Stahl hosts international leather course at BSLT
This year’s leather finishing training course run by Stahl at the BSLT (British School of Leather Technology) at the University of Northampton, UK, attracted 14 students from India, Pakistan, Uganda, France, Italy and Kenya. The aim of the course was to demonstrate the basic principles of leather finishing and the ways in which finishing products could be used in formulations.
It was run by Wolfgang Schmälzle, an expert from Stahl’s Leather Finishing Centre in Waalwijk, the Netherlands. He was assisted by BSLT staff Paul Evans and Chris Barnard.
Mr Schmälzle said: “The students really liked it because there was enough freedom for them to create their own leathers.”
In the mornings, the focus was on the theory behind leather finishing, while the afternoons were devoted to practical work. The course covered many aspects of finishing including automotive leathers, and full and corrected grains with special reference to waterproof finishes.
Mr Schmälzle talked about some of the more difficult aspects of leather finishing, including colour matching and related metamerism under different lighting conditions.
Recent technological developments cropped up during a number of discussions and students were particularly interested in Stahl’s views on NMP-free (N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone-free) automotive finishes.
