The raw hides go through a 8 stage process to reach the
wet blue stage.
On receipt, hides arrive on the pallets in the salted condition.
The salt helps protect the hide from bacterial action. Strict stock rotation
ensures that hides are not allowed to deteriorate.
Preparing
In order to process
the hides, the unwanted parts are removed manually with great care.
Soaking
The first stage of the
operation is to soak the hides in water to remove the salt and replace the
water in the hide lost since removal from the carcass.
Unhairing
The
hair is chemically removed using sulphide & lime and the hide is allowed
to swell under controlled conditions to open up the fibre structure. This
allows better penetration of the chemicals and prepares the hide for future
processing. All liming is carried out in canbar mixers.
Fleshing
The fat and unwanted
subcutaneous matter are removed.
Deliming
In order to prepare
the hide for the pickling and tanning operations,
the PH of the alkali swollen hide must be reduced gradually.
Bating
Bating is carried out
to soften the hides. Modern enzymes are
utilised to digest the unwanted interfibrillary proteins to give a
soft, stretchy hide. Following deliming and bating, the hides
are washed in cool water to remove all the dirt from the bating
operations and to lower the temperature of the bath.
Pickling
Pickling, using salt
and acid takes place to preserve the hide from deteriation and to further
reduce the PH prior to tanning. Synthetic fat liquors are added to improve
softness
Tannage
Tannage takes place
using Chromium Threevalent. This is an irreversible chemical reaction which
gives the resultant leather good thermal stability properties. Only at this
stage can the hide be called leather. At all stages of the process from
the raw hide to the final tan, processes are closely monitored with temperatures
and PH values tested regularly during the process. All running times are
recorded also.
Our finished product wet blue is our customers
raw material which will be dryed and finished to produce the finest, waterproof
and elastic leather that we know today.
