Chimont offers fresh leather finishes
27/02/2013
The company has developed a new process for making waterproof leather that involves adding a polymer before the rechroming stage to better fix the chrome so there is less remaining in the process water. The motivation was initially to minimise waste and pollution, but Chimont said the leather’s performance was also six times higher, so it is now marketing it as an improvement in performance as well as benefiting the environment.
The company added the same polymer to low-grade wet blue leathers, to achieve an appearance typical of vegetable tanned leather, but the colour is uniform and the leather is light resistant. It said this is a cost-effective way of achieving the qualities of veg tanned leathers from a chrome tanning process and enables tanners to process previously unusable low-grade skins.
The company has also established a process to finish the flesh side of the hides when the skins are low quality. If they are finished in patent and made into a bag, for instance, it is not necessary to line the bags as the leather feels more substantial, hence another potential cost saving.
A further development is a patent that can be achieved without using a solvent. Mechanical resistance is exactly the same, according to the company, but is achieved using a water-based polyurethane, meaning the product is “safer”, as well as soft.
ChimontGroup, which was established in 2007 by the merging of Chimont and Finimont, places emphasis on its “think-tank”, whose research results in new chemical formulations, tanning processes and finishing techniques. Technicians and chemical engineers follow a rigorous process, from the idea to development, experimentation, verification and comparison, up to the presentation of the results.
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