Suitability of Different Oils for Chamois Leather Manufacture

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K. Sandhya
N. Vedaraman
V. Sundar
R. Mohan
K. Velappan
C. Muralidharan

Abstract

Chamois leather, conventionally made using fish oil finds wide industrial application. The major advantage with fish oils is that they contain significant amount of pentadienoic fatty acid in addition to higher iodine value. But the main problem with fish oil is its strong odor and high cost. The objective of the present work is to study the suitability of oils such as linseed oil, castor oil, sunflower oil, animal tallow for chamois leather manufacture in comparision with fish oil. The chamois leather, thus obtained was tested for properties such as sink test, water absorption and strength characteristics. Experimental results show that among different oils, linseed oil based chamois leather posseses higher water absorption and strength properties. It also has mild odour. This study shows that acceptable quality chamois leather can be made using linseed oil as tanning agent instead of fish oil.

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