Skins and leathers are organic materials sensitive to environmental conditions. The Embatuff thermal liner, a sustainable thermal packaging solution and thermal insulation blanket for shipping, provides a thermal lining for the interior of maritime containers, allowing us to preserve these materials in perfect condition during transportation.
Conservation prior to transportation
Due to the organic composition of hides and leathers, these goods are subject to fast biological decomposition associated with self-heating (an increase in temperature within an organic solid without any external heat). For this reason, conservation methods are undertaken prior to transportation, such as:
- Drying
- Dry salting
- Wet salting
Temperature during transportation of hides and leathers
The natural fat content in hides and leathers makes them susceptible to self-heating and spontaneous combustion.
An excessively high temperature, humidity and lack of ventilation in standard containers can lead to self-oxidisation processes, which consequently cause self-heating. To prevent this, transportation temperatures should be between 18ºC and 23ºC.
Humidity in the conservation of hides and leathers
The water content of hides and leathers is within the range of 10%-15% for dry hides, 15%-20% for dry-salted hides, 20%-30% for wet-salted hides and 12%-17% for leathers. To maintain these optimum conditions, the relative humidity inside the container should be kept between 55% and 75%.
Levels of relative humidity over 75% can cause rotting, mould and hair loss in hides, while metallic compounds in leather gloves, shoes or belts will rust.
In the case of damage caused by humidity, attention should be paid to the presence of maggots or chewing beetles that can cause serious damage to hides and leathers.
On the other hand, at a relative humidity of less than 55%, desiccation can cause brittleness and cracking, or can lead to the material contracting.
Contamination and odours
If hides come into contact with iron or steel components, this can cause irreversible reactions and damage. In the case of wet-salted hides, if the brine comes into contact with the paint and flooring in the container, it can cause damage to adjacent containers and corrode the vessel’s decks and equipment.
Hides can give off strong odours that are very hard to eliminate in a normal container. It is therefore advisable to use containers with a special liner that is easy to remove.
What solutions does Embatuff thermal liner offer?
As indicated above, it is vitally important to keep relative humidity and temperature conditions stable when transporting hides and leathers.
Embatuff thermal liner is perfectly designed to maintain stability during the transportation of shipping containers:
- Thermal protection: slows down temperature changes inside the container, keeping the cargo within its limits and avoiding irreversible damage.
- Moisture-proof: isolates cargo from container rainfall and reduces the relative humidity of the cargo, protecting it from damage caused by humidity.
- Odour and dirt isolation: the cargo travels hygienically isolated from the container. The container is protected, saving on washing costs after use.
- Standard sizes: For all DRY VAN container sizes.
- Rapid installation: it takes a single operator 5 minutes to install the liner (DRY VAN 20’)
- Produced in Europe: High quality standards of manufacturing and prompt delivery, even with single unit orders.
If you would like more information about packaging for the transportation of hide and leather, please contact our experts for advice on the best solution.
