gasoline, kerosene, finger nail polish, etc.), benzene solvents, and cyclosiloxane oligomers (may be found in liquid make up remover).
Many disinfectants are chlorine based. Our swimming cap fabrics can be soaked in a chlorine solution for 48 hours with no problems or damage to the fabric.
Weather Resistant
Silicone leather weather resistance is mainly reflected in its inherent hydrolysis resistance, resistance to UV aging, salt spray resistance, resistance to extreme low and high temperatures, crack resistance and other properties. As the molecular structure of silicone mainly has a silica-bonded inorganic main chain, there is no double bond, so its stable chemical properties make Sileather® withstand extreme environments with ozone, ultraviolet, high temperature and humidity, salt spray and other harsh weather conditions that usually cause erosion or aging to common materials.
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Resistance to Hydrolysis (resistance to humidity and humidity aging)
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ISO5432: 1992
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Test conditions: Temperature (70 ± 2) ℃ relative humidity (95 ± 5)%, 70 days (jungle experiment)
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ASTM D3690-02: 10+ weeks
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At this time, it has been determined that silicone has no hydrolysis issues, unlike polyurethane fabrics which can be affected by water damage over extended periods of time
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UV Stability or Resistance to Light Aging
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ASTM D4329-05 - Accelerated Weathering (QUV)
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The standard wavelength of 340nm QUV light illumination @ 1000h
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Resistance to Salt Water (salt spray test):
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Standard: ASTM B117
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Acid, 1000h with no change
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Anti-Cold Cracking:
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CFFA-6 (Chemical Fiber Film Association)
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- 40 ℃, #5 roller
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Low Temperature Flexing:
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ISO17649: Low Temperature Flex Resistance
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-30 ℃， 200,000 cycles
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Mold and mildew
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Without adding any anti-mildew additives or special treatments, Sileather® silicone does not promote the growth of mold and mildew. Sileather is bleach cleanable, so mold and mildew can be easily removed if dirt and debris remains on the surface of the fabric for extended amounts of time.
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*ISO: International Organization for Standardization