Leather and Footwear Journal

Volume 18, no 3

Contents
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Identifying barriers for implementing green supply chain management (GSCM) in footwear industry of Bangladesh: a Delphi study approach
- Pages 175-186
  Md. Rayhan SARKER¹*, Faruk AHMED², Amal Kanti DEB1, Manjushree CHOWDHURY¹
  - ¹Institute of Leather Engineering & Technology, University of Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh, emails: md.sarkerdu.rayhan@gmail.com, debak.ilet@du.ac.bd, manjushreechow@gmail.com
  - ²BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology, Bangladesh, email: faruk@buft.edu.bd
  ABSTRACT. The footwear industry is the second largest export earning sector of Bangladesh, contributing to earning $1.234 billion in 2016-17. Despite its ample opportunity to value addition to national economy, the sector faces enormous image crisis at home and abroad because of non-existent green practices in the supply chain. The tenet of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices is to diminish or obviate wastages, greenhouse gas emission, and energy consumption and promotes reuse, recycle, remanufacture and reverse logistics. The study was designed to identify the barriers for implementing Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices in Footwear Industry of Bangladesh. A two round Delphi study approach was conducted from five industrial experts and five academic experts to identify the common barriers. The study identified twenty two barriers whereas the lack of commitment of management is the paramount. Financial constraint, lack of energy management & wastage management as well as lack of source of eco-friendly materials are the second most important barriers. The internal barriers and regulations & awareness barriers were classified as the top source and features barriers respectively. The study result may provide insight to the management in formulating strategies and tactics to implement green practices in footwear industry for sustainability.
  
  KEY WORDS: barrier, GSCM, footwear industry, Bangladesh, Delphi
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An empirical analysis on export status quo and international competitiveness of Chinese footwear products
- Pages 187-194
  Chunyu ZHANG*
  - Zhejiang Dongfang Polytechnic, Jinhai Road No. 433, Jinhai Park, Wenzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Zhejiang Province, China, 252731850@qq.com
  ABSTRACT. This paper firstly studies the current status quo from the points of view, such as the export scale, export quantity and trade partners, and then compares and measures the export competitiveness of footwear between China and other major exporting countries by using international market share, trade competitiveness index, revealed comparative & competitive advantage index and product export unit price. The results show that the international market share of China's footwear industry has an absolute advantage, but the growth rate of the international competitiveness index has a sliding trend. The international competitiveness of China's footwear industry faces a certain challenge. The key to improve the international competitiveness of China's footwear industry lies in optimizing the export structure of products, developing diversified markets, paying attention to quality certification and export environmental protection requirements, etc.
  
  KEY WORDS: China's footwear industry, working shoes, international market share, international trade competitiveness, competitive advantage
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Practices on ecological chromium tanning system
- Pages 195-202
  Hasan OZGUNAY¹, Mehmet Mete MUTLU¹*, Cemile Ceren TOSUN², Ozgur DEMIRCI², Onur ABALI², Yigit KAMAN², Talip SEPICI²
  - ¹Ege University, Engineering Faculty, Faculty of Leather Engineering, Bornova, Izmir, Turkiye
  - ²Sepiciler Caybasi Leather Company, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Mah. Izmir - Aydin Asfalti Cad. No: 110 Torbali - Izmir, Turkiye
  ABSTRACT. Chromium tanning using less chromium salts at higher initial pH values is one of the approaches offered in recent years in order to overcome environmental problems caused by conventional chromium tanning. However this system couldn't be directly switched to application due to its potential risks. In the present study this ecological approach was investigated at industrial scale. The variables used in the research were: pre-tanning agents, initial pH of tanning and tanning agents. Various wet-end and finishing processes depending on three different types of products were applied according to the company's production line. Chromium contents of the leathers and remaining amounts in effluents were determined for each trial. Also, the physical properties of the leathers were investigated. Along with maintaining similar properties and quality from the produced leathers, chromium remaining in residual baths could be reduced up to 92 and 76% by alternative formulations respectively in 500 kg and 6000 kg batches.
  
  KEY WORDS: leather, chromium tannage, high exhaustion
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Biocomposites from tanned leather fibres with applications in constructions
- Pages 203-206
  Gabriel ZAINESCU¹*, Viorica DESELNICU¹, Roxana CONSTANTINESCU¹, Dan GEORGESCU²
  - ¹INCDTP - Division: Leather and Footwear Research Institute, 93 Ion Minulescu st., 031215, Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: icpi@icpi.ro
  - ²Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, 122-124 Bd. Lacul Tei, 020396, Bucharest, Romania
  ABSTRACT. In tanneries, only approx. one-third of the total mass of raw hides and skins is converted to finished leather, while two-thirds become either dissolved or solid waste. As part of the natural materials category, usually considered waste, leather fibers introduced into cement mortar panels play a fundamental role in construction due to both insulation properties and mechanical strength. Waste is introduced as a powder or filler or as aggregates in the concrete mix, with energy, economic and environmental benefits. The originality and innovative contribution of the scientific paper consists in re-evaluation of tanned leather waste from the leather sector by turning them into raw materials with added value and using them in construction materials industry, by developing new production concepts for new biocomposite materials.
  
  KEY WORDS: tanned leather fibres, biocomposites, Portland cement
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The shock absorption functionality of nanomaterials based shoes during body motion
- Pages 207-212
  Hui SHEN¹, Zhao CHEN²
  - ¹Department of Physical Education, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211169, China
  - ²Physical Education College of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450000, China
  ABSTRACT. The violent movement of human body will bring great impact to feet; therefore the shock absorption function of sports shoes is very important. The main factors affecting the shock absorption function is the material and structure of sole. In order to investigate the effect of nanomaterials on the shock absorption function of sports shoes, the impact tests were carried out on the thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) soles which were added or not added with nano-carbon black and the ordinary rubber soles. The impact energy was set as 6 J and 10 J, and the shock absorption performance was determined according to the test results. Thirty volunteers attended comfort tests which were designed to test the comfortability of the three kinds of sports shoes. The results demonstrated that the sport shoes which were added with the nano-carbon black had the best shock absorption performance. The impact peak value and G value of the sports shoes which were added with nano-carbon black were 13.57% and 17.86% lower than the shoes with the ordinary rubber soles when the impact energy was 6 J; the impact peak value and G value of the shoes with the ordinary TPE soles were 1.54% and 10.71% lower. When the impact energy was 10 J, the peak value and G value of the shoes which were added with nano-carbon black were 8.96% and 13.51% lower, while the impact peak value and G value of the shoes which were equipped with the ordinary TPE soles were 4.32% and 8.11% lower. The findings suggested that nanomaterials was effective in enhancing the shock absorption performance of sports shoes and that the shock absorption performance of sports shoes which were produced using nanomaterials was better than that of ordinary sports shoes. Moreover the results demonstrated that the shock absorption effect of sports shoes was limited, excessively large impact might weaken shock absorption effect.
  
  KEY WORDS: nanomaterial, human motion, shock absorption, cavity structure, ventilation technology, comfortability
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Study of vegetable extracts effect on wet-white leather
- Pages 213-218
  Daniela MARTINS¹, Liliana DUARTE¹, Vania F.M. SILVA¹*, Antonio CRISPIM¹, E. BEGHINI², Filipe CRISPIM^2,3
  - ¹CIETI / ISEP - Centre of Innovation on Engineering and Industrial Technology / IPP School of Engineering, Rua Dr. Antonio Bernardino de Almeida, 831, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal
  - ²INDINOR - Industrias Quimicas, SA, Porto, Portugal
  - ³CTIC - Technological Centre for Leather Industry, Alcanena, Portugal
  ABSTRACT. Although the worldwide leather production is based on chromium tannage, there is an increasing share of chrome and metal free tannages. This is mainly due to the growing demand for chrome free leathers in the automotive industry. The aim of this work was the study of vegetable extracts effect on the retannage of wet-white leather, produced by the glutaraldehyde and syntan pre-tannage process, evaluating the bath exhaustion and physical-mechanical leather properties. For that, the leather thickness was adjusted to 1.4 mm and a retanning process was applied to small leather pieces by neutralization, retanning with vegetable extracts, dyeing and fat-liquoring. It was shown that the absorption of vegetable extracts by the leather was greater and faster for the hydrolysable tannins (natural chestnut vegetable extract) than for condensed tannins (mimosa vegetable extract). Different vegetable extracts: natural chestnut, sweetened chestnut, quebracho, gambier, mimosa, tara and cashew, were applied in order to evaluate their effects on leather properties. Properties, as physical-mechanical tests for tear strength, and for ball burst test (to evaluate the grain cracking), and leather behavior regarding softness and grain firmness, were evaluated for the different leather pieces.
  
  KEY WORDS: glutaraldehyde, leather, vegetable extracts, wet-white
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Productivity improvement of leather products industry in Bangladesh using lean tools: a case study
- Pages 219-230
  Nadia Akter SWARNA, Md. Abu SAYID MIA*
  - Department of Leather Products Engineering, Institute of Leather Engineering and Technology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh
  ABSTRACT. There is great potential for the leather industry in Bangladesh to become one of the country's major foreign exchange earners, experts say. After readymade garments (RMG), productivity improvement can help to enrich profit of a leather products industry by minimizing excess work and developing a new method for particular operation. Nowadays, productivity improvement is a popular topic for any kinds of industry. Therefore, improving productivity is one of the main concerns of leather products industries. Lean manufacturing tools are most important tools that can help to increase productivity in leather products industry. In Bangladesh, few industries use these lean tools which can be proved as a real beneficial one. Hence, this study addresses the implementation of lean principles in a leather goods manufacturing industry in order to evaluate present process cycle efficiency (PCE), lead time and productivity prior to developing an improved strategy to bring the improved PCE, productivity and to reduce the lead time. By applying lean tools in the industry at the production line for bi-fold wallet, productivity has been improved by 85.42%. At the beginning state, the PCE was found 38.19% and after the implementation of lean tools, it would be 77.51% and lead time would also be reduced by 46.68% evaluated by takt time, bottleneck analysis, cause-effect analysis and Pareto analysis. The production flow was optimized by minimizing several non-value-added (NVD) activities such as bottlenecking, machine breakdown, queue time, waiting time, material handling time, etc.
  
  KEY WORDS: productivity, lean tools, PCE, lead time, Pareto chart, wallet production line
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Polyamide/polyethylene/graphite nanocomposites: development and morphostructural and physicalmechanical characterisation
- Pages 231-238
  Laurentia ALEXANDRESCU¹*, Mihai GEORGESCU¹, Maria SONMEZ¹, Dana GURAU¹, Anton FICAI², Roxana TRUSCA², Ligian TUDOROIU³
  - ¹National Research and Development Institute for Textile and Leather - Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, 93 Ion Minulescu St., sector 3, Bucharest, Romania, laurentia.alexandrescu@icpi.ro, laura_alexandrescu@yahoo.com
  - ²Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, University POLITEHNICA Bucharest, 1 Polizu St., Bucharest, Romania
  - ³SC RONERA SA, 3 Serelor St., Bascov, Arges, 117045, Romania
  ABSTRACT. This paper presents the development of bipolymer nanopolymers - polyamide and polyethylene - compatibilised with polyethylenegraft- maleic anhydride and graphite nanoparticles. Polyamide/polyethylene (PA/PE) composites are studied because both components are relatively inexpensive, advantageous and are processed by injection. Compatibilisation of binary polymer compounds can be accomplished by adding a grafted copolymer, the segments of which have physical or chemical affinity with the two immiscible homopolymers. In this case, polyethylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PE-g-MA) was used. Graphite-containing polymer composites are considered a new generation of materials with predefined properties, in this case, resistance to impact. The combined effects of graphite and compatibilizing polymer (PE-g- MA) were studied on the structure and properties of the new materials. The tested nanocomposites were characterized morpho-structurally (SEM, FT-IR spectrometry) and physico-mechanically.
  
  KEY WORDS: nanocomposites, compatibiliser, graphite, morpho-strucutral characterisation, bipolymer
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Synergic effect of bovine hair hydrolysate and sulfited lignins on leather retanning
- Pages 239-244
  Vanessa MOREIRA¹, Joana FERREIRA¹, Vania F.M. SILVA¹*, Antonio CRISPIM¹, L. CARITA², T. CRUZ³, Filipe CRISPIM^2,3
  - ¹CIETI / ISEP - Centre of Innovation on Engineering and Industrial Technology / IPP School of Engineering, Rua Dr. Antonio Bernardino de Almeida, 831, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal
  - ²CTIC - Technological Centre for Leather Industry, Alcanena, Portugal
  - ³INDINOR - Industrias Quimicas, SA, Porto, Portugal
  ABSTRACT. The aim of this work was the study of bovine hair hydrolysate and sulfited lignins effect in leather retanning process. Bovine hair from hair-saving process was thermally digested in alkaline conditions and after pH adjustment and concentration, was tested as retanning agent. Physical-mechanical tests were applied to evaluate the tear strength and lastometer test (in order to evaluate the grain cracking), and leather behavior regarding softness, grain firmness, and color. The experiments showed that hair hydrolysate, sulfited lignins and its mixtures can be used as retanning agents with good results when compared with a dispersing agent and a synthetic tannin. The keratin hydrolysate was also tested as finishing agent against casein and showed that it is not a good alternative.
  
  KEY WORDS: hair-saving, keratin, leather retanning, sulfited lignin
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