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Abstract:
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with the continuing widespread use of high volume
instrumentation (HVI), manufacturing plants now have access to
information about cotton in the laydown that was not easily
available only a few years ago. So revolutionary is the high
volume instrumentation system that the united States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) is changing the system of cotton grading,
beginning in 1991, to one centered around HVI use. The USDA has
resolved to discover a quick, reliable method for testing cotton
maturity, which to this point has not been available on the
system.
The advent of the HVI near infrared reflectance analysis
(NlRA) maturity tester was developed at the Institute of Textile
Technology for the purpose of providing manufacturing plants with
information on cotton maturity without another laboratory
process. with the ability to detect changes in cotton maturity,
potential problems in yarn manufacturing, fabric formation, and
wet processing may be avoided.
The first part of this work was to determine the
relationships between the HVI NlRA unit and the Technicon
InfraAlyzer 400, IIC-Shirley Fineness/Maturity Tester Model II,
and the IIC-Shirley Fineness/Maturity Tester Model III. In each
case, a low correlation coefficient, but high predictability, was
the result.
Due to poor correlations and processing difficulties with the HVI NlRA unit, further analysis in this work was conducted
using data from the Technicon InfraAlyzer 400 and IIC-shirley FMT
Model II. To determine the relationships between the ring spun
yarn characteristics and the InfraAlyzer and Shirley FMT Model
II, a multiple regression analysis was used with other fiber
properties. Relationships were derived with low risk factors.
The final portion of this research involved correlating
the dye uptake of knitted fabric to InfraAlyzer and FMT II
maturity. Again, a low correlation coefficient was the result,
but at a 99.9% confidence level.
From statistical analysis of test data, it was surmised that
changes can be made to the experimental HVI NlRA unit to improve
its usefulness in cotton classing and textile manufacturing.
certain flaws which exist in the software of the instrument will
be corrected prior to market introduction and other design
changes will facilitate ease of operation and reliability of
data.
The HVI NlRA instrument is essentially useful, but remains
in a developmental phase. Once the software and design changes
are enacted, an exciting new dimension shall be added to the HVI
line.
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