Muirhead Leather supplies its product to most seating companies that are active in the PCV market. But it’s no longer simply a product that suits top-end coach applications, as the Scottish company explains
You can create quite the first impression with high-quality seating. Glasgow-based Muirhead Leather is a leading light in the production and supply of material that can be customised in almost any way to suit an operator’s requirement in either a coach or a bus.
From the outside, little thought will go into how a cow’s hide is turned into top-of-the-range upholstery. But it is a laborious technique and much time, effort and thought goes into it.
Muirhead is a vertically-integrated organisation that deals with the entire process, from receiving hides from a slaughterhouse to dispatching finished leather to the seat manufacturer in any one of an almost limitless number of shades to the end user’s choice.
“We hold 200 colours in stock for immediate dispatch from our premises in Glasgow and we work on a four-week lead time for leather prepared to order,” says Sales Manager Alan Dale.
In a coach application, one hide is enough to cover two seats. While there may be a perception that leather is more expensive than fabric and moquette, Alan adds that when whole-life costs are taken into account – including cleaning – the difference is modest.
To complement the colouring of the leather – which is finished with paint – Muirhead can also digitally print, emboss or embroider logos and other motifs. Those respective finish qualities are different, but the overall effect is similar.
“We can print anything onto the leather for a coach or bus seat,” he continues. “After it is printed we add a clear top coat to protect it.”
A to Z of seat manufacturers
Muirhead deals with all major seat manufacturers, including the multitude of those that are based in Turkey. All hides for use in coaches and buses are chromed. Non-chromed hides are more expensive and not as resilient as those that are chromed, but two major coach manufacturers are now looking at non-chromed hides because of their corporate environmental policies.
When the skins arrive at Muirhead’s Bridge of Weir tannery from a slaughterhouse, they proceed through an extensive treatment process. That starts with de-hairing and a splitting process before moving to other treatments. Only after that do the hides become leather.
They are also graded, with particular attention paid to tick bites and scars from encounters with barbed wire. “Every hide is different and the grading process is very important. For coach and bus applications the leather must be of the highest quality. Every hide is sourced from within 300 miles of Bridge of Weir; many come from Ireland and Scotland is also a major supplier,” says Alan.
Muirhead’s operation is an environmentally-conscious one. Byproducts of the tanning process are sold for other uses – including in the food chain – and the ‘cake’ generated during treatment is used at the company’s adjacent thermal energy plant to generate power.
Creating upholstery
After the hides have been turned into leather at Bridge of Weir, or at Muirhead’s other tannery at Paisley, they are moved to Glasgow where they are turned into seat covering material fit for use in a coach or a bus.
The first step is to shave the leather to the required thickness. Characteristics are then added; they include making the leather soft or hard, and dying it. More than once, it is stretched, which both increases the yield and also helps to dry it.
After that, chemicals are added to benefit durability. Many other processes follow, including buffing, softening, and surface treatment. After that, the leather is painted. That uses a 12-gun spray machine and the colour is mixed by computer to the buyer’s requirement.
Where desired, a leather ‘grain’ is embossed into the material. That may come as a surprise to some, but Alan explains that all ‘grain’ components of leather are added in that way. They are not natural.
Perforation is not often included, but it can be. A final process, after the clear top coat is applied, sees the material stretched and flatted. It is then ready to be either added to stock or dispatched to the seat manufacturer.
Quality assured
Alan explains that the leather produced by Muirhead is suitable for demanding applications. Besides automotive markets it also supplies the highly-regulated aviation and rail sectors, where safety testing procedures are extremely stringent.
To that end, Muirhead has an in-house laboratory at its Glasgow premises. It can undertake all manner of durability tests, including those involving abrasion, rubbing and many others.
“All of the leather that we supply for coach and bus use comes through Glasgow. We see potential for major growth in the use of leather in this sector as operators come to realise just how good it it,” says Alan.
“A lot of work goes into turning a hide into leather that is fit for use on a top-of-the-range coach and we have an extensive history of delivering on that.
“The market has long used leather in that type of application, but when whole-life costs are taken into account, we believe that it is also a viable product for many other areas of the PCV market. It is a high-quality, durable and attractive product.”
