Finally there are the leathers that are sprayed in with a fully opaque pigmented finish. The skins are placed on a conveyor and pass through a spray chamber where colour is applied from a spray gun travelling across the skin on an arm. Following the spray chamber, the skins move into a drying chamber, before coming off the conveyor where they are either piled or hung to dry. Depending on the type of finish being applied, skins will receive between two and eight light coats of colour in order to achieve the desired effect. After the skins have been sprayed in to the correct colour, with the appropriate type of finish, the processes for completing the finishing operations vary quite markedly.
Aniline leathers require no more work, and are now taken to the warehouse.
This machine has a glass chuck that travels over the surface of the skin polishing the tips of the grain and thus creating a two-tone effect. The operation is very similar to that carried out by bookbinders using polishing irons, except that the area covered in one stroke is 10cms wide and 50cms in length. The glass chuck repeats the stroke 2-3 times per second allowing a typical skin to be glazed in about 30 seconds. Finally the pigmented leathers are generally pressed under heat. In all cases, the pressing or embossing of the leather compacts the fibres, therefore before these leathers are sent up to the warehouse they are put through the boarding machine again in order to relax the fibre structure.