Tanning industry course

Tanning is the treatment to which the hides are subjected in order to preserve and work them. The tanning industry is the industrial sector that produces hides and skins destined mainly for the fashion industry, but is widely used in other sectors. Prehistoric man realized that the skin of the animals he hunted for food could serve as protection from atmospheric agents. The skin, however, is an organic protein material and therefore lasted a few days because it soon putrefied. It was then noticed, probably by chance, that if the skin had been exposed to the smoke of the fire to heat up or to cook the meat, or if the skin had been immersed in water in which branches or leaves of plants and trees were also immersed , then it was kept much longer. In practice, tanning with aldehydes (of which the smoke of fresh woods is rich) and vegetable tanning with tannins (contained in wood and in all vegetables) had been discovered. In addition, it was also noted that if the skin was wet by water in which the stones of the hearth, calcined by the fire, had dissolved, the hair of the skins detached very easily from the skin, allowing more numerous uses of the skin. Immediately after the killing of the animal, the processes of tissue degradation begin. Even before reaching putrefaction, this determines more or less serious damage to the leather which rapidly decays its quality and value from a tanning point of view. Furthermore, since tanneries are almost always not located sufficiently close to the places of production of the hides, the time between skinning and the start of the tanning process would be too long and the degradation processes would risk destroying the hides. It is therefore necessary to "preserve" the fresh leathers, that is, to block the degradation process for a time sufficient for transport to the tannery and for the beginning of processing. Let's discover this fantastic world together!