Colour sampling technician

The same recipe on two batches of hide, tanned differently or from different suppliers, gives two different colours, so the technician matches to a standard rather than to a formula: a sample is dyed, read against the reference and the recipe corrected until it holds. The technician relies on leather chemistry and the chemistry of leather dyeing, covering how a dye bonds to the fibre, what the tanning method does to the shade and how pH and temperature move a colour.

The technician also tests auxiliary chemicals, since wetting agents, fixatives and retanning products all shift the final result.

The technician also sources the chemicals used for dyeing and manages supplies, which means knowing which products are interchangeable and which are not, and keeping enough of the critical ones that a production run is not stopped. The technician keeps looking for improvements in current operations: a recipe that uses less dye, less water or fewer corrections. The technician defines business objectives and uses communication techniques, for example when discussing colour matches with customers.