Haptic Coatings
May 2017 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 53
in a multi‐layer approach. Figure 1 shows
a typical multi‐layer haptic coating consisting of two main coating formulations,
i.e., a base coat that provides most of the
coating thickness and a top coat that provides color, gloss, and touch perception.
The top/surface coat will not only
provide color and gloss but can also be
modified for various touch perceptions.
Depending on the coating formulation,
soft touch, micro texture, rough texture
and sandpaper effects can be achieved. By
adding more layers of base coat on top
of the first color coat, a second level of
height can be achieved. Overall design
can create uncoated areas and hole‐like
structures in the basecoat and topcoat, allowing the observers to see through down
to the substrate or down to the first color
coat. In that way, multi‐level and multicolor designs can be achieved, something
never seen before on a sneaker.
Quality athletic footwear has many
harsh requirements. Shoes face an inten-
sive wear process, and coating and mesh
need to be prepared to perform. Haptic
coatings are robust due to chemical cross-
linking and high coating thickness. In ad-
dition, the coatings adhere very well to
the synthetic fibers not only because of
chemical compatibility but also because
of physical penetration into the knitted
structures of the fabrics. Haptic coatings
can even fill up small holes in the sand-
wich mesh to fully cover the substrate
without telegraphic effects and provide
smooth surfaces. Figure 2 shows a micro-
scopic picture of a cross section.
It can be seen that the base coat layer
penetrates deep into the fabric mate-
rial and physically hooks up to the fiber
structure resulting in exceptional strong
bonding and durable products.
Manufacturing Advantages of
Haptic 3D Coatings
Along with the highly durable quality of
haptic coatings, they offer many advan-
tages during the design and manufactur-
ing process, and allow lean and efficient
supply chains. With haptic technology,
Huafeng as a typical TIER‐2 textile sup-
plier could, for the first time, move into
a component supply business model.
Instead of rolls of textile material, now
ready‐to‐assemble, upper components
are supplied to TIER‐1 shoe factories.
This business model creates advantages
as now Huafeng takes full accountability
for quality and delivery, and relaxes the
TIER‐1 logistics challenge sourcing vari-
ous materials from various suppliers. For
the sports brand, it also becomes easy to
manage the supply chains as less TIER‐2
suppliers are involved. Most importantly,
lead time can be significantly shortened
and clear responsibilities for quality are
defined (Figure 3).
Color & Surface Coat
Base Coat
Mesh
Figure 1. Schematic cross section of a haptic coating system on sandwich mesh.
Figure 2. Microscopic cross section of a haptic
coating.
Speed
Quality
Ef;ciency
Figure 3. Manufacturing advantages of haptic footwear uppers.
