FRATELLI CARLESSI SPRAY LAB: THE LABORATORY THAT REPRODUCES YOUR LEATHER SPRAYING LINE. FLEXIBLE, PRECISE, INTUITIVE.

Maximum fidelity, minimum distance from production

In tanneries, testing a leather finishing recipe or a new color effect often means stopping the production line long enough to verify that the product mixture meets colour and quality requirements. Spray Lab was created to solve this problem: it is a laboratory machine for making samples to prepare the production line. Spray Lab accurately reproduces the spraying and drying of industrial finishing lines, eliminating the variables that separate the sample from the batch product.

All types of finishing in a single machine

Thanks to its integrated robotic arm, the real core of the machine, Spray Lab accurately reproduces the spray trajectory of any finishing booth—alternating, elliptical, or rotative—replicating the speed, number of guns, and crossing points of the actual line. In synergy with the parameter control software, the robot allows for a 1:1 simulation that is impossible to achieve with traditional systems based on pantographs or simplified mechanical movements. As Giulio Galiotto at Erretre and Fratelli Carlessi explains: “The unique feature of Spray Lab is that it is effectively one-to-one: there are no other machines that perform this type of simulation in tanneries.”

Spray Lab allows the entire spray finishing cycle to be recreated in the laboratory, from product application to the drying phase, with the same precision, timing, and operating conditions as an industrial line.

Even during the drying phase, the difference lies in the control technology. The Spray Lab system derives directly from the know-how gained by Carlessi and Erretre with NER drying tunnels, known for their ability to quickly modulate temperature and ventilation. Thanks to advanced thermal simulation software, the machine calculates the duration, air flow, and heat intensity based on the parameters set by the operator—tunnel length, number of stages, type of heating (air or IR lamps)—thus replicating the actual conditions of the production line.

This dynamic management allows the behavior of the leather to be perfectly reproduced, even when the cycle involves multiple tunnels with different thermal settings. As Giulio Galiotto points out: “The Spray Lab tunnel can change temperature very quickly. The software calculates the duration based on the production parameters set by the operator and enforces that temperature and time, exactly as it happens in production. All this knowledge comes to us from the NER tunnel.”

The result is a leather finishing sample that perfectly matches the behavior of the leather in production, without the need to stop the spray lines for calibrations or tests.

Laboratory machinery for leather finishing: robotics and software at the service of accuracy

What differentiates Spray Lab is the unique combination of robotic movement and intelligent software. The robotic arm follows the same trajectories as an industrial spray leather finishing line, ensuring precision and repeatability. The software interprets the production parameters set by the operator—cabin type, drying times, temperature, number of passes—and automatically generates the test “recipe,” dynamically adjusting each stage of the process.

Realistic drying and air control

Derived from the NER drying tunnel technologies developed by Erretre, the Spray Lab drying system integrates forced convection and IR radiation in programmable configurations. The internal algorithm calculates drying time, air flow, and temperature, even simulating multiple tunnels with different stages, forwards and backwards. In this way, the machine guarantees drying conditions identical to industrial production, allowing leather finishing machines and spray finishing systems to be tested on a laboratory scale, without wasting time or material.

New functions for digital spraying and creativity in the leather finishing process

Today, Spray Lab evolves further with customised design and decoration functions. Directly from the touch panel, the operator can create textures, lettering or fashion effects: the robot reproduces them on the leather with controlled precision. This possibility opens the laboratory to new aesthetic experiments, while maintaining the technical consistency of the leather finishing process and integrating the latest generation of leather finishing automation technologies.

Spray Lab by Fratelli Carlessi is the laboratory machine for tanneries that simulates the entire spray finishing line with robotic technology and digital control: results identical to production, on a 1:1 scale.