By Anthony D Covington, Emeritus Professor of Leather Science, BSLT, University of Northampton.
Reviewed by Dr Graham Lampard

Spanish company Quimser is increasingly present in the world market, developing high performance products and providing very good value at competitive prices. The company state that their objective is the satisfaction of tanners.

The demand for pull-up leathers both for fashion and outdoor shoes is ever-increasing. Very high water resistance coupled with pull-up effects ranging from very strong to almost none have to be achieved.

Since the company's beginnings Equitan have produced a stamp suitable for use on wet-blue and limed hides. In accordance with customer requirements, the stamping device has now been improved for use on raw hides. 

Pulcra tell us that their expertise provides multifunctional products for the soaking to beamhouse process steps. Perdol BSM, Perdol BSM/N are special biodegradable complex active esters and emulsifiers with fast and efficient soaking performance, enabling high penetration, wetting, cleaning and degreasing activities without antibacterial activity.

With the quality of the end product always in mind, the owners of Thema System, Antonello Sani and Marco Fogli, have designed and produced equipment for the finishing of patent leather. They drew on twenty-years of experience in the design process.

SPIC Biotechnology, based in Chennai, specialise in enzyme-based products for the leather industry. With ‘Spic Bio Dart' they offer a complete package of beamhouse products.

TFL have introduced a new shade deepening agent with reduced formaldehyde content. Dyeing of leather is one of the most challenging tasks within the leather making process and the use of dyeing auxiliaries contributes significantly to achieving the best results, often with reduced dyeing costs.

Cosmetic surgery and treatment of burns and ulcers has become affordable in India and other developing countries, due to collagen-based biomedical products made from the tannery trimmings of hides and skins. The technology for this has been developed by the scientists of the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai. Collagen-products are available in the country at 25% of the cost of imported materials.

BASF India Limited have launched a new concept specifically tailored to the requirements of the South Asian leather market. BASF have been operating in India for more than 40 years and were one of the first chemicals companies to establish local manufacturing there.

According to TFL, maximum yield is what makes all tanners tick! With Borron DL, TFL have launched a new tool to improve cutting yield by boosting the effect of other special chemicals used in the beamhouse. This leads to an improved lay-out and area yield without making grain or bellies loose.