What is GENUINE LEATHER?
SU M M A RY
Tanning macro-cycle
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• SOAKING - Washing in water to remove impurities and folds from the hides • LIMING AND DEPILATION - removal of hair and epidermis • SKIVING – elimination of the remaining adipose tissue • SPLITTING - The grain – the outer surface of the hide – is mechanically separated horizontally from the split (the lower part) LUXY GENUINE LEATHER • DELIMING - removal of lime from the hides • MACERATION- facilitates the relaxation of hide fibers • PICKLING - blocks maceration by lowering the pH • TANNING - gives chemical and biological stability to the hides
Finishing macro-cycle • STAKING – Further softening and stretching of leather • TRIMMING - Ensuring that the finished product has regular edges • FINISHING - Improve the desired shine, colour and appearance • IGNIFUGATION - applies greater fire resistance
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Re-tanning macro-cycle
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• PRESSING – hides compression, drying and stretching • SPLITTING – leather separation • SHAVING - The entire surface of the hide acquires a uniform thickness • RE-TANNING – gives softness and resistance • DYING - the GENUINE LUXY LEATHER is dyed with organic colors • FATTENING - only vegetable fats for the GENUINE LUXY LEATHER • DRYING - reduces the humidity level
Luxy Processing Phase
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SELECTION AND STORAGE CUTTING LEATHER PROCESSING IN TAILORING LEATHER SEWING IN TAILORING
LUXY attention to detail, quality, ability to express the most evocative beauty.
The daily will to enhance creativity, passion, refinement, manual skill that distinguishes us are the values for which we choose and continue to choose to “produce� and control internally the processing cycle of our chairs. Made in Italy, design and processing of materials.
Our headquarters is located in one of the largest leather processing districts in Europe and we believe we can offer our customers a truly exclusive leather “the true Luxy exclusive leather”.
VICENZA
This will be the subject of this publication because the processing of genuine, exclusive leather cannot be improvised. In Luxy there is the “superiority of the fingertips ......”
Luxy’s exclusive genuine leather provides unique aesthetic, tactile and durable features. Ours is only natural, cowhide, full-grain leather where we choose the outer and most precious layer of the dermis. The leather must be soft, light-resistant and dyed with through colours, only then will it be “exclusive Luxy leather”. The perception of all these characteristics implies working processes based on different production phases controlled and verified by the company. The leather must pass the organoleptic tests to evaluate the standards “of hand”, touch, color, appearance. The choice goes hand in hand with the mechanical tests able to evaluate and guarantee the degree of impermeability, transpiration, resistance to rubbing and staining. Only after passing these tests can a leather become “exclusive Luxy leather”. Leather tanning is certainly one of the oldest activities of man. There are large tanneries and industries, but the skill and manual skills of the operators make the leather a unique and valuable material. If it is true that leather can have two lives, one as a coat of the animal and a second in furniture, there are many stages of processing in the second life to achieve a high standard of quality as claimed and controlled by Luxy. The production process can basically be grouped into 3 macro-cycles: Tanning Re-tanning Finishing Each macro-cycle is further divided into several phases. Each phase has very precise processes and only after these processes can the leather be defined as “exclusive Luxy leather”.
Preliminary hides preparation Luxy chooses only cowhide for its first choice quality, which has undergone a salting process, with common salt of marine origin, to avoid the processes of degradation of the fabrics. All leather that has had a preservation system for drying or preservation through cooling at very low temperatures is eliminated beforehand.
TANNING
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SOAKING The soaking allows us to bring the leather back to the condition in which it was just skinned, removing the salt used in conservation, cleaning it from dirt and especially making it absorb the water lost as a result of the conservation treatment. The soaking is carried out in drums, in the past rotating wooden cylinders, now complex machines controlled by computer with the possibility of adjusting the water inlet, temperature, rotation speed and the introduction of chemical reagents. This automated process has reduced any errors due to manual work.
LIMING AND DEPILATION The liming and depilation are performed simultaneously. With depilation the hair and the epidermis are removed. With the liming the dermal tissue is loosened and relaxed in order to increase the reactivity and absorption capacity of the tanning products and also a part of the subcutaneous adipose layer is eliminated by partial saponification.
SKIVING Skiving is a mechanical operation by which meat residues and adipose tissue of the subcutaneous layer are removed, which is also called flesh.
MACRO-CYCLE
TANNING
MACRO-CYCLE
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SPLITTING The splitting allows to equalize and reduce the thickness of the leather in all its wideness. As a result of the splitting, the grain is obtained, which is the surface layer of the leather and will be the only one that will enter the process to become real Luxy exclusive leather, and the split, which is the lower layer that comes out of the cycle of the Luxy material.
DELIMING With decalcification, most of the lime used in the hair removal process is removed from the leather. In this phase the pH drops to values close to those of the isoelectric point of the collagen to obtain a deflation of the dermis and reach an optimal pH for the activity in the maceration.
MACERATION Maceration completes the action of liming, causing further relaxation of the collagen structure in order to produce a softer and softer leather.
PICKLING OR DEGREASING Picking completes the descaling process and allows the skin to be brought to a pH value suitable for the subsequent tanning phase.
TANNING
MACRO-CYCLE
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TANNING The tanning phase is the one that gives the skin mechanical resistance, humidity, temperature and chemical agents and gives chemical and biological stability. From this stage we can begin to define the material as “leather”. The working time of this phase is from 36 to 48 hours. The leather that has undergone these treatments is not yet usable in furniture, it is still wet and even if it were dried would still be a product too rigid and with the typical color of the tanning with which it was obtained.
LUXY CHOICE In this phase our technicians carefully select with what we call pre-selection all the hides that will become “exclusive Luxy leather”.
RE-TANNING
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PRESSING AND DRYING BY SAMMING During pressing, the hides are subjected to compression in a system of rotating cylinders: in this way they are dried and spread.
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SPLITTING The hides then undergo the processing of the splitting
SHAVING Shaving is required for exclusive Luxy leathers to acquire a uniform thickness over the entire surface; this is achieved by removing part of the leather from the meat side, passing it through a series of rollers with sharp blades.
RE-TANNING Retanning is an important process that enhances what is technically defined as the “hand touch� because the leather absorbs tanning substances or fills in order to give the finished product the desired degree of fullness, softness, softness and strength.
MACRO-CYCLE
RE-TANNING
MACRO-CYCLE
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DYING Luxy’s exclusive leather is dyed exclusively with organic coloring, evenly throughout its thickness.
FATTING This phase is used to enhance the characteristics of softness, elasticity and hydrophobicity of the exclusive Luxy leather as well as to improve all the mechanical properties in general. For Luxy exclusive leather, only animal oils and fats are used.
DRYING The drying process reduces the moisture content of the leather to the hygroscopic value required by Luxy -14 : 18%. This phase is performed with the air suspension system.
FINISHING
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STAKING This process creates a further softening of the exclusive Luxy leather and takes place through a stretching that makes it more uniform.
TRIMMING It is a process that involves the elimination of parts that cannot be used
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FINISHING The finishing gives further technical and aesthetic value to the “exclusive Luxy leather� and is a further phase of protection of the material. A resin and therefore a pigment are applied to the leather to give it shine, increase pleasantness to the touch and even out the colour.
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IGNIFUGATION This process creates a higher fire resistance of the leather and is carried out on particular customer requests. It has long working processes and is carried out on specific batches of hides.
MACRO-CYCLE
PROCESSING
The trimming phase ends with the three large macro-cycles of processing and treatment of the leather as a raw material and begins the processing phase, which is carried out 100% within the company.
Nicola F., Andrea M., Simona, Patrizia, Paola, Catia, Manjola, Concetta, Tina, Erika, Denis, Laura, Franca, Mosè, Alessandro, Andrea R. and Nicola G. for us are not just names but identify people who work in the cycle of “exclusive Luxy leather” and in our tailoring.
These people have the “superiority of the fingertips”
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PROCESSING
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A well-known university professor described this ability as the ability to evaluate the level of finishing through the historical heritage of a company and its way of doing things. All the employees mentioned are able to immediately distinguish, with their fingertips, a leather well tanned from a badly tanned leather and in this great talent and in the sartorial ability of the operators resides one of the major forces of our competitiveness.
One of the fundamental aspects of our production unit is the absence of artificial light. Our operators have the possibility to work almost all year round with natural light that comes from above where the company has equipped itself with special skylights that among other things also promote environmental well-being with the circulation of air. Working, choosing and controlling a material such as leather with natural light promotes its quality control.
PROCESSING
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SELECTION AND STORAGE The processing phase of the raw material, in Luxy, involves a visual check, piece by piece and an analysis of the “touch” of the material previously chosen and processed. Nicola, Andrea R. and Alessandro follow this phase. The leather is then stored in the company’s warehouse.
LEATHER CUT Nicola follows the whole cutting phase but before cutting the leather he lays it on the machine, makes a further visual check and then cuts the leather with mechanical systems of precision.
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PROCESSING
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LEATHER PROCESSING IN TAILORING The trimmed leather is deposited in special trolleys of Luxy tailoring. The first processing is done with the fleshing machine on the perimeter of the leather in order to allow a more tailored processing and sewing than that made by normal upholstery dept.
LEATHER STITCHING IN TAILORING The “fingertip” specialists perform single and double needle stitching, thread stitching and other special techniques. In addition, Luxy tailoring performs a kind of “draught” quilted processes on the products that do not require a finishing button. For each processing is used a thread that is best matched to the color of the leather and for particular processing is also performed a processing with contrasting thread colors.
COME AND VISIT US TO DISCOVER HOW WE PRODUCE OUR CHAIRS
Luxy Leather
Grain Leather
www.luxy.com T: 39 0444-189311 Luxy SpA, Strada Provinciale 6, 36045 Lonigo, Vicenza, Italia SHOWROOM: London - Panama - Rome - Giessen NL OFFICE: Milano