The two-day Leather Orientation Course will be held once again this year at the Leather Research Laboratory of the University of Cincinnati (Center Hill Campus). Taking place on October 2-3, it will cover a wide range of leather related issues such as physical structure, species identification, hide supply, wet-end and finishing operations, regulations, testing and customer acceptance issues. Attendees will be given an in-depth tour of the Leather Research Laboratory and will have a book with various leather samples to take home and use as a reference. Deadline to register is September 24.

Now in its third year, the Raw Hide to Crust Course is divided into two sections; Raw to Wet-Blue on June 17-21 and Wet-Blue to Crust on July 22-25. Held in conjunction with the American Leather Chemists Association (ALCA) and the USDA Eastern Regional Research Center, the course uses the text from the ALCA Correspondence Course and draws on industry experts to give participants the skills necessary to transform raw hides into leather. The hands-on course will use the pilot tannery at the USDA’s ERRC facility and is designed to be completed over two weeks. The deadline for registration is April 30.

For further information, please contact passanlb@ucmail.uc.edu or consult www.leatherusa.org under the Laboratory News button.