Alcantara is the brand name of a common synthetic textile material. It has a soft, suede-like microfibre pile and is noted for its durability. Alcantara is commonly seen in automotive applications, as a substitute for leather and vinyl in vehicle interior trim. It is also used in the design, fashion, consumer electronics and marine industries. Alcantara was developed in the 1970s by Miyoshi Okamoto and initially manufactured by the Italian company Alcantara. Alcantara is produced by combining an advanced spinning process (producing very low denier bicomponent " islands-in-the-sea"

fiber Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorpora ...

) and

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

and

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

production processes (needle punching,

buffing Polishing and buffing are finishing processes for smoothing a workpiece's surface using an abrasive and a work wheel or a leather strop. Technically, ''polishing'' refers to processes that uses an abrasive that is glued to the work wheel, while ...

, impregnation, extraction, finishing, dyeing, etc.) which interact with each other.

History

The material was developed in the early 1970s by Miyoshi Okamoto, a scientist working for the Japanese chemical company Toray Industries. It was based on the same technology as another product from the same company named

Ultrasuede Ultrasuede is the trade name for a synthetic ultra-microfiber fabric invented in 1970 by Dr. Miyoshi Okamoto, a scientist working for Toray Industries. In Japan, it is sold under the brand name Ecsaine. It is often described as an artificial su ...

. Around 1972, a joint venture between Italian chemical company ENI and Toray formed Alcantara SpA in order to manufacture and distribute the material.JAB Anstoetz takes over Alcantara distribution
, SleeperMagazine.com, 12 June 2010 The company is now owned by

Toray is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered on technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, ...

and

Mitsui is one of the largest '' keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industri ...

Composition

Alcantara is composed of about 68%

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natural ...

and 32%

polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethan ...

, giving increased durability and stain resistance. The appearance and tactile feel of the material is similar to that of

suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was firs ...

, and it may be erroneously identified as such. Some versions are designated as

flame retardant The term flame retardants subsumes a diverse group of chemicals that are added to manufactured materials, such as plastics and textiles, and surface finishes and coatings. Flame retardants are activated by the presence of an ignition source a ...

in order to meet certain fire standards for both furnishings and

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

applications.

Current uses

Alcantara applications include furniture, clothing, jewelry, safety helmets and automobiles. In the latter it is used in seating, dashboard trim and headliners by many high-end

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

automotive suppliers. It is commonly used as steering wheel covering in many performance oriented vehicles.

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather ...

uses Alcantara linings in many of its bags. It appears in the collaboration with

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts as well as co ae ...

under the creative direction of fashion designer Marc Jacobs, wherein the white Multicolor Monogram bags have a bright fuchsia Alcantara lining. Alcantara is used as a flame-retardant driver seat covering material for Formula One race cars, including the Williams

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

2011 FW33 car. It is also used as a covering material for high-end headphones, including the

Sennheiser Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG (, ) is a German privately held audio company specializing in the design and production of a wide range of high fidelity products, including microphones, headphones, telephone accessories and aviation headse ...

HD800, the Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear, and

Bose Bose may refer to: * Bose (crater), a lunar crater * ''Bose'' (film), a 2004 Indian Tamil film starring Srikanth and Sneha * Bose (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) * Bose, Italy, a ''frazioni'' in Magnano, Province of Biella ...

QuietComfort 35 as well as for other consumer products, such as Microsoft's Alcantara keyboard cover for

Surface Pro (2017) The fifth-generation Surface Pro (marketed as the Surface Pro, colloquially referred to as the Surface Pro 2017 or Surface Pro 5) is a Surface-series 2-in-1 detachable hybrid notebook computer, designed, developed, marketed, and produced by Mic ...

and Surface Go, Microsoft's

Surface Laptop The Surface Laptop is a line of laptops marketed by Microsoft, as a sub-brand of their Surface devices. Several models have been produced: * Surface Laptop (1st generation), released in 2017 * Surface Laptop 2, released in 2018 * Surface Laptop ...

keyboard and Samsung's Galaxy S8, S8+, S9, S9+ and Note 8 smartphone covers. Alcantara is also used in the SpaceX

Crew Dragon Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, primarily for flights to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has also launched private missions such as Ins ...

capsule.

References

External links

Alcantara cleaning tips
* {{Authority control Automotive technologies Artificial leather Japanese inventions Textiles