engleski

Comparison of leather properties between vegetable tanning and vegetable/zeolit tanning

The fibrous structure of leather can explain many properties of tanned leather such as tear resistance, flexibility, air permeability, thermal insulation, resistance to water and shape maintenance. Leather is a natural material considered a very high-tech product that is progressively being used to a larger extent in different sectors: automotive, domestic upholstery, buildings, aviation, maritime, personal safety, etc. The properties of finished leather depend on the quality and type of skin, the carried out technological processes and treatments, and the types of tanning and final processing. The tanning process is an integral and indispensable part of the conversion of raw skin into a durable leather product in which the addition of inorganic or organic substances creates stronger cross-links between proteins. It has been proven that the strength of the resulting bonds depends on the type of tanning agent. The most commonly used are vegetable, synthetic and chromium tanning agents, each of them in its own way has a negative impact on the environment. Two sample of leather were tanned and tested in this paper. The first is processed with vegetable tanning agents (VEG). In the second sample, part of the vegetable tanning agent was replaced by a combination of zeolite 5A (VEG+Z). Tanning effect, vapour permeability, resistance to bending and cracking of the face (lastometer) were tested on the treated leather. Water vapour permeability results and cracking test results are better on vegetable tanned sample, but also satisfying for leather tanned with vegetable tanning agents in combination with zeolite form. Both samples give the same bending resistance results. Considering the obtained results, it can be concluded that sample marked as VEG+Z gives satisfying results on performed tests.

leather, vegetable tanning, vegetable/zeolite tanning

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