Project Number: 6435-44000-069-05
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Dec 19, 2006
End Date: Dec 31, 2008

Objective:
This is a component of a Cooperative Agreement funded by Cotton Incorporated. The objectives of this Specific Cooperative Agreement are to characterize cotton fiber length distribution, to establish the relationship between the original fiber length distribution and the length distribution measured by High Volume Instrument (HVI), to explore non-traditional cotton length parameters that may lead to better prediction of cotton quality, and to study fundamental theories of fiber length determination from rapid testing by use of fiber beards. The Agreement will be reviewed for possible extension in 2007.

Approach:
In order to obtain accurate measurements of the fiber length distribution, the relationship between the length of specimen fibers actually measured by the instrument and the original sample population has to be established. Three length distributions from specimen fibers, namely fibers selected by the HVI clamp, fibers held in the clamp (invisible for the instrument to measure) and fibers projecting from the clamp (actually measured by the instrument) will be obtained by AFIS (Advanced Fiber Information System) instrument. The relationships among the three distributions and the distribution of the original sample will be analyzed. Various non-traditional statistical parameters of cotton fiber length distributions will be obtained. Algorithm will be developed to obtain Lower Half Mean Length (LHML) that is a good parameter alterative to short fiber content (SFC). The effectiveness to predict cotton processability and yarn properties by use of these non-traditional length parameters will be studied.