Improvements in or relating to finishes for leather-like materials

962,500. Finishes for leather-like materials. IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES Ltd. May 24, 1963 [July 30, 1962], No. 29124/62. Heading B5A. A vulcanizable sheet of resin/rubber composition (e.g. a mixture of natural rubber and/or a styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber, and a styrene-butadiene copolymer containing between 70-90% styrene) or other rubber based composition, is embossed to provide a leather grain or other desired effect on its surface, a coloured finish is applied and the sheet is pressed in a mould between heated platens to vulcanize the composition. The pressure is initially insufficient to cause substantial lateral flow of the composition, and is increased when vulcanization is sufficiently advanced for the composition to be incapable of substantial flow. The composition may be calendered and then passed between a pair of rolls, one of which bears the desired engraved pattern, or the embossing may be performed as a separate operation. The coloured finish may be applied by swabbing, padding, roller coating or brushing, but preferably an aqueous dispersion of a pigment or dyestuff is applied as a spray. Preferably, the spray consists of coarse droplets applied at an angle less than 45 degrees to the plane of the sheet, and at low air pressure.