Finishing operations LE 3101

Leather Manufacturing
Technology IV

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 Sorting for finishing
 Gr. A – Tight grained defect less leathers
for aniline or pigment finish.
 Gr. B – Loose grained defect less leathers
for pigment finish.
 Gr. C – Slightly grain defected leathers
for corrected grain finish.
 Gr. D – Leathers with severe grain defects to be
split finished.

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 Padding and Brushing
 Done manually with a plush board, sponge, folded cloth,
cleaning wool, cotton wool covered with a permeable
cloth, hair brush (split or coarse fibred leathers).
 The pad is first dipped into a lacquer or dye solution and
then lightly wiped over the leather.
 To achieve high gloss, matt effects, two color effects or
mostly dark contrast color on raised sections of
embossed grain leathers.
 Bottom coat (grain impregnation) finish on splits,
strongly fatliquored and poorly absorbent (waterproof)
leathers are treated with padding.
 Disadvantage with brush is that it produces streakiness if
not very carefully handled.
 Padding and brushing machine are now being used in
the industry. Usually done with glazed, full grain leather.
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 Sprayin
g through a fine jet of spray
 The finish is supplied
gun by gravity or compressed air and applied to
the leather in finely dispersed form.
 Uniformity is easily achieved and sprayed
season/finish solution dries up on leather very
quickly.
 Failure to flow out may result in poor
anchorage, poor rub fastness, loss of gloss,
poor film strength or non smooth film surfaces
e.g. orange peel effect.

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 Sprayin
The following are thereforegof
particular importance:
 Diameter of the guns nozzle
(1.5-3.0mm).
 Pressure of the compressed
air (3-6atm).
 Distance of the guns from
the hides' surface (30-
40cm).
 Viscosity of the sprayed
product.
 Rotating speed of the guns.
 Feeding speed of the hides
(8-12m/min).

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Sprayin
g

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 Curtain coating
 The principle of curtain coating
consists of passing the leathers
horizontally through a vertically
flowing finish curtain
(continuous and
flow) dried
 subsequently.
The falling rate of curtain and
the speed of the conveyor
should be same, if not then it
will breaks or accumulates on
the leather surface.
 A height of fall of 20cms and a
viscosity of 20 sec (Ford cup)
and a conveyor speed of 20
m/min have been found
suitable in most of cases.
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 Curtain coating
 The float must be free of air bubbles which might
causes instability and uneven coverage of the
leather.
 The leather must be flat, crease free, possess
required degree of stiffness.
 Successfully applied for impregnation
heavy gloss resin, for patent or
leathers. coating wet look
 The leather to be finished by curtain coating
system should have sufficient absorbency for high
degree of bondage e.g corrected grain leathers
are best suited.

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 Curtain coating
Influencing factors of curtain coater
 Design of the curtain coater.
 Application requirements.
 Behavior of curtain coating mixture.
 Behavior of leathers.
 Drying conditions.

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 Printing
 The stencil is placed onto the leather and
finish
a paste/ colorless binders with
flakes (velvety, raised textile is
patterns)the openings by means of apressed
through
doctor blade.

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 Printing
 After removing the screen box the pattern is
visible on the leather. Multicolor printing is
possible by placing several stencils on top of
each other.
 The leather should not be too thin and of
uniform thickness.
 The printing method results in a reduced loss of
color compared to spraying.

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 Embossing
 The leather surface is pressed against a raised, patterned
hard surface, the fibre structure of the leather surface
becomes distorted so that, on release it retains the
mirror image of the hard surface.
 During embossing of leather very high pressure at
elevated temperature and for long period of time is
required.
 Very thin skin are difficult to emboss. Soft leathers like
nappa, glove, garment etc. are generally embossed after
application of a coat of pigment.
 A protective coat after embossing is always necessary for
long life of the embossed patterns.

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 Laminating
 A ready made finish film which is on a carrier foil is
applied to the leather surface.
 An adhesive, mostly a polymer binder is sprayed
onto the foil and this side of the foil is placed onto
the leather and plated about 80˚C.
 Unicolor or any effect is possible by this method.

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 Glazing
 Carried out on oscillating glazing machines by means of a
glass or agate roller which is pushed with frictional pressure
over the leather in narrow widths and rapid sequence.
 Glazing produces a high gloss and also smooth out and
flattens the grain surface.
 Vegetable tanned leathers can show high gloss with natural
appearance of grain.
 The leather should be of uniform thickness and should not be
over fatliquored in the outer zones.
 Used for high quality kid (chevreaux), calf and box side
leathers.

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 Plating machines
1. Spindle plating machines: The leathers are
pressed towards the hot plate by means of rollers.
2. Hydraulic plating press: The leathers are pressed
towards the plating contact surface in a stationary
pressing process.
3. Cylinder plating machines (calendar type): Used
for continuous through feed operation by means
of conveyor belts.
4. Running out cylinder plating machines (Finiflex
type): The cylinder diameter is smaller than on
calendar machines, however it has a scouring
effect and higher temperature range.
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 Ironing and Finiflex
 The leather is passed over a polished, heated, steel
cylinder, thermostatically controlled at a preset
temperature producing an ironing effect.
 In Finiflex machine, the leather surface being
pressed against a smooth top cylinder heated
internally to a pre-set temperature.
 Produces a smooth, glossy surface with a softening
action by the combination of pressure, heat and
friction.

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 References
 Leather Technicians Handbook- J.H. Sharphouse.
 Possible defects in leather production- Gerhard John.
 Leather Finisher’s Manual - BASF
 The machines in the tannery- Walter Landmann.
 Modern practice in leather manufacture- John
Arthur Willson.
 Back to Basics Leather Manufacture – Richard Daniels.
 An introduction to the principle of leather manufacture
-S.S Dutta.
 Practical Leather Technology- Thomas C. Thorstensen
 Theory and practice of Leather Manufacture-
K.T. Sarkar.
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