Leather testing specialists meet in Pirmasens
The chemical, physical and fastness commissions of the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists Societies (IULTCS) met on September 7-8 in Pirmasens, Germany, to discuss testing standards. The meeting was combined with the CEN/TC 289 WG1, WG2 and WG3 working groups, which are responsible for preparing European leather standards.
Leading the three scientific commissions were: Joan Carles Castell (AIICA, Spain) for WG1/IUC, Mike Wilson (SATRA, UK) for WG2/IUP and Campbell Page (TFL, Switzerland) for WG3/IUF. Paola Visintin from UNI (Italy) is the group’s secretary.
Institutions represented at the meeting included SSIP (Italy), PFI (Germany), FILK (Germany), IKEA (Sweden), CTC (France), UNIC (Italy), LGR (Germany), BLC (UK), CIMAC (Italy) and Pittards (UK).
As part of an agreement with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the IU commissions are responsible for developing and introducing ISO standards used to test leather. According to the IULTCS, this helps to make the sector more efficient as it prevents the proliferation of test methods.
“Leather manufacture is a relatively small industry from a test method perspective, so the involvement of the IULTCS allows input from leather industry experts and scientists from around the world to ensure our test methods are relevant for leather, applicable worldwide, relatively easy to perform, and based on best scientific practices,” says the organisation.
