Stahl further enhances technical services in China
In a move aimed at further enhancing its technical service to customers in China and in recognition of the importance of the Chinese market in the global leather sector, Netherlands-based leather chemicals manufacturer Stahl recently opened a brand new, purpose-designed application laboratory in Shanghai.
According to the company, the new laboratory will enable it to provide a higher level of services to customers, including the possibility of developing exclusive articles specific to their local needs to be formulated and applied under controlled conditions. As new products are developed in the Research and Development facility in Suzhou, they will be applied under controlled conditions and tested prior to launch on the Chinese market.
The facility will also provide training in order to expand customers’ experience and understanding of its products and application technology and plans are also in place to use the new facility to produce finished leather fashion collections specifically related to the precise requirements of the Chinese market for Stahl’s displays at the Shanghai and Guangzhou Leather Fairs.
The new facility will also house chemical milling technology, GeMaTa Starplus and Starlab Roller Coating Machines, a hydraulic press with embossing rollerplates, and modern spraying, drying, buffing and polishing machinery, as well as a physical testing laboratory to evaluate cold flex resistance, finish adhesion, wet and dry flex resistance, Maeser water resistance, Taber abrasion resistance and wet and dry rub fastness.
Two members of Stahl’s technical service team from Singapore have been relocated to Shanghai to run the new operation which will be managed by Fabrizio Ugolini. Additional technical support will be provided through visits by technical experts selected from around the world.
The establishment of the lab follows on from the company’s opening of a new manufacturing plant which began production in Suzhou in 2006 (see www.leatherbiz.com September 12, 2006), and is the first of a number of other application facilities that the company plans to set up in the Asian country.
