Alcantara is the brand name of a synthetic textile with a soft, suede-like microfibre pile, noted for its durability. Alcantara was developed in the 1970s by Miyoshi Okamoto and initially manufactured by the Italian company Alcantara. The term has an Arabic root () and means "the bridge". Alcantara is produced by combining an advanced spinning process (producing very low denier bicomponent " islands-in-the-sea"

fiber Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) 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 inco ...

) and

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

and

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

production processes (needle punching, buffing, impregnation, extraction, finishing,

dye Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...

ing, etc.) which interact with each other. Alcantara is commonly seen in automotive applications,"Automotive applications", Alcantara S.p.A. https://www.alcantara.com/applications/automotive/ as a substitute for leather and vinyl in vehicle interior trim. It is also used in the design, fashion, consumer electronics and marine industries.

History

The material was developed in the early 1970s by Miyoshi Okamoto, a scientist working for the Japanese chemical company

Toray Industries 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, ...

. It was based on the same technology as another product from the same company named Ultrasuede. In 1972, a joint venture between Italian chemical company

ENI Eni is an Italian oil and gas corporation. Eni or ENI may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia, the Argentine intelligence academy * Groupe des écoles nationales d’ingénieurs (Groupe ENI), a French engi ...

and Toray formed ''ANTOR S.p.A.'' (renamed ''IGANTO S.p.A.'' shortly after in 1973, then finally ''Alcantara S.p.A.'' in 1981) in order to manufacture and distribute the material.JAB Anstoetz takes over Alcantara distribution
, SleeperMagazine.com, 12 June 2010 The company is owned since 1995 by Toray and

Mitsui is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. Ins ...

Composition

Alcantara is composed of about 68%

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain one or two ester linkages 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 some natura ...

and 32%

polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) is 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, polyurethane term ...

, giving increased durability and stain resistance. The appearance and tactile feel of the material are similar to those of suede, and it may be erroneously identified as such. Some versions are designated as

flame retardant Flame retardants are 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 combustion, ignition source and pr ...

in order to meet certain fire standards for both furnishings and

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

applications.

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

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier SAS, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ...

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 (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between High art, high and low arts. His wo ...

under the creative direction of fashion designer

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...

, 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 (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

2011 FW33 car. Alcantara has a velvety texture and is soft to the touch, making it ideal for use in high-end phone cases, wallets, and other small accessories. It is also used as a covering material for high-end headphones, including the Sennheiser HD800, the Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear, and Bose QuietComfort 35 as well as for other consumer products, such as Microsoft's Alcantara keyboard cover for Surface Pro (2017) and Surface Go, Microsoft's 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, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consi ...

capsule. Overall, these factors and Alcantara's unique texture and luxurious feel make it a sought-after material in the

fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

industry.

References

External links

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