Since 2002, Turner have directed most of their R&D efforts and investment towards perfecting vision technology which will identify faults in hides and skins. Last year, they introduced the Selectra automatic grading machine which was designed to identify defects in crust skins, many of the faults not even visible to the naked eye. This year, they went a step further with a 3m version for wet-blue hides, the Selectra WB.
With the 1.5m skin version, the camera is closer to the conveyor but for hides, the camera has to be higher. Development work is carried out in cooperation with CTC since they are located quite close to each other in Annonay and Lyon, France, and because they can both bring resources and knowledge to the table.
The programme of development has some time to run yet with the final phases directed towards versions for wet-blue skins, then finished and finally raw.
This is not the only area that Turner have invested in. Last year they also introduced their Descarner 2 which offered better fleshing. 40% of sales in 2005 were of machines which did not exist when they restructured and were renamed in 2002.
