Fresh thinking at the splitting machine

摘要

The basic design of today's splitting machines can be recognised in the illustrations of machinery catalogues from the beginning of the last Century (Figure 1), in much the same way as machine tools such as the lathe and the milling machine. A hundred years of development have given us machines whose sophistication and accuracy would amaze previous generations of tanners, splitting to 0.01mm, their grinding and blade advancement fully automated, and with fault finding carried out by cell phone link from the manufacturer's offices on the other side of the world.