Hide Sorting Control Using Tanning Data and Customer Specifications
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tanning processes lack traceability of information, leading to inconsistent hide quality, inefficiencies, and increased costs due to manual sorting and packaging based on incomplete information, and inflexibility in meeting customer specifications.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a tanning control system that records and associates unique identifiers with machinery and chemical processes, allowing for enhanced traceability and automated sorting, folding, and packaging based on batch and hide characteristics, and customer specifications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional manual sorting and packaging processes are used, then labor flexibility is maintained, but processing time increases and consistency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical sorting and packaging operations with an automated computer vision system that uses cameras, image processing algorithms, and robotic actuators to detect hide characteristics, determine sorting categories, and control packaging machinery. This substitution eliminates manual labor while maintaining or improving processing speed and consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables hides to be automatically sorted and packaged based on their own inherent characteristics (color, texture, defects) that are detected and analyzed by the computer vision system. The hides essentially sort themselves into appropriate categories through automated detection and classification without human intervention.
2Productivity
If automated sorting systems are implemented, then processing efficiency improves, but initial investment and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The computer vision system is designed to perform multiple functions: detecting hide characteristics, determining sorting categories, controlling packaging operations, and providing traceability. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require separate systems into a single integrated platform, reducing overall complexity while maintaining high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a computer vision system as an intermediary between the hides and the packaging machinery. This intermediary captures images, processes visual information, and translates it into control signals for sorting and packaging equipment, bridging the gap between detection and action while managing system complexity.
3Reliability
If comprehensive traceability systems are implemented, then quality control improves, but information processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection and classification of hide characteristics before packaging occurs. By capturing images and determining sorting categories in advance, the system establishes traceability information early in the process, making quality control more effective without requiring intensive information processing at later stages.
Solution Approach 2:
The computer vision system creates digital copies (images) of hide characteristics that serve as traceability records. These visual copies preserve information about each hide's appearance and defects without requiring physical manipulation or extensive data entry, reducing information processing load while maintaining comprehensive quality records.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for sorting hides are provided. In particular, one or more embodiments comprise a tanning control system that enhances the traceability of hides by capturing and utilizing data related to the unloading, tanning, sorting, and packaging of hides. Furthermore, one or more embodiments enable the tanning control system to improve efficiency by sorting hides based, at least in part, on data generated during prior tanning processes. Additionally, one or more embodiments facilitate the tanning control system in customizing the sorting and packaging of hides based, at least in part, on one or more hide characteristics and/or customer specifications.