Unicem Secures New Orders for Flame-Retardant Leather for Railways... "Expanding High-Value-Added Business"

Leather specialist company Unichem is expanding its business from car seats to leather for railway vehicle seats.

On the 8th, Unichem announced that it has newly secured an order for flame-retardant leather for railway use from a domestic automotive and railway seat specialist company.

Through this, Unichem plans to supply eco-friendly flame-retardant leather to domestic railway vehicles such as KTX. Mass production is scheduled to begin in March 2025.

Since the management change in September last year, the company has actively pursued the development of flame-retardant leather for new technology development and business diversification. As a result, it developed a material that far surpasses the flame-retardant performance of existing natural leather for car seats.

Unichem's flame-retardant leather for railway use is a highly flame-retardant leather material certified with grade 4 under railway fire safety standards. Since the Daegu subway disaster in 2003, the fire safety test standards for railway interior materials in Korea have been significantly raised, requiring very high technical difficulty to meet the fire safety standards.

The company developed a composite flame-retardant leather material by applying protein fiber flame retardancy and flame-retardant coating technology. It is an eco-friendly material certified with 80% biomass, excellent in reducing toxicity index. The composite flame-retardant technology and biomass certification were verified by FITI Testing & Research Institute and Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute (KATRI), respectively.

According to the company, recent establishment of fire safety standards for natural leather has increased demand for natural leather with high surface durability. However, so far, the only company worldwide that meets the grade 4 railway fire safety standard is Austria's Company B. Unichem has succeeded in developing eco-friendly flame-retardant leather suitable for railway fire safety standards following Company B.

An Unichem official said, "Starting with this order, we plan to make a full-scale entry into the railway vehicle seat leather market," adding, "In the future, we will accelerate sales growth by expanding the supply of eco-friendly high flame-retardant seat leather not only for automotive and railway seats but also for fields requiring strict safety regulations such as aircraft and boats."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.