Leather and Footwear Journal

Volume 14, no 3

Contents
- Contents PDF
Full issue
- Full issue
Features of Plantar Pressure Distribution of Chinese Children Aged between Two and Eleven
- Pages 135-146
  Jin ZHOU^{1, 2,} Ying SONG¹, Bo XU1, Wuyong CHEN^1,2*
  - ¹National Engineering Laboratory for Clean Technology of Leather Manufacture, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, P. R. China, e-mail: zj_scu@qq.com, wuyong.chen@163.com
  - ²Key Laboratory for Leather Chemistry and Engineering of the Education Ministry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, P.R. China
  ABSTRACT. Since foot biomechanics of Chinese healthy children has not been systematically investigated, the aim of this study was to comprehend the features of plantar pressure distribution of those subjects. Totally, 895 healthy children aged between two and 11 were recruited and those with the foot deformities were excluded by visual inspection. Childrens plantar pressure was measured by Footscan pressure plate with two-step protocol and self-selected speed. Regions of plantar pressure were divided into ten parts: hallux, toes 2-5, the first to fifth metatarsal head, mid foot, medial heel and lateral heel, at which parameters of peak pressure (N/cm2), relative pressure time integral (%) and relative contact area (%) were calculated. Error-bar plot was drawn to interpret the change of plantar pressure with the age. Moreover, the reliability of this study was evaluated by intra-class correlation and coefficient of variance with the significance level of 0.05 and confidence interval of 95%. Our outcomes show that plantar pressure was generally increasing with the foot development in the most foot regions, except mid foot area; further, significant gender differences existed in a few regions and for boys a higher pressure and a larger contact area were recorded. At last, results of all three parameters were recorded with moderate to good reliability and the reliability of all variables was improving with the age. Overall, our study provided a normative plantar pressure distribution of healthy Chinese children and those findings could be used in clinical abnormal feet evaluation.
  
  KEY WORDS: Chinese children, plantar pressure, gender differences, children's development
  Read article
Innovative Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Production in Leather and Footwear Sector
- Pages 147-158
  Viorica DESELNICU¹*, Marian CRUDU¹, Gabriel ZĂINESCU¹, Mădălina Georgiana ALBU¹, Dana Corina DESELNICU^1,2, Sergiu Adrian GUȚĂ¹, Ioannis IOANNIDIS^1,3, Dana GURĂU¹, Laurenția ALEXANDRESCU¹, Rodica Roxana CONSTANTINESCU¹, Corina CHIRILĂ¹, Gabriela MACOVESCU¹, Gheorghe BOSTACA¹
  - ¹INCDTP - Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, Bucharest, Romania, email: icpi@icpi.ro
  - ²Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania, email: d_deselnicu@yahoo.com
  - ³ME-MED Consultants for Leather Industry, Athens, Greece, email: ioannidisioa@gmail.com
  ABSTRACT. Leather industry has to cope nowadays with major environmental problems because of the polluting processes. Therefore, increasing the environmental efficiency in the leather sector is the major aim of leather, auxiliary materials and equipment manufacturers. The development of new tanning agents and new technologies is required to cope with the increasingly higher environmental pressure on the current tanning materials and processes such as tanning with chromium salts. This paper presents the main results obtained in the framework of INNOVA-LEATHER project. The original contribution of this project in solving the above problems has involved the use of solid titanium wastes (cuttings) resulting from the process of obtaining highly pure titanium (ingots) in the preparation of new tanning compounds intended to increase the environmental efficiency of the leather sector. Also, within the above line, the aim is to obtain wet-white leather by an organic tanning process in order to reduce chromium in tannery effluent. Another result obtained in the project is valorization of wet white leather waste as raw material for obtaining new biodegradable auxiliaries with application in agriculture, cosmetics and chemicals.
  
  KEY WORDS: tanning agents, wet white, FOC leather, waste valorization, cosmetics, soil remediation, sustainable development
  Read article
Sustainable Consumption and Production in the Footwear Sector
- Pages 159-180
  Dana Corina DESELNICU¹*, Ana Maria VASILESCU², Anca Alexandra PURCAREA¹, Gheorghe MILITARU¹
  - ¹Politehnica University of Bucharest, email: d_deselnicu@yahoo.com
  - ²INCDTP - Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, 93 Ion Minulescu, sector 3, Bucharest, email: icpi@icpi.ro
  ABSTRACT. The EU Ecolabel is a voluntary scheme that forms part of overall EU policy to encourage more sustainable consumption and production. The award of an EU Ecolabel to a product is denoted by use of the logo "Flower". This paper provides a brief overview about EU Ecolabels with special emphasis on EU Ecolabel for footwear product group, criteria for a first assessment only and a short description of the global and European leather footwear industry. The objective of this paper is to present consumers perception regarding Ecolabel for footwear. The current study was conducted as an exploratory survey employing quantitative methodology, for investigating ecological and quality aspects related to Eco-label for footwear items in Romania, from consumers perception.
  
  KEY WORDS: footwear, sustainable development, sustainable consumption, Ecolabel
  Read article
Shoe Last Shape Customization
- Pages 181-190
  Mariana DRIŞCU, Mariana COSTEA*
  - "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Faculty of Textile, Leather and Industrial Management, email: mpastina@tex.tuiasi.ro
  ABSTRACT. In this paper the authors present a method of modelling the shoe last shape, namely the dimensional changes in order to produce a variety of footwear products for any category of users. For this, techniques were used to model the last in work sequences of Delcam Crispin 3D application. Using specific tools of this application, modules Model Tracer and Last Maker, this paper presents techniques to create a new shoe last. One can study new shoe lasts compared to the initial ones using the Comparing function. The method for creating new lasts is useful for footwear manufacturers who can always find the shoe last according to their product or can create a new last, similar in shape or different shape from the original one.
  
  KEY WORDS: last, parameters, heel height, toe spring, bottom length
  Read article