SATRA accredits 600th global lab technician

Delegates from 25 countries made the SATRA stand a focal point at the latest Asia Pacific Leather Fair in Hong Kong, making the event one of the technology centre's most productive missions yet to the Far East. 'Visitors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan made up the majority of callers reflecting SATRA's growing reputation in this key part of the manufacturing world', says SATRA deputy chief executive Richard Turner. Underlining the organisation's business links with region a certificate was presented to celebrate SATRA's accreditation of its 600th laboratory technician from among its member laboratories around the world. He is Ni Qing Feng of the Shanghai Richina Leather Co Ltd, and Barry Wood, the company's technical director, received the award is his behalf, Wood said: 'SATRA lab accreditation and leather grading are two valuable services that help us to maintain our own high level of services to our customers.' Steve Rose, business manager for SATRA quality services, added: 'Our experts have been accrediting laboratories and their technicians who work in them for more than 10 years and more than half of these laboratories are now in China.' SATRA also successfully launched the latest version of its SATRASumm leather management software system at the fair. The new version 6 incorporates updated database technology to improve system reliability. It can also operate at high speeds over computer networks hundreds of miles apart. First launched more than 20 years ago, versions of SATRASumm are now regularly used in more than 300 SATRA member companies. Many Western sourcing companies and brands are now stipulating its use as standard in their supply factories to achieve significant savings in leather utilisation. Steve Rose, adds: 'Three hundred of our member companies already use SATRASumm and our new version is better protected against power failures, crashes and other causes of corruption.' SATRA also unveiled its Martindale Plus abrasion tester for leather, textiles and coated materials and pilling of textiles. Its design concept, whereby the abradant tables move rather than test samples, is a radical SATRA innovation.