From raw hide to finished shoes: the machines tanneries and footwear makers need
A step-by-step guide to tanning leather and making footwear, the machine that does each job, and how to ask for a quotation.
What machine are you looking for?
Type a machine name or a step of the work.
- Processing drum
- Fleshing machine
- Tanning drum
- Splitting machine
- Shaving machine
- Spray finishing machine
- Plating and embossing press
- Effluent treatment plant
- Clicking press
- Skiving machine
- Post-bed sewing machine
- Lasting machine
- Sole pressing machine
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Leather & footwear machines
Step 1: Soaking and liming
Processing drum
A large wooden or steel drum that turns hides in water and chemicals to clean, soak and lime them, loosening hair and flesh.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 1: Soaking and liming
Fleshing machine
Bladed rollers that scrape the leftover flesh and fat off the inner side of each hide.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 2: Tanning
Tanning drum
A turning drum where hides take up tanning agents, which turn them into leather that does not rot.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 2: Tanning
Splitting machine
A long band knife that slices a thick hide into layers of even thickness: the grain side and the split below it.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 3: Drying and finishing
Shaving machine
A bladed cylinder that shaves the flesh side of tanned leather to an exact, even thickness.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 3: Drying and finishing
Spray finishing machine
Carries leather on a conveyor under spray guns that apply colour and finish coats, then through a drying tunnel.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 3: Drying and finishing
Plating and embossing press
A heated press that smooths the leather surface with a polished plate, or presses a grain pattern into it.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 4: Effluent treatment
Effluent treatment plant
Settles, treats and cleans the tannery's waste water, taking out chrome and other chemicals before it is let out.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 5: Cutting the parts
Clicking press
Presses a steel cutting die through leather laid on a cutting board, cutting out shoe parts in one stroke.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 5: Cutting the parts
Skiving machine
Thins the edges of cut leather parts, so seams and folds lie flat and neat.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 6: Stitching the uppers
Post-bed sewing machine
A sewing machine with a raised post under the needle, so three-dimensional shoe uppers can be stitched easily.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 7: Lasting and soling
Lasting machine
Pulls the shoe upper tight over the last, the foot-shaped mould, and fixes it underneath so the shoe takes its shape.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machineStep 7: Lasting and soling
Sole pressing machine
Presses the sole onto the lasted upper with an even pressure until the adhesive bonds.
Availability subject to feasibility check
Request this machine
From hide to shoe, step by step
The main steps in a tannery and a footwear factory and the type of machine that usually does each one.
Soaking and liming
Hides are soaked clean, the hair is removed, and the flesh side is scraped off.
Machines at this step: Processing drum, Fleshing machine
Tanning
Tanning turns the hide into leather that will not rot, and the leather is split to an even thickness.
Machines at this step: Tanning drum, Splitting machine
Drying and finishing
Leather is shaved, dried flat, coloured and pressed to the look and feel the buyer wants.
Machines at this step: Shaving machine, Spray finishing machine, Plating and embossing press
Effluent treatment
Tannery waste water carries chemicals and must be treated before it is released.
Machines at this step: Effluent treatment plant
Cutting the parts
Shoe parts are cut from the leather with steel dies, placed to waste as little leather as possible.
Machines at this step: Clicking press, Skiving machine
Stitching the uppers
The cut parts are stitched together into the upper, the part of the shoe above the sole.
Machines at this step: Post-bed sewing machine
Lasting and soling
The upper is pulled tight over a foot-shaped last, and the sole is pressed and bonded in place.
Machines at this step: Lasting machine, Sole pressing machine
Making bags or garments too?
See the machines that spin, knit, weave, dye and sew textiles.