For providing a solid foundation & understanding of the tanning process, the students of Foundation Programme, 2nd semester of FDDI, Chennai campus visited Balamurugan Leathers and Palson Leather Company, located at Chromepet, Chennai on 27th April 2023.
As part of the welcome address by the company executives, the students were briefed about every function, be that sizing, sorting, polishing, testing, quality control, exacting quality standards that exporters have to adhere to, the use of chemicals in the raw hides during tanning etc.
The students were briefed on Leather curing process with salts, Pre-tanning operations – soaking, liming, de-liming, pickling, Chrome tanning of buff & goat leather, Post tanning operations, various quality check points, leather bundling & packaging, Water treatment plant for hazardous tanning residues and Technology used in footwear design to final assembling processes.
Balamurugan Leathers is producing shoe upper, suede leathers and garments suede and export to France, Vietnam and Cambodia; Palson Leather Company produces cow upper leathers and cow split leather for shoe and leather goods industries.
Under the supervision and guidance of the senior faculty of School of Footwear Design & Production (FDP), the students were taken on a tour of the factory premises wherein the company executives explained not only the functions of their respective departments, but also the contribution of the said departments in the entire value chain relating to the finished product.
