National Clothesline

The objective of the drying cycle in the Royaltone process for wetcleaning suede, leather and trimmed cloth garments, is to remove the residual moisture left after extraction without causing the skins to stiffen, harden or shrink as a result of the drying process.

Unless a dryer has a microprocessor that controls the final relative humidity in the items being dryed, leather garments must be dried without heat and must be thoroughly dry before any pressing or finishing is attempted.

Drying without heat may be accomplished by hanging the wet garments and allowing them to air dry at ambient air temperature or by employing various types of equipment to accelerate drying.

In either case, heat is not to be applied to wet suedes or leathers because the heat will damage the wet skins by causing them to stiffen, harden, shrink, shrivel up and draw up. So don’t do it!

However, it is helpful to tumble the wet skins in a cool tumbler under 100°F for three minutes to shake out wrinkles before hanging the wet items to dry.

After they have been thoroughly air dried, again tumbling the suedes and leathers for two to three minutes at a temperature under 120°F will further soften the skins and will fluff up the suede nap. This step in the drying process can be enhanced by including dryer tumbling balls in with the suedes to brush up the nap while they tumble.

If the volume of suedes and leathers being processed is small, the hanging space available is usually adequate, so that air drying is not a problem.

Plastic hangers should be used to hang the wet suedes and leathers rather than steel hangers to avoid the possibility of rust forming on the garments.

As the volume of suedes and leathers increases, hanging space may not be sufficient to handle the volume. In that case, more space must be found or some type of drying equipment must be made available or acquired to speed up the drying time.

One piece of equipment that can be used to speed up the drying of the wet suedes and leathers is a laundry dryer. Suedes and leathers can be tumbled in the dryer at a temperature of 100°F or less. The flow of air over the tumbling items will accelerate the drying time. If more than one dryer is available, more garments can be dried.

Another way of moving air over wet hanging suedes and leathers is to have a fan or blower blow ambient temperature air over and through the wet garments to speed up evaporation.

Fans and blowers can be used in conjunction with a conveyor loaded with hanging wet suedes and leathers. As the conveyor keeps moving the garments around through the ambient air, the movement will promote drying. With Fans and blowers blowing ambient air over and through the wet, moving garments, drying will be still faster. The more fans, blowers and conveyors, the more garments can be dried per unit of time.

The ultimate machine for drying suedes and leathers is the specially designed dryer made for controlled drying of wetcleaned garments. These dryers provide precise electronic micro processor control of moisture content and temperature of the garments during the drying cycle to ensure that the right amount of moisture (10 to 12 percent) is left in garments after drying. This controlled drying is critical to prevent the shrinkage and stiffening of the skins that would otherwise occur in the drying process.

Hanging wet suedes and leathers to air dry at ambient temperature is the least expensive but slowest method of safely drying the skins. It can take 24 hours for a suede or leather to dry by hanging in ambient air. For low volume operations. the space and time required for drying will normally not be a problem.

Tumbling in a cool dryer at a temperature under 100°f or blowing ambient air over hanging wet suedes and leathers is safe and faster but more costly in terms of floor space, equipment and electricity required.

Drying in a microprocessor controlled dryer is safe and fast but requires a significant investment in the special equipment as well as the additional electricity costs.