Scotland's Andrew Muirhead is launching a new range of lightweight leather for aircraft seats, as well as leather that is resistant to ink stains.
The company's Voyager range is 30% lighter than normal leather. Andrew Muirhead sales director Archie Browning says it is the first company to reduce the weight of leather without using shaving techniques, resulting in an end product which is "full substance leather".
"We have a fully vertical tannery so we control the whole tanning process," says Browning. "It's the technology in tanning that's allowing us to do this."
Andrew Muirhead is also launching a range of cream-coloured leather with "a special patented treatment that stops biro marks", says Browning. The treated leather will also "repel permanent marker and nail varnish". The Glasgow-based company has been working on the anti-ink product for a year and a half.
Browning says Andrew Muirhead is "working with the majority of the world's airlines", but it has "key customers who use beige interiors in the Middle East". If those Middle Eastern customers cannot be reached during this week's Aircraft Interiors Expo, then "we will go to the Middle East", adds Browning.
Source: Flight Daily News
