Development of damageless method for vat-dyeing of leather

Abstract

In general, leathers are hard to dye. Thus, most methods for dyeing leather involved painting a dyestuff on the leather and binding it with a varnish. In particular, vat-dyeing is very difficult, because dyed leathers suffer from hardening, deterioration, and rapid exfoliation of the pigment owing to rubbing. To overcome these problems, we developed new dyeing methods of evacuating leathers or irradiating them with ultrasonic waves in a dye solution containing an auxiliary agent made of a weak base. Applying this dye solution to silk cloth led to more brilliant colors. ( E-mail: [e-mail])