QUALITY AND CLEAN TECHNOLOGY THROUGH ADVANCED MANUFACTURING .2. AUTOMATIC INSPECTION BY IMAGE-ANALYSIS

The downgrading of leather due to grain faults only apparent after crusting continues to severely undermine efforts to improve quality control, and significantly reduces profitability. However, an automatic inspection device consisting of a special video camera linked to a high speed parallel processor may provide the solution. A prototype system, able to recognise and classify grain defects, expressing these in the form of a fault map or single numerical grade prior to samming or after toggling has been designed, and a prototype is currently under evaluation in the laboratory and tannery.