Leather and Footwear Journal

Volume 9, no 4

Contents
- Contents PDF
Bio-Additive-Aided Skin Preservation - An Approach for Salinity Reduction
- Pages 251-257
  Nagarajan VEDARAMAN, Victor John SUNDAR, Thirumalaisamy RANGASAMY, Chellappa MURALIDHARAN*
  - Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar, Chennai - 600020, India
  ABSTRACT. Development of commercially viable salt-free or less salt preservation technology has been an active area of research in recent years. With stringent norms being put to force, it has become necessary for leather scientists and tanning industry to focus their attention on preservation practices in order to check the discharge of total dissolved solids and chlorides in the spent liquors of leather making. Several alternate methods such as chilling, drying, low salt with chemical additives are being employed in countries where slaughtering is organized. However, in countries where slaughtering is decentralized and unorganized due to reasons of cost and lack of availability of facilities, salt-based systems are being employed predominantly. In this study, an attempt has been made to minimise application of salt by employing bio-additives that are essentially oil cakes containing bio-preservatives. The efficacy of these alternative systems has been assessed by analyzing volatile nitrogen content, moisture and bacterial count. The physical and chemical properties of leathers processed from these experimental skins were found comparable with conventionally treated skins. The study indicates that the new preservation system is viable and can be adopted at a large scale with minimum amount of salt along with oil cake containing bio-preservatives.
  
  KEY WORDS: goat skin, preservation, sodium chloride, Neem oil cake and Jatropha oil cake
Exploratory Research Regarding the Use of Organic Biopolymers from Tanneries in Agriculture - Part I
- Pages 258-265
  Gabriel ZĂINESCU¹*, Petre VOICU², Carmen Alina GHERGHINA², Lucia SANDRU³
  - ¹National R&D Institute for Textile and Leather - Division: Leather and Footwear Research Institute, 93 Ion Minulescu str., 031215, Bucharest, Romania, email: icpi@icpi.ro
  - ²Research Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry, Bucharest, Romania, 61 Marasti Blvd., 71331, Bucharest, Romania, email: office@icpa.ro
  - ³Research Institute for Plant Protection, 8 Ion Ionescu de la Brad Blvd., Bucharest, Romania
  ABSTRACT. Many industries, including leather industry, are faced with high expenditure for solid organic waste treatment and disposal. Therefore, the tannery protein wastes are required to be subjected to biochemical treatments with the view of recycling in the agriculture. The degree of novelty is based first of all on the fact that the promoted technologies have as a starting point obtaining of new complex products by processing organic wastes which can be applied in agriculture. This paper presents an innovative process for biochemical decay of green fleshings (pelt wastes) to obtain materials intended to be used as fertilizers in poor soils and manure in plant growth. The proposed procedure implies the treatment of raw hide wastes by a hydrolysis of protean wastes in acid environment, obtaining a protean biopolymer, which combined with other polymers (polyacrylamide, acrylic, maleic, cellulose, starch etc.) will be used in agriculture to improve degraded / eroded soils and to grow greenhouse and field plants. For this purpose, the natural protean sources are enriched by adding nutritive elements, thus resulting complex protean systems/composts that can be used for plant growth and remediation/conditioning of degraded soils. After the experiments, it can be concluded that protean biofertilizer samples gave good results both in terms of improving soil quality, and plant growth in high culture.
  
  KEY WORDS: biopolymer, organic wastes, tannery, soil
Advanced Composite Materials Obtained by Processing Chemically Treated Protein Wastes - New Ecological Methods for Depollution
- Pages 266-273
  Laurenția ALEXANDRESCU¹*, Luminița ALBU¹, Mihaela VȊLSAN¹, Mihai GEORGESCU¹, Zenovia MOLDOVAN², Margareta Stela FLORESCU³, Marius Constantin PROFIROIU³
  - ¹National Research & Development Institute for Textile and Leather - Division: Leather and Footwear Research Institute, 93 Ion Minulescu St., Sector 3, 031215-Bucharest, Romania, email: laura_alexandrescu@yahoo.com
  - ²University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Analytical Chemistry, 4-12 Regina Elisabeta Blvd., Sector 3, Code 030018 - Bucharest, Romania, email: z_moldovan@yahoo.com
  - ³Bucharest University of Economics, 6 Romana Square, Sector 1, Code 010374, Bucharest, Romania, email: icefaceus@yahoo.com ; profiroiu@gmail.com
  ABSTRACT. Considering the significant adverse environmental impact of tanneries and leather industry, leather waste recovery is a requirement of ecological depollution processes. Composites are materials obtained by blending polymers with fillers, reinforcing agents and coupling agents to increase the polymer-filler adhesion. The term "tailored plastics" has emerged, meaning materials with adequate characteristics for a certain application. Leather wastes, treated superficially to achieve the best compatibility between the polymer and protein wastes, can be used to obtain polymer composites intended to be used as fillers. This procedure involves the chemical treatment of the leather grain in the ground leather wastes, thus converting them from inert fillers into reacting ingredients for an efficient blending with polymers or primary rubber. The new efficient process for the treatment of leather waste surface suggested in this work provides flexibility in adjusting the surface chemistry and leather waste molecular structure by grafting adequate elastomer molecules. Such grafted molecules form "molecular bridges" between the individually dispersed leather wastes and rubber or polymer matrix in the continuous phase, leading to a maximized performance of the composite material as a result of the optimized compatibility and interface bond.
  
  KEY WORDS: composite, finished leather wastes, surface treatment, compatibilizer
Contributions to Establishing the Functions of Leather Goods
- Pages 274-283
  Marina MALCOCI*, Ioana PASCARI
  - Technical University of Moldavia, 72/2 Decebal St., Ap. 6, Sc.1, MD 2038, Kishinev, email: mmalcoci2005@yahoo.com
  ABSTRACT. The paper analyzes the functions of leather goods. It was found that a product fulfills more functions which can be grouped into gnoseological functions, aesthetic functions, ergonomic functions that ensure thermo-physiological comfort, functions providing psycho sensorial comfort, reliability functions, maintenance functions, functions of safety in handling, protection functions, functions of containing objects, functions of fitting the products on the body. Thus, we can conclude that there are 28 functions in the leather industry. In addition to these functions, leather goods are subjected to a number of requirements, namely requirements regarding presentation value and commercial value, functionality requirements, availability requirements. The above-listed requirements are closely related to product functions. In the paper, seven leather goods, namely, fancy purse, casual bag, suitcase, school bag, belt, casual gloves and protection gloves were analyzed. It was found that the number of functions ranges from 12 to 21 depending on the purpose. Some products lack certain functions, while other leather goods do not. By establishing the correct number of functions and by granting them appropriate importance, the producer will reach the following results: reduction of the production cost; simplification of the manufacturing process, improvement of product quality; reduction of the manufacturing period; greater satisfaction of consumer needs.
  
  KEY WORDS: functions, requirements, leather goods, quality assurance system
Antifungal Compounds for Leather Part II. Testing of Antifungal Activity on Bovine Leathers
- Pages 284-295
  Maria-Marcela ȚÂRLEA¹*, Mete Mehmet MUTLU², Gabriela MACOVESCU¹, Clara Hortensia RADULESCU¹, Candas ADIGUZEL ZENGIN², Behzat Oral BITLISLI², Bahri BASARAN²
  - ¹INCDTP - Division: Leather and Footwear Reasearch Institute, Bucharest, Romania
  - ²Ege University, Faculty of Engineering, Leather Engineering Department, Izmir, Turkey
  ABSTRACT. Four new benzothiazolic biocides, derivatives of 2-aminobenzothiazole-6-substituted with methyl, methoxy, chlorine and nitro, having an anionic sulphonic group in the molecule, presented in Part I, were tested on wet-blue hides, to ensure an antifungal protection. The bovine hides were treated with 0.5% of the four benzothiazolic products, calculated according to leather weight, compared to a commercial product as a control, and they were processed by a classical method of processing. The absorption of the biocide into the leather was evaluated after 30 minutes from treatment, by UV spectra comparative analysis of initial float and final float samples taken after 30 minutes. The bonding degree of the biocide to the leather has been also estimated. The finished hides were inoculated with spores of two species of fungi that usually develop on the hide, Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma viridae, in a potato dextrose agar-PDA culture environment and were examined after 3, 7, 14 days. The micelle percentage on the leather base is visually estimated. Antifungal activity of hides treated with the new benzothiazolic biocides was made according to ASTM D 4576-01: 2006 Standard Test Method for Mold Growth Resistance of Wet - Blue (Leather). The four biocides do not differ, all of them being efficient only against Aspergillus niger.
  
  KEY WORDS: 2-aminobenzothiazoles-6-substituted, sulphonic acids, bovine hides, antifungal tests