Quality, replicability, and rapidity of samples are becoming more and more determining factors for the competitiveness of a tanning business, which is facing the tough dynamics of today’s marketplace. Being able to accurately reproduce production lines means allowing technical operators to investigate new configurations in less time and with clear advantages: Energy saving, as well as the reduction of the consumption of leather, water usage and chemical products. One truly innovative solution can satisfy these needs. Fratelli Carlessi projected and built Spray Lab, spraying system made of a robot and a drying tunnel, both controlled by an internally produced software.
The starting point: sampling small pieces (around 3 square ft.) in a manner that can be replicated, is close to production and is fit to be tested in a lab or on small goods. Further development: the XL model presented at Tanning Tech 2019, 1200mm wide, allows tanners to tan half-bovine hides or small hides (for sampling and/or small production lots) while granting replicability, rapidity, and flexibility throughout execution, among the advantages. But this system also lets tanners create simulations of a wide variety of goods, personalize and transfer any detail of the unit to the actual production line.
In fewer words: by simulating any type of test-cabin (rotational, elliptical, alternative) in combination with any type of drying system, Spray Lab differentiates itself from the traditionally erratic manual spraying and production line processes, and satisfies, with the greatest precision possible, the most important need in the market: rapidity.
The Company
Fratelli Carlessi is founded in 1925 as a metal-cutting business and entered the tanning machinery segment in 1953, specializing in machinery for drying, condition and refinement of leather. In 2009 it becomes a part of Erretre, a company focused on the development of technologies and refinement of leather, with which it has worked since the 1970s.
The Author
Giulio Tandura has been a part of Erretre’s board since 2009 and runs Fratelli Carlessi. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from Università di Padova and has been working in the technology side of tanning since 1980. He was also president of ASSOMAC, National Association of Manufacturers of Footwear, Leather goods and Tanning Technologies, from 2007 to 2011.
