Sample of UV inkjet printing on plant-based vegan leather
Universally loved by many people, leather products have traditionally been processed from raw animal skins, a by-product of meat production. In recent years, however, carbon neutral, plant-based vegan leather has been gaining attention due to the growing awareness of the need to reduce environmental impact and the aim of creating a circular economy. For this project, we picked two types of vegan leathers: "Piñatex®,” which is made from pineapple leaves that are usually discarded after harvesting, and "DESSERTO®," which is derived from a cactus that does not require a lot of water to grow and tried to produce leather items with UV inkjet printing.
Evaluating the Durability of Printed Vegan Leather
There are several things to consider when applying inkjet printing for the purpose of producing leather goods: whether the ink will adhere well to the material (adhesion), whether the printed surface will be scratch resistant (abrasion resistance), and whether the printed area will not crack under repeated bending (flexibility).
The table below shows the results of our internal evaluation of the VersaUV LEF2 series (using ECO-UV EUV ink) printed on several of the Piñatex® and DESSERTO® products we selected.
Evaluation result of UV inkjet printed vegan leathers
| Vegan leather products | Adhesion (Cross-cut test) | Scratch resistant (Pencil abrasion test) | Flexibility (Flex test) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piñatex® PERFORMANCE Polar White |  | | |
| Piñatex® MINERAL Pearl |  | | |
| Piñatex® ORIGINAL Natural |  | | |
| DESSERTO ORIGINAL SOFT BEIGE | | | |
| DESSERTO ORIGINAL STIFF WHITE | | | |
（Printer: VersaUV LEF2-200, EUV inks with CMYK mode）
Testing UV ink’s flexibility on the vegan leathers by using a flex testing machine.
The material that worked particularly well in this case was Piñatex® PERFORMANCE Polar White. However, the durability required will vary depending on the intended use of the product, and performance may be enhanced by the use of primers and other precoats, as well as topcoats.
Processing Vegan Leather Into Finished Goods
With the cooperation of Hamamatsu Craft, a company specializing in leather craft workshops, the printed vegan leathers were processed into a variety of leather goods such as a wallet and a smartphone case.
Image courtesy of Hamamatsu Craft
Produced items
Wallet (Piñatex® PERFORMANCE Polar White)
Zippered pouch (Piñatex® PERFORMANCE Polar White)
Smartphone case (Piñatex® MINERAL Pearl)
Book cover (DESSERTO ORIGINAL SOFT BEIGE)
What You Need
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UV inkjet printer VersaUV LEF2-200/300 with ECO-UV EUV inks
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Optional Vacuum Table VT-200 (required only for LEF2-200)
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VersaWorks 6 RIP & Print Management Software（included with the LEF2 series）
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Design software such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel DRAW
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Vegan leather (Piñatex® and DESSERTO®)
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Tools for leather crafts
Production Process
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STEP1
Design data production
Lay out the design according to the size of the leather product.
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STEP2
Place the leather material on the printer
Affix the leather material to be printed on the table of the printer with double-sided tape.
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STEP3
VersaWorks 6 configuration
Load the design data into VersaWorks and set the print settings such as image quality.
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STEP4
Print
Print the job with the LEF2-200/300.
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STEP5
Processing
Perform the necessary processing according to the final leather product.
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