Dr Leather Ltd is a new company (February 1, 2002) and their toolkit package will be launched on May 1. The company is in various stages of negotiations with twenty leading chemicals suppliers, giving them a database of 2,000 products which are currently in use, plus 190 non-proprietary products, ie sodium sulfide and lime, and ranges of dyestuffs which are listed by product name rather than CI number.

The system is also flexible enough to include other chemicals companies of choice so that users of the system do not find their favourites being excluded. It is very user friendly and has intelligent keyword searching for all chemical data.

The toolkit can be divided into three areas:

* a unique and fast wet-end recipe builder

* fully searchable chemicals database

* Dr Leather’s knowledge – 22 searchable chapters

The recipes are built using standard point and click technology and can also be transferred to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets if required.

The software uses standard Windows formats and recipes can be e-mailed around the world, a vital tool of tanneries that have wet-blue production in China, while finishing in the USA. The recipes also contain comprehensive analytical features such as checks on pH and temperature, and correct dilutions, to ensure that the correct process is being carried out.

Secondly, there is a fully searchable database of the latest, updated chemical products and auxiliaries on the market, from the leading industry suppliers.

The search engine has a percentage scoring system, as seen with [http://www search] engines, relating relevance of chemical to search criteria. It also gives the tanner the ability to search for the latest chemicals without having to resort to often out-of-date literature picked up at a (not-so) recent trade fair.

The information will be updated by the chemical companies who will pass on their latest developments to Dr Leather. They will then provide a patch, on their web-site, to all those who have bought the software. This will work in a similar way to upgrading, eg anti-virus software, or other such programs. The initial package will cost $1,500 but the updates will be free and it is intended that any future upgrades or additional features will be provided for a small fee.

There is also a section of additional useful tools which has a unit conversion tool, allowing the tanner to convert up to 14 units such as volume or density, for instance. The user can customise data to his own requirements, using dollars, euros etc and can change the exchange rate as frequently as he needs. Other tools will allow the tanner to determine the degree of mechanical action a drum imparts as a function of a given load and/or speed.

There is also a common salt indicator which allows the tanner to calculate the amount of salt needed to obtain a certain density in Baumé. It can also be used on recycled liquors where salt is already present, so the tanner can calculate the salt needed to convert a salt solution of 2° Baumé to one of 8° Bé.

Finally, there is a section called ‘Dr Leather’s knowledge’ which is an encyclopaedia of leather technology from amino acids to zirconium tanning, containing 22 fully searchable chapters. There is also a comprehensive indexed leather glossary that contains 60 pages of leather terms used around the world.

The software has been tested by leather technicians around the world to ensure that the toolkit really does solve the problem and it is currently being beta tested by Mike Redwood who is in charge of research and development for the Ecco Group. It has not simply been written by software technicians who have no knowledge of the tanning industry. It has been written by leather technicians for leather technicians.

Dr Leather is the brain child of three people and the frontman, until May 1, is Darryl Cassingham who has been filling his time between leaving Pittards in Yeovil and moving to Australia to take up his new position as technical director at Packer Tanning. From then on he will be a sleeping partner.

For more information contact: [http://www.drleather.co.uk].