09 Jan What is a Tannery and Tanning Methods
What is a tannery? A tannery is a process in which the skin of animals is treated in several steps and ways to produce leather. It is a complete process that contains some important steps to follow. If you miss any of these steps or perform it wrong in any case, then you will not be able to obtain the perfect leather to manufacture leather products.
Sheepskin Tanning Process
So, if you want to know about the whole tannery process, have a look at the following steps:
Step 1: Pre-Tanning
The very first step to take in a tannery is pre-tanning of the skin. In this step, the skin of the animal is soaked in some particular substance to exclude all the salts and other chemicals that are being applied on the skin for preservation purpose. This process is done into drums that are being revolved for certain time-duration that can be held up to 200 hides. After that, the skin is limed by applying calcium hydroxide which is a solution of lime and sodium sulfide on it. In this process, the epidermis and hair on the skin and removed. At the end of liming, you get a soften skin that is required upholstery leather. After that, the skin is split into two layers. The upper layer is obtained in the form or smooth and fine leather while the bottom one is used for split or suede leathers for different other uses.
Step 2: Tanning
In this step, the pre-tanned skin is converted into fine leather. For this purpose, alkaline chrome is used as the material. It is penetrated into the skin for almost 48 hours. This technique results in the pale duck-egg blue which will yield as the soft, fine and modern finish after processing.
This process can also be done with some other methods instead of chromium. Those methods include synthetic tanning, pure vegetable tanning, combination tanning, and oil tanning. All of these methods offer the same results, while they are being adopted because of the availability of certain material for tanning.
Step 3: Selecting
This step is taken after tanning is done. In this step, the water is removed from the skins so that it can be graded according to the locations and quantity of certain features and flaws. This is the step where each leather is selected according to the way of their utilization and the location where it will be used.
Step 4: Dressing
The dressing is the second last step taken in the whole tanning process. It contains Shaving, Dyeing, Re-tanning, Setting, Drying and Trimming. All of these functions are being performed on the selected skins so that they can perfectly get their stiffness and durability.
Step 5: Finishing
It is the last step of the tanning process in sheepskin tanning companies. In this step, the appearance of grain blemished is reduced without affecting the natural beauty of leather. The required degree of gloss is also added to the leather. Also, it is ensured in this step that the leather malleable, soft and moldable enough to be utilized in the production of certain leather products.
So, consider all of the above-described steps carefully and make the whole tanning process successful.