Case Study – Leather Finish

Our clients want to recreate surface patterns that resemble Leather and other organic materials

OBJECTIVES

Our client from the automotive industry wanted a surface texturing solution that could create patterns resembling organic materials such as leather. They wanted a cost-effective method that could be applied to large areas without requiring secondary finishing or causing long-term stress to the substrate.

SOLUTIONS

We used our STAT product, along with a recently developed CAD to CAM system, to manufacture complicated surface textures on the tooling for automotive interior panels. This enabled us to efficiently create an inverse image of a leather-like texture in the tool steel material, demonstrating the feasibility of the process for this type of application.

BENEFITS

The client was extremely satisfied with the results, as we were able to reproduce a pattern that mimicked the appearance of leather onto the mould tooling material. We achieved this at significantly lower costs, both in capex, overheads, and overall processing time than alternative methods

Furthermore, our STAT system demonstrated the potential to integrate seamlessly into the client’s existing robotized infrastructure and deliver it within their existing manufacturing footprint.

In summary, our solution helped the client meet their objective of creating surface patterns that resembled Leather on the interior car surfaces, while also providing a cost-effective and high quality finish that allows a luxury feel for the automotive company.