LEATHER TANNING AND DRY FINISHING PLANT

Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides and skins of animals, primarily cattle hide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses.

Leather is an important material with many uses. Together with wood, leather formed the basis of much ancient technology. The leather industry and the fur industry are distinct industries that are differentiated by the importance of their raw materials. In the leather industry the raw materials are by-products of the meat industry, with the meat having higher value than the skin. The fur industry uses raw materials that are higher in value than the meat and hence the meat is classified as a by-product. Taxidermy also makes use of the skin of animals, but generally the head and part of the back are used. Hides and skins are also used in the manufacture of glue and gelatin.

Tanning is effected by treating the conditioned hides and skins with organic, inorganic or synthetic  tanning  agents, the  most important among them being vegetable tanning  materials and basic chromium sulphate.  Basic salt of aluminium, Zirconium, and iron, formaldehyde, quinone, aliphatic sulphonyl  chlorides, fish oils, and synthetic polymerized materials (Syntans) are used for  the production of special leathers.  Tanning is  an  ancient art practiced in India since long before the Christian era.  Up to about 1857, the Indian leather industry remained  a  cottage industry  confined  mostly to the villages.   The production  of semi-finished  leather for export was started in South  India  at about  that  time.   In  1867,  the  Government  established  the Government  Harness  &  Saddlery Factory  at  Kanpur  to  produce vegetable  tanned  leather by process followed  in  England.   In 1881, another factory, cooper, Allen and Co. was set up at Kanpur to  produce vegetable  tanned  leather  required  for military footwear.   Experimented trials on the production.  One of chrome tanned  leather were started at Madras towards the  beginning  of the  present  Century,  and a course  of  instruction  in  chrome tanning was introduced in the Government School of Arts,  Madras.  Students trained in this institution started chrome tanneries  in Chennai, Kolkata and Kanpur.

The first chrome tannery was established at Madras in 1903.   The  tanning industry as it exists  today  comprises  the following four sections: organised tanneries producing vegetables and  chrome  tanned leathers;  small-scale  tanneries   producing chrome   tanned  shoe  upper  leathers;   small-scale   tanneries producing E.I. tanned and skins; and village tanneries  producing vegetables tanned leather.

The leather industry occupies a unique position in  the country as one of the major export earners-presently exporting to a tune of Rs. 1250 crores and expected to be about 1800 crores by the  end  of the current plan period.  So far as  the  export  of leather  & leather products are concerned, our major  market  are the  USA,  and  the  EEC in the West and  USSR  and  GDR  in  the Socialist Block of Countries.

India is rich in cattle wealth, buffallo, calf  leather  in India’s  specialty  leather.  In India, there  is  abundance  of traditional  skills for the manufacture of leather products.   At the time of independence in 1947.  India’s exports of raw hides & skins is reduced.  The potential of leather industry was perceived by  the Govt. immediately after independence.  The  industry  was given special attention.  The skills for tanning & processing  of leather were revived export of raw hides & skins was  discouraged Tanning  facilities sprung up in different parts of  the  country continuously.

Now India has a good presence in world markets, domestic requirement is mostly for the footwear industry and a very small quantity for the leather products industry.

Tanning  &  finishing industry in India is  concentrated  in Madras, Panipat, Ambur, Vaniambadi, Erode, Dindigul and Trichy in Tamilnadu,  Calcutta  in West Bengal, Kanpur in UP  &  Bombay  in Maharashtra.  Tamilnadu accounts for tanning & finishing of over 60 percent of the hides and skins available in the  country  and Kanpur and Calcutta together account for 20-25% and the remaining quantity is processed in different parts of the country.   Kanpur by and large specializes in tanning & finishing of buffalo  hide.  It  is  the main centre for the manufacture of  harness  leather, role leather and other varieties of buffalo leather.

INTRODUCTION
USES AND APPLICATION
TYPES OF LEATHER
B.I.S. SPECIFICIFICATION
CLASSIFICATION OF HIDES AND SKINS
DEVELOPMENT OF TANNERY/LEATHER INDUSTRY
MARKET SURVEY
SEQUENCES IN LEATHER TANNING AND DRY FINISHING PLANT
LEATHER TANNING AND FINISHING PROCESS
DEFFERENT STAGES IN LEATHER TANNING
WASTE CHARACTERISTICS, POLLUTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL
LEATHER PRODUCTION PROCESSES
MANUFACTURING PROCESS OF FINISHED LEATHER
PROCESS IN DETAILS
PHYSICAL CHECK UP OF THE STOCK
CHEMICALS & THEIR COMPOSITIONS USED IN DIFFERENT SECTIONS
& OTHER OPERATIONS IN BRIEF
TANNING AND OTHER OPERATION FOR FINISHED LEATHER
DIFFERENT TREATMENT OF HIDES FOR FINISHED LEATHER
POLLUTION EFFECTS
OPERATING CONDITIONS FOR CHROMETANNING
SAVING IN CHEMICALS AND WATER IN DELIMING
EFFLUENT TREATMENT IN TANNERY
FLOW DIAGRAM OF COMPLETE TANNING PROCESS
PLANT LAYOUT
SUPPLIERS OF RAW MATERIALS
SUPPLIERS OF PLANT AND MACHINERIES

APPENDIX – A :

1.      COST OF PLANT ECONOMICS
2.      LAND & BUILDING
3.      PLANT AND MACHINERY
4.      FIXED CAPITAL INVESTMENT
5.      RAW MATERIAL
6.      SALARY AND WAGES
7.      UTILITIES AND OVERHEADS
8.      TOTAL WORKING CAPITAL
9.      COST OF PRODUCTION
10.      PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS
11.      BREAK EVEN POINT
12.      RESOURCES OF FINANCE
13.      INTEREST CHART
14.      DEPRECIATION CHART
15.      CASH FLOW STATEMENT