Zeolite leather tanning debuts at Tokyo Leather Show in Japan!

Zeolite leather tanning technology is launched and debuted at the 104th Tokyo Leather Show in Japan!

Looking back at the 104th Tokyo Leather Fair in May 2024, it is still fresh in my memory. This leather exhibition is mainly aimed at customers in the luxury and fashion industries. The global leather industry gathers together. These companies, brands, and institutions represent tanners and manufacturers of accessories, components, fabrics and synthetic materials, serving the entire luxury, fashion, design, automotive and home furnishing manufacturing industries.

iSuoChem Marketing Department / Edited by Jason

Tokyo Leather Fair 2024

A variety of leather products, cutting-edge in quality and performance, sustainability and practicality are completely based on the highest standards. Among them, the zeolite leather tanning technology, which is used to solve the pollution problem in the leather manufacturing industry, made a stunning appearance at the exhibition. As the overseas sales representative of the Chinese Zeolite New Materials Research and Development Company of this technology, the manager of iSuoChem said that the zeolite leather tanning materials can better solve the pollution problem in traditional leather tanning technology, and allow the natural microorganisms in the leather to decompose better, thereby ensuring the appearance quality, flexibility and color of the leather.

The History of Leather Tanning

The earliest leather was made in the sun thousands of years ago - fresh skins were dried in the sun, hammered into animal brains and fat to soften them, and then salted and smoked for preservation. It was not until 400 BC that the Egyptians and Hebrews discovered that the use of tanning methods could make leather durable, waterproof and anti-corrosion: soaking the leather in plant tannins, mineral salts or animal fats to completely change its protein structure, and then dyeing and other steps to make the finished product completely dehydrated, with tight fibers, durable and soft. In the modern leather processing process, tanning is an important process in leather and fur making. The physical and chemical process of turning raw hides into leather through tanning agents is called tanning. It is the process of combining the skin and tanning materials to denature the raw hide into leather that is not easy to rot. A process of processing leather. After this process, only the genuine leather in the leather is left for further processing.

Leather tanning agent made by zeolite

What is the best tanning method for leather?

iSuoChem's source factory has focused on the development of environmentally friendly leather tanning technology in recent years. Through continuous research and development experiments, it has developed a high-tech leather tanning agent based on natural zeolite. The factory's R&D personnel said that this new generation of zeolite tanning agent is a new environmentally friendly product. Since the traditional tanning process is based on chromium tanning agents, and hexavalent chromium is obviously toxic, it is easy to cause serious harm to the ecological environment and human body in the production of leather crafts. The use of zeolite tanning materials in the leather tanning process can effectively replace the effects of traditional chrome tanning agents, effectively prevent the decomposition of raw animal skins, and help reduce the impact on the environment and maintain the quality of leather.

Advantages of zeolite leather tanning technology

The general manager of iSuoChem said that this new leather making method has advantages in safety, environmental protection and excellent leather performance. Because zeolite has strong adsorption and ion exchange properties, the use of zeolite tanning agents can increase the material absorption of leather during retanning and dyeing, reduce the use of chemical materials in this process, and reduce COD (chemical oxygen demand) in wastewater.

In addition, the sludge from zeolite tanning wastewater treatment and the residues after tanning operations are safe and pollution-free, and can be used for biodegradation and composting, thereby promoting the entire leather tanning process to be safer and more environmentally friendly. Compared with traditional chrome tanning agents, the uniqueness of zeolite leather tanning agents is that they can improve the sustainable benefits of the leather industry while providing excellent leather performance. Through multiple tests, it has been proved that the use of zeolite tanning agent can make leather have excellent grain tightness, light resistance and heat resistance. It can be processed into any leather products from handbags to car seat cushions, and the color of leather products can be brighter, thus creating new opportunities for high-end leather product manufacturers and brands.

What are the advantages of zeolite leather tanning technology?

High tension and good toughness

The use of zeolite leather tanning agent can make leather with good toughness, and the technology of oiling and calendering is more efficient.

Strong plasticity

Plasticity refers to the property of leather that can maintain its existing shape once the appearance is changed. After using zeolite tanning agent, leather with good toughness that is completely consistent with the storage object can be made, and clothes and shoes that are consistent with the user's physical condition can be flexibly shaped, so that users can feel the comfort brought by leather.

Strong water absorption

Compared with chrome tanned leather, zeolite leather has better water absorption performance and is easy to remove stains.

Soft, thin and flexible

Because zeolite tanned leather is soft, thin and comfortable to the touch, it is suitable for making close-fitting products.

Elastic and heat-resistant

Zeolite leather tanning agent is elastic, so it is not easy to get scratched or deformed, and has good heat resistance, which can be used to make products with high durability requirements.

The stunning appearance of zeolite leather tanning technology at the Tokyo Leather Show attracted the attention of many well-known leather companies and research and development institutions around the world. Some senior industry insiders even said that this technology is an innovative revolution in the global leather industry and may completely change the traditional tanning process.

As a sustainable alternative to traditional tanning chemicals, zeolite leather tanning technology will become one of the many intertwined paths for zeolite to change the world. With zeolite, we are no longer confined to the past, but are moving towards a better future together with leather and many other industries..

References

[1] Study on the influence of chrome tanning time of leather tanning machine on leather properties~[J]. Liu Haiteng; Chen Guoping; Chen Jie; Sun Fangduo; Yang Chengjie. China Leather, 2015(11)

[2] Discussion on the characteristics and progress of leather tanning mechanism[J]. Zhou Hualong, Cheng Haiming, Tang Huazhao, Chen Jiali, Zhang Xinshen. Leather Science and Engineering, 2002(02)

[3] Study on the adsorption and binding mechanism of TWS/TWLZ tanned collagen fibers on direct/acid dyes[D]. Yang Rui. Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, 2022

[4] Leather Chemistry and Technology[M]. Liao Longli, ed. Science Press. 2005