BASF Coatings GmbH, a well-known supplier of surface solutions, and Schorn & Groh GmbH, the world's leading veneer manufacturer with its subsidiary NUO GmbH, have always inspired the world of design with their innovative developments. Both companies are now combining their creative strengths and opening a new chapter together for the future.

NovaFlex NUO is a flexible, breathable material made of wood and microfiber with a soft-touch surface that fascinates with its high-quality, velvety feel and supple versatility. It can be processed like a textile fabric and offers many possible applications in the automotive, furniture, shoe, packaging and fashion industries. 

The symbiosis of the extraordinary, leather-like wood-textile composite material NUO and the unique coating technology NovaFlex valure™ offers architects, planners and interior designers endless possibilities to give their designs a groundbreaking look. Currently, NovaFlex NUO is available in four attractive wood and color options: Ash in apple-green, Walnut in ice-grey, Oak in ocean-blue and Swiss Pine in sunset-orange.

The material known as "vegan leather" is already in demand in many industries: NUO is a new type of wood-textile composite. High-quality wood veneer from sustainable forestry and a soft textile backing are bonded together using a water-based adhesive. The material is then divided into small grids of about 1.7 to about 4 millimeters by a laser that engraves the wood surface. This creates the unique flexibility that makes NUO something very special. 

BASF's valure™ technology takes NUO to a new level. The innovative NovaFlex valure™ transfer coating, a sophisticated combination of coating formulation, texturing and substrate, can achieve unique optical and haptic properties that give creative minds great design freedom and enable a high degree of individualization in projects. To see how compatible the two products are, initial material samples of NUO with different substrates were coated with the NovaFlex valure™ transfer coating. The coating is sprayed and laminated onto a silicone matrix, produced with a tool that contains negatives of the desired final surface structure. The coating with corresponding structure of the silicone matrix is then pressed onto the surface or substrate to be coated. In the final step, the finished valure™ product is released from the silicone matrix.