1. What are the main constituents of DERMA?

Collagen fiber arranged in interlacing bundle, in addition to collagen fiber there

are blood vessels, nerves, muscles, flatted cells, sweat glands with this proteins
etc.

2. Why salting is done?

Hide and skin start deteriorate in open environment because of microorganism,
in order to prevent this petrification salt is used to dehydrate and increase the
salinity of hide and skin to stop the growth of microorganism. At 1.7 salinity no
petrification occur.

3. How skin becomes RED-HEAT?

Commonly sea salt is used in curing but sea salt contains MgCl2 as an impurity
which rehydrate the hide and skin and red patches occurs on the skin. This
process is called RED-HEAT Effect.

4. What are the objectives of SOAKING and how the best soaking results can be
obtained?
Objectives of soaking are:
 To rehydrate the fiber to separate from each other.
 To remove the most of salt used during curing.
Best soaking results can be obtained by bringing hide and skin in contact with a
calculated quantity of water in the presence of germicides in wooden rolling
drum with 2 – 3 rpm.

5. Why sun drying of skin is unsatisfactory method?

Sun drying of hide and skin is not preferred due to these two effects:
 Blister (It is caused when drying takes place too rapidly at flesh side and
water does not started evaporate in middle layer which is susceptible to
petrification)
 Taint (It is caused when drying takes place too rapidly at epidermis side
and water does not started evaporate in middle layer which is susceptible
to petrification)
6. Why antiseptics are used in soaking process?
Due to rehydration of hide and skin in soaking, the water again started to petrify
the hide and skin in order to prevent petrification, we can use these germicides:
 Sodium Arsenide (anti-bacterial)
 Naphthalene powder (Repellent)
 Gammexane (Gamma hexa boro cyclo hexene)
 DDT powder (Dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane)

7. What are the objectives of LIMING?

The primary objectives of liming are:
 To loose the hair and epidermis from derma.
 Removal of alpiste protein from corium (lower part of derma).
 During liming keratinous protein of epidermis and hairs are partially
removed and reduced.
8. How hair and epidermis are removed in liming process?
Keratinous protein is responsible for binding epidermis and derma. Lime changes
the PH of epidermis so swelling of hide and skin starts and keratinous protein lose
then by the jet of water removes the epidermis and hair from hide and skin.

9. Why the lime used in liming is as pure as possible?

Lime contains “Fe” as an impurity which can produced brown spots on hide and
skin. Lime can also contain coarse material which can produced scratches on
hide and skin that’s why lime has to be pure.

10. Why ammonium chloride is preferred over HCl for deliming?

Ammonium chloride is preferred over HCl because small amount of HCl can
change the PH to very high extent.

11. How BATTING process is carried out and its objectives?

Batting can be done by either “Natural bats” or “Synthetic bats”. Now a days
synthetic bats are used for Batting. Synthetic bats include high percentage of
wood flour which is fibrous material along with ammonium chloride and
ammonium sulphate with this a small percentage of pancreatic extract
(obtained by horse and cows). Synthetic bats produce proteolytic bacteria
which further produce enzymes and collagen fiber of derma is digested by the
proteolytic bacteria enzymes.
Objectives are to create fall, softness and flexibility in leather.

12. What are the objectives of TANNING process?

The characteristics produced in derma during beam house operation is
temporary so tanning is done to achieve desired permanent characteristics.

13. Dehydrating power of sodium sulphate is less than that of NaCl, but some times
preferred why?
Sodium sulphate is preferred over sodium chloride for curing if the humidity of air
is high because sodium sulphate gives good dehydration under humid air.

14. How the incidence of Red-Heat can be reduced?

Red-heat effect is due to the presence of MgCl2 (impurity) in NaCl. If it is not
possible to separate MgCl2 from NaCl then germicide is used to eliminate red-
heat effect.

15. Why wood is preferred as a material of construction in leather industry?

Due to its light weight and non-corrosive ability.

16. What are the demerits of ALUM TANNING?

The product by alum tanning is not permanent leather, since the process can be
reversed by immersion in warm water and leather will begin to decay.

17. Why developed countries import leather from third world countries?
 Due to environmental issues
 Skin discoloration of workers
 Eyesight problems in tannery workers
 Mental disability.
18. Name the PULP raw material
 Wood
 Bagasse
 Banana Peels
 Wheat straw
 Cotton

19. Chemically what is soap?

When acid reacts with alkali the salt is formed and “Na” and “K” are metals
therefore the chemical name of soap is “Metallic salt of fatty acid”.

20. Why NaCl is added during soap making?

NaCl is added to avoid bunch formation in the reactor.

21. Why obtaining of glycerin from spent lye is very complicated process?
Because spent lye contains NaCL, NaOH, glyceride, fats and other impurities
which require difficult separation technique.

22. Why sodium triply phosphate is used in detergents?

In hard water the high concentration of “Mg” and “Ca” is present which
deactivates the detergent and Sodium triply phosphate prevents their hardness
and allow to wash in hard water. It also improves dust removal power and soil
suspending power.

23. Why surplus amount of oleum is used for the sulfonation of DDB?
To completely consume the dodecyl benzene.

24. Why BORAX is used in detergent powder?

Borax helps to wash cloths in hard water it precipitates hardness of water.

25. How the length of spay drying tower is important?

If the height of tower is small and a very high temperature is used, then the
oxidation of detergent starts and it becomes yellow.

26. What is Rosin?

Rosins in the soap kettle are used for transparency of soap and obtained from
distillation of terpene oil.

27. What are the optical brightening agent and how they work?
Optical brightening agent turns ultraviolet light into visible light and make cloths
brighter. Ultramarine is an optical whitening agent.
28. Why sodium silicate is used in soap making?
Sodium Silicate (Na2SiO3) is added in Crutcher as an additive to avoid corrosion.
29. Why soaps are less efficient in hard water?
Soap is less effective in hard water since it reacts to form a calcium and
magnesium salt of the organic acid in the soap and forms a grayish soap scum
with no lather.
30. What does saponification value means?
Number of mg of alkali required to completely saponify the free fatty acid is
called saponification value.