As we all know, leather can be roughly divided into two categories: raw leather and artificial leather. With the improvement of living standards, people are increasingly choosing leather products when buying leather shoes, belts, wallets, shoulder bags, handbags and other leather products. This has caused the current market demand for raw leather to increase year by year, and the quality requirements for raw leather are also getting higher and higher. It comes from the animal cortex, which is located under the epidermis, between the epidermis and the subcutaneous tissue. It is the main part of the raw leather, and its weight and thickness account for about 90% of the raw leather. The entire leather production process is very complicated, among which leather drying is a very important link.
Infrared heating and drying leather has the advantages of high efficiency and energy saving. Usually a drying tunnel composed of multiple infrared lamps is used, and the leather passes slowly in the tunnel. For leather with a larger area, the number of infrared lamps can be increased or the power can be increased.
Infrared heating principle
Infrared is an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength range of 0.75 microns to 1 millimeter. When infrared rays are irradiated on leather, the molecules in the leather absorb the energy of infrared rays, intensifying the molecular movement, thereby generating heat and achieving the purpose of heating.
Infrared lamps have many applications in the leather industry, mainly including the following aspects:
• Drying After the leather is processed by tanning, dyeing, etc., excess moisture needs to be removed. The infrared rays generated by infrared lamps can penetrate the leather to a certain depth, so that the moisture inside the leather quickly absorbs heat and converts into water vapor, accelerates the drying process, and dries evenly, which can effectively avoid cracking and deformation of the leather surface due to local overheating or drying too quickly.
• Color fixation After the leather is dyed, the use of infrared lamps for heating treatment can make the dye molecules better combine with the leather fibers, thereby improving the fastness and uniformity of the dyeing, making the color of the leather more vivid and lasting.
• Softening For some harder leathers, the heat of infrared lamps can intensify the movement of leather fiber molecules, making them softer, increasing the flexibility and plasticity of the leather, and facilitating subsequent processing, such as cutting and sewing.
• Sterilization and Disinfection The heat generated by infrared lamps can kill bacteria, mold and other microorganisms on the surface of leather to a certain extent, which helps to improve the hygienic quality of leather, prevent leather from getting moldy and deteriorating due to the growth of microorganisms during storage and use, and extend the service life of leather.
Infrared Heating Advantages
Quartz infrared radiators have proven to be very effective for leather drying, offering several significant advantages over traditional methods. Here are the main features and advantages of using high-efficiency infrared heaters for leather drying:
1. Fast Drying Process
Using high-efficiency infrared heaters can significantly speed up the drying process compared to traditional steam hot air convection and heat conduction dryers. The energy of the infrared radiator is transmitted directly to the leather surface without the need for an intermediate medium. Some radiators can penetrate the leather pores, with a penetration depth of 0.1 mm to 2.0 mm. The radiator in the pores is almost completely absorbed after multiple reflections by the pore walls, resulting in extremely high heat transfer efficiency. For the same leather, drying with infrared radiators can significantly shorten the drying time.
2. High-quality drying
Quartz infrared radiators have excellent drying quality. Because the surface and inner layers of the leather absorb the far-infrared radiator at the same time, the drying process is uniform, thereby improving the physical properties and color of the leather after drying. For example, in the manufacture of leather products, maintaining uniform drying is essential to ensure the quality and aesthetics of the final product.
3. Energy saving
Compared with other radiators and electric heating drying methods, quartz infrared radiator drying is more energy-efficient. It can save more than 50% of conventional energy consumption. In addition, the infrared radiation elements in these dryers have a simple structure, which reduces the size of the equipment, makes operation easier and safer.
Precautions
• Infrared heating equipment should be regularly maintained and calibrated to ensure uniformity and stability of heating.
• Accurately control the heating temperature, time and distance according to the type, thickness and process requirements of the leather to avoid damage to the leather due to excessive heating.
• When using infrared heating equipment, operators need to wear protective glasses to prevent infrared rays from causing damage to the eyes.
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