Abstract
Aim: The purpose of the research was to determine the effect of the addition of melamine and silica in the retanning process on selected properties of leather with particular regard to flammability. The article presents the results of work related to the processing of leather at the retanning stage. Various amounts of silica and melamine were used in retanning in order to achieve a higher resistance of leather to flammability.
Methodology: The work involved experimental tests, which included retanning of natural leather and testing of selected properties of the leathers obtained. Retanning was carried out on a laboratory scale. The leather testing included parameters related to the comfort of using leather goods such as softness and water vapor permeability. Flammability tests of leather were carried out using specifically developed methods. The tests of flame resistance of leather under conditions of limited access of oxygen were also carried out. In addition, the hydrothermal resistance of the resulting hides was determined.
Results: The composition of a retanning mixture and the results of the leather properties tests were the basis for the optimisation and determination of the effect of melamine and silica on the examined properties of leather. The results of investigations of the properties of retanned leather show a correlation between the amount of additives in retanning and on the flammability of the leather.
Conclusions: Based on the conducted tests, it was found that: 1. The increase in the amount of melamine and silica used in the composition of the mixture increases the resistance of leather samples to burning through (with the influence of melamine being the more important of the two). 2. Retanning both with additives (silica and melamine) and without additives only slightly reduces the water vapour permeability for all tested variants. Retanning leads to an increase in the shrinkage temperature by max. 4°C. 3. The results of the optimisation show that the compromise optimum with the assumed properties of the leather is obtained with the addition of melamine and silica in the retanning mixture at 0.06–0.5% for silica and 0.35–0.65% for melamine under the test conditions.
Keywords: natural leather, flammability, melamine, silica, retanning, optimisation
Type of article: original scientific article