The Triminator Hybrid. Photo credit: Triminator.
For years, many have argued over how to trim their cannabis harvest: when it’s wet or freshly harvested, or when it’s dry. For those who use mechanical trimming machines, the choice is already made for them, as these machines are optimized for either one or the other.
Not anymore. The next generation of trimmers is here — the Triminator Hybrid, the fastest, most versatile trimming machine yet.
The Hybrid trims dry, wet and semi-wet weed, allowing growers to fine-tune their bud, and tailor their trim. It does all of this while also being user-friendly, compact, and easy to transport from one site to another.
NorCal Built
With roots in the legacy cannabis market in Northern California, Triminator officially launched in 2011. The company was first inspired to create their flagship product, a mechanical trimmer, after their friends asked them to create a machine that could manicure their buds on a commercial scale, according to Triminator.
Now, the family and employee-owned company has grown to produce an entire line of grower-tested, post-harvest equipment for indoor and outdoor cannabis and hemp farms. That includes a line of trimming machines, automatic de-stemmers or buckers, rosin presses, shredders, and accessories such as moisture meters.
Many of the company’s products are tested at their facility in Nevada County, California. The Central California county is home to thousands of farms, and a rich cannabis culture.
Triminator is now a part of Eteros Technologies, a Canadian engineering solutions company which also includes Mobius. While Triminator makes equipment suitable for craft farmers, and Mobius for large-scale operators, they’ve come together to fill a gap and provide value-oriented, innovative solutions for farms of all sizes with their most versatile product yet, the Hybrid.
Over a period of six months, Triminator and Eteros combined their technology to create the Triminator Hybrid.
Their engineers took six months to create the Hybrid, showing an understanding for the need for innovative harvesting solutions while also trimming down the research and development process. They were able to do this by combining technology from Triminator and Eteros’ Mobius product line.
The Hybrid
Pre-order for $10,900
Triminator promises that the Hybrid produces hand-trimmed results, no matter the moisture level of the bud.
The machine “doesn’t pick favorites; it trims equally well on wet, dry, and semi-dry cannabis and hemp flowers,” according to Triminator.
All settings — the blade, tumbler and vacuum — are adjustable. In fact, it caters to the whole moisture spectrum, whether the bud comes straight from the freshly-harvested plant or not.
That’s important because there’s benefits to each, Triminator founder, Dana Mosman, tells Emerald.
Wet trimming is faster; whereas dry trimming may reserve more of the plant’s smell or terpene profile, he explains. However, growers need the versatility — say a storm comes in and there’s not enough time to dry the cannabis before trimming — they can adjust it for the exact moisture level of their buds for more precise trimming.
To achieve this, the Triminator and Eteros teams drew inspiration from Mobius’ TriFlex blade system to create the Hybrid’s Flex-Knife System. While some machines hack bud like a lawn mower; the Hybrid’s technology cuts like scissors.
More specifically, “the revolutionary Flex-Knife™ presses against the helical blade allowing the edges to stay in constant contact for an ultra-clean cut,” according to Triminator. “This design ensures flowers spend less time in the tumbler, minimizing THC potency loss.”
Furthermore, the vacuum sucks the leaves toward the blade, allowing for tighter trim.
Additionally, operator’s can fine tune the machine to the strain they’re trimming. For example, for more airy strains, operators can adjust the vacuum and tumbler to be more gentle. With denser strains, they can go a bit harder, says Mosman.
It does all of this at twice the rates of its competitors, including the Twister T2 and T4.
Designed for Speed
Most skilled hand trimmers can manicure roughly 1 pound of weed per day, according to The Street. However, while mechanical trimmers can trim much faster — sometimes this comes at the cost of quality.
Not the Hybrid; it trims quickly, and efficiently with results that are comparable to hand-trimmed bud. More specifically, the machine can trim up to 40 pounds per hour, “twice as fast as any other [mechanical trimmer] on the market at this price point,” explains Mosman.
One Hybrid can trim 40 pounds of wet bud (with an 18% moisture level) per hour, or 15 pounds (9%-11% moisture) of dry weed, according to the company.
For comparison, other portable, mid-size trimmers — like the Twister T4, for instance — can trim approximately 14 pounds of wet, or 7 pounds of dry bud per hour, according to Twister.
Furthermore, operators can link multiple Hybrids together. While working in tandem, the machines can double or triple the speed and volume of the manicuring process. For instance, when two Hybrids work together, they can trim 88 pounds of wet, or 35 of dry bud per hour.
One machine is suitable for a mid-size farm. However, the option to link Hybrids gives operators the ability to grow with the size of farms.
Tune-in the Trim
Aside from the above features, Triminator built the Hybrid with quality leftover trim in mind. This is especially important for operators who reserve their trim for extracts.
“The cleaner the trim, the clearer the extract. That’s why the Triminator Hybrid is the first in its class to feature an integrated vacuum and trim separation system,” the Triminator website writes. “Cannabis trim travels straight from the blades to the trim bin on a cushion of air with our Trim Direct System. Your trim never touches a vacuum impeller or dirty hose, ensuring pure, extraction-ready trim.”
Moreso, operators can fine-tune the machine to produce different types of trim. For example, when the helical blade is adjusted to higher speeds, it “yield[s] smaller trim particles, while slower speeds result in larger hand-trim style results,” according to Triminator.
After it makes its way through the machine, the trim falls directly into a bag, which operators can view — making it easy to tell when it’s full.
Safety, Value and Versatility in Mind
Triminator built the Hybrid with safety in mind. Specifically, it includes an integrated safety sensor. This sensor assures that it won’t turn on when operators are disassembling the machine.
No tools are necessary to take apart the Hybrid. Altogether it takes roughly 60 seconds or less to disassemble, and resembles within minutes. This, along with its compact design (39’’ x 22 x 42.5’’”) makes it easy to transport from one site to the next.
Speaking of ease of use, the Hybrid operates on a 110V circuit, this allows it to run on most household outlets.
Triminator also built the hybrid with all stainless steel plant-touching parts, which can be cleaned with alcohol. The stainless steel parts make it easier to clean and assure that it meets food grade standards.
Such food grade and safety features are important to the company, “especially when taking that next step as an industry,” Mosman says. “We want to be taken seriously as an industry, so it’s [vital] to progress the technology.”
The Hybrid in Action
Emerald had the opportunity to view the machine in action and in person. We found that the machine’s features were on par with what the company promises. For example – the Hybrid is compact, and easy to transport. It took about 1 minute to break down safely, without any tools. Re-assembly was nearly as quick (it only requires the operator to remember in which order the roughly one dozen parts go back together).
Additionally, the machine trimmed quickly and efficiently. It also took a matter of minutes for it to cleanly trim a bucket of hemp in front of our eyes. Within seconds of putting in untrimmed cannabis on one end, it delivered manicured buds into a container from the other end. There’s even a window above the blades to view the process.
It seemed effortless to operate as the functions were easy to adjust with just the click of a button. Overall it was just as user-friendly as Triminator promises.
The Hybrid hits the market in early 2022, and will be on farms next Croptober. It is currently available for pre-order here.
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