Having Nightmares before Christmas? BLC can fix it
BLC Leather Technology Centre are often asked by customers to diagnose faults in leather and leather related products. Due to an increase in customer demand for fault diagnosis, BLC purchased a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). This £100K state-of-the-art equipment allows BLC to conduct high-magnification and high-resolution imaging analysis, as well as elemental distribution analysis.
Most leather faults can be diagnosed at a magnification range of up to 30,000x, however the SEM has a maximum magnification of 1,000,000x, proving that BLC has the ability to handle a wide variety of fault diagnoses.
Common faults with leather and related products include structural faults, stains and finish faults however BLC wanted to highlight a few more problem-causing entities that they’ve diagnosed using their Scanning Electron Microscope.
- Maleficent Mould shown at 4,100x magnification
The image below shows two fruiting bodies from mould otherwise known as ‘sporangia’, and in its singular form a ‘sporangium’.
- Terrifying Tanned Tick shown at 94x magnification (image directly below), and 593x magnification (image below left)
Clearly this parasite didn’t want to give up residence easily. The tick has been through the entire tanning process on this sample of hide and is still attached.
This highly detailed close-up shows the tick’s mouth penetrating the leather hide.
- Eerie Epidermis shown at 89x magnification
The tanning process didn’t completely remove the epidermis from this piece of bovine hide. Remnants of the epidermis and hairs are shown by the purple areas in the image below.
Are you Experiencing Leather Problems?
BLC will help you through every stage of the process, providing you with support and advice. If you’re experiencing problems with your leather or in need of fault diagnosis, contact BLC today and fix your nightmares before Christmas:
www.blcleathertech.com
[email protected]
+44 (0)1604 679 999
31 October 2016