Equitan on the ball at Tanning Tech
Among the tanning innovations on display at Tanning Tech 2020 in Milan was an eye-catching idea from Equitan, the Gumball.
This simple-looking but deceptively clever piece of equipment improves milling and is already in use at a number of large-scale automotive leather manufacturers.
Equitan chief executive, Antonio Antoniazzi, told World Leather that the now-patented Gumball went from concept to delivery to customers in only two-and-a-half months. The almost-round hollow balls have a hard rubber exterior and a softer material on the inside, which feels sticky to touch at first but quickly becomes covered in dust when it goes into action.
Each ball weighs around 1.5 kilos and Mr Antoniazzi recommends that the tanners place three of them in each two-by-three-metre milling drum for the last hour of the milling process. Because the ball gathers dust on the inside, the dust stays there rather than rubbing off onto the hides again as milling continues. After use, the Gumballs can be cleaned through washing with water.
As well as gathering dust and leaving hides cleaner, the devices also improve milling, simply through the physical effect that they have on hides in the milling drum. “Their physical presence is enough to have a positive effect,” Mr Antoniazzi said.
