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Prediction in Leather Processing: A Dark Art or a Clear Possibility? Procter Memorial Lecture.

Developments in the leather industry have been hampered over that last half century by the lack of input from scientists: although there had been progress from gifted technologists and the supply houses, there has been no firm basis upon which leather technologists can conduct trials in the confident knowledge of the outcome. This paper is the first attempt to bring together the author’s thinking about leather science, with a view to providing the leather industry with guidelines as to the outcome of reactions in which chemical species modify the properties of collagen and, importantly, the effects of combinations of reactions. Furthermore, for the first time, the model allows the industry to begin to predict processes to make leather with desired properties and performance. This also has application in the wider field of proteinaceous biomaterials.