Abstract

The present work was carried out to improve Sudanese rural garad tanned crust leathers for production of semi-alum shoe upper leathers. The usual process sequence consists of stripping, bleaching, retannage with aluminium sulphate prepared solution, neutralization, dyeing, fatliquoring, drying and finishing. The physical and chemical characteristics of the leathers produced are compared with control leathers and standard physical properties and showed good agreement. The leathers produced are full, soft, flexible with high tensile strength. The stripped rural garad-tanned leathers were retanned with 2% Al2O3; giving a high shrinkage temperature of 101°C. The leathers produced are full, soft, flexible with high tensile strength with good organoleptic and strength properties. This confirms that this type of retannage is a promising alternative to traditional chrome tanning.