X-Grade goods news for luxury leathergoods too
22/04/2013
The company said that 80% of its X-Grade products are being made for automotive tanners at the moment, but it insisted the needs of tanners whose clients are in the luxury accessories sector also stand to gain from the recent developments it has announced.
“Each animal hide has only one grain side for making into exclusive leather goods,” Lanxess has said. “To ensure that this valuable natural resource is handled responsibly, and also to meet the growing demand for high-quality, natural-looking leather, it is necessary to provide splits with the best possible finish so that they can be used as well.”
In doing this, the company has added, the profitability factor must not be ignored.
The view of Bianca Verstegen, head of global product management for finishing in the company’s leather business unit, is that the Lanxess X-Grade range will provide tanners with a comprehensive set of tools for producing good-quality material for leathergoods, even from lower-quality raw material, helping tanners maximise the area yield. At the time of the launch, she said that the products are good value for money too, because of the additional area yield, but also because fewer coats are required than with conventional finishing products, saving both time and material.
For this reason, Lanxess has also pointed out that the X-Grade range can make an important contribution to its Sustainable Leather Management initiative.
Products in the X-Grade range can be used in the pre-bottom and in basecoats, as well as in combination with conventional basecoats. Depending on the intended use, they can be applied by spraying (air, HVLP, airless) or by roll-coating. There will be no need for tanners to change existing production practices, the company has insisted. The filling effect of all X-Grade products is based on a microcapsule technology specially developed for the leather sector.
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