The Technician’s Toolkit: Insights from the Great Leather Reset
Reflections on the ILM Conference
At the recent ILM Great Leather Reset, I spoke about a shift that is already underway: the move from traditional recipe-following to the era of the Digital Twin.
The drum is not a static system. It is a live, coupled environment. If you weren’t there to see the float change or the skins respond, you missed half the story. Most of the signals that matter happen while the drum is turning — not after it stops.
What the Technician Is Really Watching
- → Is the float stable?
- → How fast is it reacting?
- → How deep has it penetrated?
- → Did fixation actually clear the bath?
The System Is Coupled
Nothing inside the drum happens in isolation. Change one variable, and several others move with it. This is where experience lives — and where uncertainty creeps in.
Temperature drives molecular mobility and reaction rate.
pH and concentration determine where chemistry moves before it reacts.
Mechanical action alters fibre spacing and locks in outcomes.
It is: ‘Did it react where we needed it to?’”
Seeing Inside the Drum
The tanning drum behaves a little like Schrödinger’s box: until it stops, we don’t truly know the internal state.
The Digital Twin changes that. It allows us to see, interpret, and respond while the system is still evolving — bridging the gap between observation and control.
We’ve understood the chemistry for decades. What’s changing now is our ability to design outcomes — not just react to them.
© LASRA — Advancing capability through science, practice, and translation.