LASRA celebrates funding for fault diagnosis project
The New Zealand Leather and Shoe Research Association (LASRA) has announced the funding of a major new fault diagnosis project.
The project, funded by the Smart Idea program, aims to improve fault detection in the New Zealand leather industry, which currently suffers annual losses of up to $35 million due to undetected defects.
Led by Dr Sujay Prabakar in collaboration with senior scientist Dr Yash Dixit and Dr Marlon M. Reis from AgResearch, the project received $1 million from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour programme (MBIE) to develop a deep learning-based early-stage fault detection system that can identify unique spectral signatures in hides and skins.
LASRA said “Our goals include early detection of faults, production of premium leather and valuable proteins, and optimisation of chemical usage.
Our collaboration with industry partners and academic institutions will revolutionise the future of New Zealand's hide and skin processing industry."
