12th Freiberg Leather Days on June 12th and 13th, 2024 with almost 200 participants from 20 nations
Beautiful Salzburg
Every two years, the Freiberg Leather Days do not take place at their home location, the silver city of Freiberg. This year, the organizers, the VGCT and the FILK Freiberg Institute, accepted the invitation of their colleagues from VÖLT, the Austrian counterpart to the VGCT.
With Salzburg as the venue, one of the most attractive cities in Austria was chosen. It is the political and cultural center of the federal state of the same name. The location on the northern edge of the Alps offers a unique panorama and the old town captivates with its baroque and medieval churches and buildings. The Hohensalzburg Fortress, one of the city's landmarks, towers over the city. And of course Mozart is omnipresent in the city.
The European Tanning and Leather Industry Meeting has been the industry meeting point for representatives from tanneries, the chemical industry and mechanical engineering since 2012, as well as user industries such as the automotive and furniture industry, shoe and luxury goods manufacturers.
June 12 - Day 1
Almost 200 participants from 20 nations made their way to Salzburg to meet colleagues and friends from the industry and to find out about new developments and trends in the industry.
The Imlauer Pitter conference hotel offered ideal conditions for this with its spacious, light-filled rooms and a great service team. Absolutely feel-good atmosphere!
At the start, the guests were welcomed by Dr Kerstin Schulte, who was elected chairwoman of the VGCT last year, Martin Tränkwalder, chairman of the VÖLT, and Professor Michael Meyer, scientific director at FILK.
The Keynote
The opening was followed by this year's keynote speech, given by Mascha Kaddori, a veterinarian who provides scientific support to the association "Veterinarians Without Borders". With her lecture "Pastoralism: a sustainable and nature-friendly production system", she addressed the importance of sustainable livestock farming in the East Africa region. Pastoralism is a traditional production system that focuses on the keeping and management of livestock, mainly ruminants, primarily in open landscapes. Due to its inherent connection to natural ecosystems and minimal dependence on external inputs, it has long been considered a sustainable and nature-positive approach. Pastoralism contributes to sustainable land management by avoiding over-exploitation of resources, enabling natural regeneration and facilitating the mobility of livestock to reduce local pressure on the land.
The day continued with lectures on the CO2 and ecological footprint of leather, followed by presentations on new analysis and characterization methods for leather. Our colleague, Dr Sandra Stenzel, explained in her presentation “Development of analysis methods for animal ingredients in vegan leather alternatives” how she wants to track down false product labelling by using DNA and protein-based Analysis methods combined. This is how animal ingredients are to be detected in products labelled vegan.
The VGCT awards ceremony
After the lunch break, the awards ceremony for 2024 followed. This year, Elias Sattler was awarded the sponsorship prize as the best in his year in training as a specialist in leather production and tanning technology. He completed his training at the company Zschimmer & Schwarz. The prize is awarded to promote young scientific and technical talent and is endowed with 500 euros.
This year's annual award winner, who will be honored with a medal, is Dr Martin Kleban in recognition of his many years of commitment to the VGCT and the leather industry. With his technical expertise in the field of regulatory requirements together with his scientifically sound knowledge, he has become a recognized advisor and supporter of the leather industry and has contributed significantly to the reputation of leather.
We warmly congratulate all award winners on these outstanding achievements and wish them continued success!
The afternoon of the first day featured new technological approaches in leather processing. Our colleague, Dr Ulrike Straßburger, presented results from a project on ultrasound-assisted embossing of leather. By dispensing with heated embossing tools, this technology opens up new possibilities for the use of additively manufactured plastic stamps. These have sufficient strength and dimensional stability to produce embossings with high molding accuracy in the leather. Particularly small-area patterns can be reproduced very individually in leather products, even later.
In The Evening
Afterwards we went on a sightseeing tour through Salzburg. This started directly from the Pitter conference hotel, past Mirabell Palace, Mozart's home, crossed the Salzach, continued to Mozart's birthplace in Getreidegasse and past the cathedral and ended at the Stiegl Keller restaurant, from whose terrace you have a wonderful panoramic view of Salzburg's old town. In the Stiegl Keller ballroom we met for dinner together, with typical Salzburg specialties and of course Stiegl beer from the company's own brewery.
June 13 - Day Two
The morning of the second day was all about sustainability, which remains the dominant theme in the tanning and leather industry. Many companies, research institutions, NGOs and industry associations are working on solutions that make leather production and processing more sustainable. This was also reflected in this year's lecture program. Different methodological approaches for LCA assessments of leather and new bio-based auxiliary materials were presented. The automation specialists also focused on greater sustainability, primarily by showing solutions for better traceability and quality control.
Professor Haiko Schulz, Dr Anke Mondschein (at FILK Institute) and Andreas Meyer (VDL) reported in their lecture on the opportunities for training and further education in the industry and a current EU project META SKILLS 4TCFL (Alliance for Corporation on Digital and Circular Economy Skills for the TCFL sector across Europe), which teaches industry employees the skills necessary to support companies in digital and ecological change. At the same time, the project is developing completely new learning methods that will help to appeal to younger generations.
Thomas Lamparter, WetGreen GmbH, reported on his support of the #LoveMyLeatherJob campaign, in which employees are encouraged to talk about their job in the leather industry and give the industry a face.
Conclusion and Fare Well
The lecture program ended with presentations from the chemical industry dealing with new retanning and finishing technologies that also addressed the topic of sustainability. And then they were history again: The 12th Freiberg Leather Days in Salzburg, Austria. We would like to thank all the speakers, participants, supporters and colleagues from VÖLT who contributed to the success of the conference.
And above all, we would like to thank our hosts from Imlauer Pitter, our tour guides, the team from Stiegl Keller in Salzburg, our technical team from Audio Delight and our interpreters Ariane Stark and Nikola Basler for their exceptional service and commitment, we felt very welcome!
The Leather Days will return to Freiberg in 2025. Then the European tanning and leather industry will meet at its “home location” on May 21 and 22, 2025. The VGCT and we as co-organizers are looking forward to seeing partners, colleagues and friends again!
