National Clothesline

Do you want to press the wrinkles out of some of your own customer’s suede and leather garments? Let’s examine how you can do it using a standard drycleaning automatic steam press.

As I stated previously, do not use

live steam on suede and leather. If you do, the items may draw up and shrivel up and become a claim. The thinner and the more delicate the skin of the suede or leather, the greater the chance of damaging the skin if you let live steam from the head and/or buck of the drycleaning steam press hit the suede and leather, especially with the press head in the closed position. The reason the steam will damage the skin is that the steam pressure used for pressing cloth items is too high to safely press suedes and leathers.

How do you avoid this danger? If your press is automatic, it probably releases head steam in the down and locked position. Try it to be sure.

If that is the case, cut the steam off to the head when pressing suede or leather. How do you do that? Most automatic presses have an air-actuated, piston-operated cylinder that opens and closes the head steam valve. The air line going to the actuator cylinder has a small manually operated on/off valve. Turn this valve to the off position and activate the press to be sure the steam is cut off before placing a suede or leather on the press for pressing.

Activate the press to be certain that no head steam will be released when the press head is lowered and locked.

Once safely assured by this test that no live steam will be released from the head of the press when the press is closed, check to see if buck steam is automatically released when the press is closed. Buck steam is usually applied manually by the operator and when pressing.

If buck steam is released automatically, it too must be cut off before pressing suede or leather. Then you can safely proceed with pressing the wrinkled suede or leather using your automatic drycleaning steam press.

Another way to adapt your automatic steam press to pressing suede and leather is to regulate the steam pressure entering the press to 40 psi or lower. The steam temperature will then be low enough to be safe for suedes and leathers and not cause damage to the skins.

This can be accomplished by using a steam regulator to reduce the steam pressure coming into the press when pressing suedes and leathers. If a bypass line with a cut off valve is installed around the regulator, the steam pressure can be adjusted from pressing cloth to pressing suede and leather and back again with the turn of the valve.