Smit & zoon prepares for IILF 2017
02/12/2016
From a wet-end perspective, Smit & zoon will concentrate on three themes in Chennai. The first of these is sustainability. “As a seventh-generation family business, sustainability is in our DNA,” the Dutch leather chemicals manufacturer said in the build-up to the Indian event. “We believe the only way to keep the leather industry alive for generations to come is to develop more sustainable products and working methods.”
In line with this, it will have a range of chrome-free products on display to demonstrate a wider concept it calls Simplicity. Syntan S, developed for chrome-free tanning systems, offers high levels of fulness and softness, Smit & zoon said, especially when combined with another syntan, VP 223. Another aspect of Simplicity that the company believes will be of interest to tanners visiting IILF is that it can help leather producers achieve savings in their use of water and chemicals.
The second wet-end theme will be softness, or “extreme softness”, as Smit & zoon has put it. It will present two fatliquors that are new to the Indian market: Synthol CH 777 and Synthol GT 616. Synthol CH 777 is a fatliquor free of sulphochlorinated paraffin that was especially designed to make lightweight, ultra-soft leathers. It is suitable for use as the main fatliquor for garment, upholstery and floater-type articles. Floaters made with Synthol CH 777 show a better, more uniform milling pebble, with a more intense dyeing than tanners are usually able to achieve with a conventional fatliquor system. The company will also show leathers fatliquored with Synthol GT 616, a new fibre-relaxing softening agent that shows low COD and BOD values.
Classic and vintage represent the third wet-end theme. Here, rich textures, a retro-feel and “baroque prints” will feature because Smit & zoon is of the opinion that the classic and vintage fashion trend is here to stay and will make an ever-bigger impact on the leather industry in forthcoming fashion seasons.
On the finishing side, products it will showcase will include the Basemask series, a range of products that enable, the company says, easy upgrades of leathers by masking defects and leaving “an extraordinary natural look” and creating a better cutting yield.
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