Water-jet trimming from ISIN

French machinery manufacturers, ISIN, have a new water-jet trimming machine, the Trimjet. It cuts the leather using water at high pressure and the machine has a camera system which is accurate and trims the leather to the customer's requirements. Didier Chambon, president of ISIN leather cutting systems told Leather: 'It can be used on wet-blue, crust or finished leathers and we have developed a special device to trim pickled skins.' The machine will process up to 250-350 skins per hour or 180 hides per hour. The Trimjet includes a leather conveyor unit, the vision and image processing unit, the high waterjet cutting unit, a high pressure pump and a control and supervision unit. The advantages of using the machine include increased saleable leather area. The losses due to bad trimming can be reduced to 1-3%, making it more accurate than hand trimming and reducing labour costs. Today, ISIN have 12 machines working in tanneries throughout the world. 'Go to a tannery, look at hand trimmed scraps and there are a lot more compared with water-jet trimmed scraps', Chambon commented. 'Also they have less waste. Hence tanners don't have to dump as much waste in the ground or incinerate as much.' Currently, there are three machines available: the Trimjet 150 for skins, the Trimjet 153 for bovine sides and the Trimjet 300 for full hides. ISIN are a marketing company for the footwear, leather and car seat industry on behalf of Digital Control. In France they employ 60 people and footwear cutting is the most important part of the business.