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Historical |
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| HISTORICAL |
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This association without aim of profit was
founded in the year 1962, when a group of
spanish tanners created it with the objective to
develope research work in the leather sector.
Until that moment this topic was depending upon
the individual potential of every company and
the technological contribution of chemical and
machinery suppliers.
From the
structuration of the employer's association in
the Spanish Leather Council (C.E.C.), its
members become associates to AIICA thus
consolidating its existence.
Until the year 1993 the Association was placed
in the dependencies of CSIC in Barcelona, under
the direction of Prof.Enrique Gratacós, until
his retirement. In this year, Dr.José M.Adzet,
Director of the leather School of Igualada
assumed the relief in the management, moving the
site to Igualada..
Between years 1994 and 2000 the institution had
an intense consolidation and progress as
technologycal center for support to leather
sector, rising from a three to twenty staff
people in this period. Simultaneously, the
equipment was considerably increased, to the
extent to make insufficient the initial Amelior
Building, in Lleida Street of Igualada.
This
situation propitiated the project and building
of a new technologycal center taking up 9.000 sq
meters, from which aproximately 3.200 built up.
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| THE
NEW CENTER AND SERVICES OFFERED |
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The new AIICA facilities are distributed by
activity areas: |
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Administration and divulgation, containing a
lecture room, library, computer seminar, and
meeting rooms, as well as office and archive.
- The
laboratory areas, with the chemical
laboratory, including the preparative area with
appropriate accessories (weighing room, sampling,
oven room, etc.), the instrumental laboratories
that give place to the different analytical
techniques requiring sophysticated equipment and
a specific room for its proper work: gas
cromatography, atomic absorption, solid residues
laboratory, microbiology, waste water and
environment. Testing laboratory specialised in
leather, prepared to fit the standardised test
conditions of machinery to perform the analysis
of resistence, fatness and general qualilty
parameters of the finishced leather.
- Pilot
tannery, to develop trials on leather
processing in semiindustrial scale. Ten trial
drums automatically feed by a hot water
distribution and four dyeing drum batteries are
available, segmented in five "boxes"
work units intended to facilitate the
confidentiallity of the users. Concretely, the
available size capacities are two drums of 1,70
x 1,00 meters and eight of 1,00 x 0,60 m. The
plant dotation is completed by a freezing
chamber for hides and skins and the auxiliar
machinery required for the mechanical treatment
of the semi-elaborated leather.
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| SPANISH
AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS |
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The activity in European co-operation developed
by the Association is particularly high, thank
to the connection between the technologycal
institutions of every contry through GERIC (Groupe
European de Recherches de les Industries du Cuir),
which means the technical arm of the European
employers organisation of leather sector COTANCE
(Confederation des Associations Nationales de
Tanneurs et Megissiers de la Communauté
Européene). Moreover, AIICA represents the Spanish Leather
Council (CEC) in the insternational forums
requiring an important technical background, as
i.e. the CEN standards discussion commitees. It
forms also part of the Advisement Exports
Comission of the IPPC (Integrated Polution
Prevention and Control) European Bureau of
Seville, for the leather sector.
At
Spanish level, AIICA is a member of AENOR (Spanish
Standards Association) and FEDIT (Spanish
Federation of Innovation and Technology).
AIICA laboratories are acreditated by the
Residues Board of the Generalitat of Catalonia
(Regional Government), and recognised as Company
Collaborators of the Administration for the
obtention of the Ecologycal Label of European
union for Shoes. The center is also registered
as Tehcnology and Innovation Center from 1998 by
CICYT.
AIICA established several co-operation
agreements or punctual collaboration works with
differents entities related to the leather
sector or to the research and development in
other industries:
EUETII -
SUPERIOR TANNING SCHOOL OF IGUALADA -
Spain.
AQEIC
- Spanish Leather Chemists Association
CSIC
- Spanish Council for Scientific Research
INESCOP
- Technologycal Institute of Shoes and Connexes
LEITAT
- Textile Conditioning, Research and Testing
Laboratory of Terrassa.
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