Drying methods

Drying methods for leather

1. Air-drying without supply of energy (hang-drying)

2. Air-drying with supply of energy
a. air circulation method (hang-drying)
b. drying in channel, tunnel, chamber (hang-drying)
c. Toggled drying
d. paste drying
3. Infrared drying
4. Vacuum drying
5. High-frequency drying
Types of hang drying:
1. Air drying without supply of energy :
Low price drying method, however dependent on weather conditions and therefore only
economical in regions of suitable climate. This method has a gentle drying effect.
2. Air drying with supply of energy :
Drying method with supply of hot air, drying in channels by a through feed or rotary
system, without or with separate temperature zone sectors.
Quick drying method whereby a uniform residual moisture content is kept in the leather.
3. Cold air drying by air dehumidification:
This method consist of drying of batches at room temperature in a tightly closed drying
chamber.
The recalculated air is cooled by means of a cooling cell and the water contained in the air
condenses as dew. On reheating this air , which has a highly reduced content of water, it
has a quick drying effect on the gentle ,
It is a softening drying method.
Air drying
The earliest methods of drying , and the one which is probably still in greatest use,
is simple air drying.
The skins are hung hooks or sticks or placed on horizontal racks. The leather is
dried by the natural passage of air around it.
If the conditions of the temperature and humidity are such that the leather dries
slowly , case hardening is avoided and good uniformity will result.
The rate at which the air passes over the skins during air drying will determine the
rate at which drying occurs.
Overhead fans are usually used to circulate the air around the hanging leather.
To control drying , the air can be kept with the leather by shutting off the drying
area.
In this away the relative humidity around the leather will become higher and the
drying rate will be reduced.
In operating an air drying system such as this the temperature of the drying
chamber , as well as the rate of release of moist air or rate of introduction of fresh
air into the system, must be carefully controlled in order to obtain uniform drying
conditions.
 Air drying

Air drying has following advantages:

1. Low capital investment
2. No heat input
3. Little chance of case hardening.
4. Simplicity of operation.

The drawback of the system are its low productivity and low yield area.
• Frame drying :
Mainly used for subsequent drying of the moisture contained in the leather after
staking. Some leather , in particular furniture and upholstery leather are directly
fixed on frame while wet. A good area is achieved and wrinkle is reduced. The
leather were formerly nailed on wooden gratings by means of special nails. Today
they are fixed to corrosion resistance metals plates by means of special clamps for
chamber . Fully automatic frame dries are also in use.
 Drying by radiation
1. Infrared drying :
Drying is performed by means of heat radiation from inside the leather . Suitable for
chrome tanned leather and leather tanned by combined tanning agents and
especially for thin leathers. Less suitable for purely vegetable tanned , especially at
the end of the drying process.
• Introducing gamma radiation as a treatment method to the leather industry is a new
approach; few studies were conducted on leather materials, mostly in cross-linking of
collagen chains.
• Also, gamma irradiation can be used in leather industry for treatment of the leather
materials in view of cross-linking activation of different polymeric substances to improve
certain characteristic of the finished product.
• The effects of gamma irradiation on the hides tanned with these commercial tanning
agents have indicated supplementary crosslinking as a primary effect for doses up to 25
kGy [gray=Gy], the material showing an increase in tensile strength, elongation at break
and a smaller loss of mass according to thermogravimetric analysis.
• For bigger doses the main process is scission of the peptide chain, with evidence in
shrinkage temperature and tensile strength decrease.

• As gamma irradiation equipment is more and more accessible and gamma radiation
represents an ecological and effective alternative for chemical preservation, sterilization
and cross-linking, the application in leather industry needs only advanced knowledge and
economical approaching.
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2. High frequency drying:
This drying is carried out by means of electromagnetic waves having a very high oscillation
frequency. One method of reducing the water content of the leather to a desired level is
provided by high-frequency drying. The advantage of this method consist in the exact
regulation of the residual moisture content in the leather . It is less economical for complete
drying of wet leather, but a very suitable for redrying method. Small section of leather can be
dried very quickly in microwave devices to achieve adjustment of shade without producing
serious colour differences with regard to the entire lot. After dewatering by pressing, humid
leather is brought into an electric field of high frequencies by a belt conveyor system. The
energy density in the humid, conductive areas ensures internal heating and evaporation of the
water. This type of drying is only used to a limited extent in the leather industry.
Toggling
In toggle drying, leather is allowed to air dry, but they a stretched gently through the
use of small clamps called toggles.
A toggling unit consist of a number of screens placed in a dryer having controlled
temperature and humidity. The leather is stretched and held in place by a number of
clamps( toggle) that hook the screens.
Hides are kept in a stretched position on perforated frames by means of clips called
toggles
Toggling has the advantage of drying large quantities of leather in a relatively small
space. In addition , it provides for stretching the leather during drying. Toggling has
the disadvantage that constant temperature and humidity conditions are difficult to
maintain and control. Toggling is the time consuming in terms of labor.
• paste drying
Pasting is the application of leather to large glass, steel, or ceramic "plates. In a
pasting unit leather are pasted on large sheet of plate or metal with the grain
surface to flat sheet. ." A plant based starch is mixed into a paste, which is used to
adhere the hide to the plate. By this means the leather can be fully extended and the
grain fiber so oriented as to give maximum smoothness and area yield, also better
grain characteristics can be obtained than that of air drying or toggling techniques.
The drying process takes about 5 hours and utilizes steam, heat, and moving air.
This yields a leather with "flat," uniform grain. By sticking the leather against a
medium that is static, it keeps the leather from shrinking.
The pasting plates are sent through a tunnel dryer consisting of a number zones
(4-8) of controlled temperature and humidity. The plates are suspended on an
overhead conveyor and with the leather pasted to them, travel through the dryer at a
constant rate. When the leather is stripped off, the plate is sent to a washer. The plate
are washed and paste is applied automatically. By adjusting the temperature s and
humidity in the various zones , the rate of evaporation from the leather can be
controlled and overheating avoided. Paste drying units are the most expensive
single pieces of equipment in side leather tanneries. Paste is used on side , calf, kid,
and split leather. The paste used is usually of the methycellouse type , although
some tanners prefer a starch based paste.
Vacuum drying
Principle:
❑ The boiling point of water is lower as the pressure on it is reduced. For this reason , the rate of
evaporation of water from a wet surface is accelerated, if the system is under reduced pressure or
partial vacuum .
❑ So, Vacuum drying is based on the physical principle that water evaporates at low pressure at low
temperature.
This principle has been applied to vacuum dryers to reduce the time of drying
In vacuum drying , the leather is spread out , grain down , on smooth, usually a chrome plated , polished
steel surface.
Heat is applied to this surfaced by built-in heat exchanger under the table.
This temperature is maintained by thermostatic control of circulating hot water and a hood is placed over
the plate and then evacuated to aid in drying the leather.
Since the heat is being supplied directly from the plate to leather, rather than being taken from the hot air.
Under high vacuum , the boiling point of the water in the leather is lowered, and with the cooling effects
from the evaporation, the temperature of the boiling water is in the around 100 F .
The water in the leather receives heat from the grain side and evaporation takes place through the flesh
side of the leather . The mass transfer , if any , thus takes place towards the flesh side and so the leather
cannot become cracky for this reason. The rate of drying will depend upon the thickness of the leather,
nature of tanning adopted and the temperature in the plate. Chrome tanned leather will stand higher
temperature than vegetable tanned .
 Vacuum drying
Merits :
1. Rapid production as it takes around 2-3 min to complete fair drying.
2. It is very popular in the manufacture of light leathers.
3. The area yield is fair.
4. It is independent of weather conditions and can be used equally effective anywhere in
the world.
5. It is easy for switching to the next materials.
6. This method is become one of the most popular drying methods in recent years for
leather manufacture because of its fast drying speed and reduced space requirement
Demerits:
1. It is expensive than normal air drying.
2. In vacuum dryer, the heat transfer coefficients are low.
3. There is a danger of over heating as the material is in contact with heated surface for
long time.
Vacuum drying
PLANE HEATING:
Hot water circulation in the plane has been designed to have the maximum temperature
uniformity over the entire surface of the plane. This allows a perfect drying of the skin, without
having areas with different moisture degree.
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