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The mission of CTC, according to its Industrial Technical Centre status, consists of meeting the needs of businesses that cannot afford alone the financial investments required for industrial research. Within this framework, CTC conducts research and standardization projects.
With more than 100 years of experience, the CTC research centre is dedicated to studies, research projects and standardization activities for the leather, shoe and leather goods industries.
CTC conducts over 40 research projects each year in 6 strategic fields and 2 support activities in which all of its resources are concentrated. CTC also participate in different european projects.
Six strategic fields
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Leather & Tannery |
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Improvement of tanning methods, development of different appearances of leather through embossing, cutting methods, finishing.
Examples :
• New technologies to limit the cleansing of dyes
• Development of inkjet printing techniques
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Sustainable development |
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Initiation of a real eco-conception step within our industries (clean technologies, waste valorisation, consumer protection).
Examples :
• Development of eco-conception in the shoe field
• Implementation of self-monitoring procedures in water-treatment plants
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IT & Vision |
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Use of scanning techniques, defects identification, quality optimisation and leather selection in the production of leather goods.
Research focuses on the selection and placement of components to minimize defects and optimise the use of the complete hide.
Examples :
• Automatic detection of defects on wet blue and leather
• Colorimetric control after cutting in leather goods and shoe fields
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Traceability & Counterfeit |
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Establishment of methods to curtail counterfeiting of branded and luxury goods; tracing materials from hide to finished products.
Examples :
• Use of synthetic DNA for leather tracer
• Application of RFID techniques in the shoe and leather goods fields
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Comfort |
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Improvement of the footwear and leather goods' feel and comfort, biomechanical studies, design of products and improvement of manufacturing processes.
Examples :
• Simulation of the heel behavior
• Measure of the internal volume of a shoe
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Industrialisation |
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Design of new equipment or software, definition of new organizations in order to improve profitability and to reduce delays.
Examples :
• Rapid prototyping for shoe and leather goods
• Skin folding machine
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Two support activities
The knowledge management and the standardization step are support activities of the research program.
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Knowledge management |
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Maintaining the strategic know-how active and developing new competences.
Examples :
• Development of a method for training shoe trainer
• "e-learning" programs dedicated to professional training
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Normalisation |
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Elaborating the new European and international standards and testing methods in close connection with the different professional federations.
Examples :
• Development of a testing method on slips
• Development of methods for analysing organic micropollutants
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European projects
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The purpose of SHOES 5000 is to boost, make easy and encourage the participation of the SMEs and the small European research teams of the leather and shoe industry, in R&D projects financed by the European Commission. |
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 CTC takes part in this project with 8 other European partners and implements awareness campaigns for European projects, proposes ideas of projects based on the analysis of the industry , and helps these SMEs to get involved in the European adventure of R&D projects.
To get more information, please visit: www.shoes5000.inescop.es
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F2F main objective is to improve the competitiveness of SMEs operating in the textile / clothing / footwear sector of the Euro-Mediterranean area by encouraging their active participation in European Research, Technological Development and financing programmes |
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To reach this objective, partners of the project have several missions:
- to establish a network of SMEs within the fashion industry
- to promote co-operation between SMEs and research centres
- to issue information on European Research and Developement Framework Programmes
- to enlarge the F2F network to new associated partners.
 IPI (Italy) coordinates this F2F project, which involves 38 partners from 19 different countries from the EU-MED area, amongst which, governmental agencies, category associations, research and technological centres, universities and service centres.
To get more information, please visit: www.fashiontofuture.eu
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CEC-made-shoe is the biggest European project ever seen in the shoe industry. CTC is the only French organization in this project. |
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54 partners participate, the budget is 26 M€ and its objectives are very ambitious.
The objective is to:
- Offer to the consumers a personalized product, which will provide a total comfort what ever is the context,
- Answer quickly the demand of the consumers thanks to a great decrease of shoes design and manufacture time,
- Ensure the sustainable development of the products and the industry thanks to an ecological approach,
- Sustain and develop the strategic know-how in each firm thanks to news methods of training.
To get more information, please visit: www.cec-made-shoe.com
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