Preservation of Skins

PRESERVATION OF SKINS

  • Preservation of hide or skin is done either by suspension drying or by curing, i.e. salting.
    • The green skins contain approximately 62% water.
    • As most of the hide substance is protein, which forms good nutrient for bacteria, all that is needed for them to develop is time and favourable temperature.
    • Contamination with blood, manure or dirt will increase bacterial growth.
    • The deterioration, which occurs during the curing of hides and skins, may be attributed to the fact that the bacterial growth was not checked in time.

Principles of preservation and its merits

  • The basic principles of preservation, therefore, lies in creating such conditions that bacterial flora cannot multiply.
  • This can be achieved either by immediate delivery of the hides and skins to the tannery.
  • A condition very unreliable in developing countries is by reducing the moisture to a point where bacterial growth stops.
  • A simple way of reducing moisture is by exposing the hides and skins to free air circulation.
  • Another method is to absorb the moisture by salt.
  • This combined with the penetration of the salt into hide substance acts as a kind of dehydration.
  • The method of preservation had definite influence on the final weight of the hides.
  • The final percentage of the moisture in the air-dried hide and skin will range from 10 to 12 percent.
  • Green hide weighing 100 lbs. will contain 62 lbs water and 38 lbs of hide substance.
  • In Air-dried method there is no loss in hide substance and so it will be 38 lbs.
  • The final percentage of moisture will be 10 to 12 lbs.
  • Therefore, the final weight of air-dried hide will be 38 + 10 = 48 lbs.
Last modified: Friday, 17 September 2010, 4:58 AM