Abstract

Natural leather has excellent moisture permeability. With the fashionable design of leather clothing, research on the processing and properties of thin natural leather has become more and more important. In this paper, after 0.8mm thin cowhide was obtained using a precision leather machine with blade [splitting machine], the arrangement of protein fibres was observed by a 1000X scanning electron microscope. Under the environmental conditions of a pressure of 1 atmosphere, 40°C and humidity of 69%, it is found that the relationship between the moisture permeability (y) of cow leather and thickness (x) is y = -0.11x + 4.23. The reason why the thinner the cow leather, the better the moisture permeability is was analyzed microscopically; Secondly, the effects of ambient temperature and moisture permeability time on the moisture permeability of thin leather were investigated. It was found that the higher the temperature, the greater the moisture permeability of thin leather. The moisture permeability of thin leather reached the maximum when the temperature was 80°C. The three-dimensional surface fitting was carried out for the changes of moisture permeability of thin leather with time and temperature. The regression equation of moisture permeability(y) of thin leather with moisture permeability time (t) and temperature (T) was as follows: y=-11.9t2 + 2.498tT – 0.07923T2 – 91.92t + 4.748T – 46.19.