manufacturing processes, structures, properties and uses of man-made leather are described. different from other artificial leathers, such as pvc leather and other synthetic leathers, man-made leather embodies not only a natural leather apprearance but also the structure of natural leather by making use of non-woven special fibers and a polyurethane (pu) sponge. man-made leather consists of a substrate and a coating layer. the substrate consists of a three dimensionally entangled non-woven mat impregnated with a porous polyurethane elastomer. for the fibers of the non-woven mat, specially produced fibers, porous fibers, or bundles of super fine fibers are generally used. applying these fibers to a non-woven mat, a soft and flexible, artificial leather is first obtained. the coating layer has the inteconnected porous structure of pu. the porous structure is obtained by coagulation of the pu solution. the coating layer has good water vapor permeability, flex fatigue and surface abrasion resistance, and has a fine appearance. 8 refs