Silvateam launches internal competition to inspire new leather chemicals products
11/04/2017
It challenged its own technicians to come up with new finished leathers and awarded first, second and third prizes for the articles that an independent judging panel deemed the best.
Mauro Ciaponi, who works in technical sales at Silvateam’s base in Santa Croce, won the first prize for a project entitled ‘Finished Unfinished’. His Santa Croce colleague Andrea Puccini came second with a low-emissions leather, while Eric Poles, the company’s Cuneo-based sales director, came third with a high-performance metal-free leather he devised.
‘Finished Unfinished’ resulted in a hide that looks finished but without the use of any finishing chemicals. A glossy effect comes from plating the leather at crust stage in a Rotopress at high temperatures, achieving a typical vegetable touch suitable for the production of leathergoods and shoe uppers.
The key to his success was the vegetable tannins and natural waxes and oils he chose to use. The leather has been processed with chestnut-based sweetened tannin Ritan XCR, quebracho-based tannin Indusol ATO (for its penetration properties) and a sulphated fatliquor, based on natural waxes, called simply Prodotto 1585.
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