Fiber Longitudinal Measurements for Predicting White Speck Contents of Dyed Cotton Fabrics

Fiber Image Analysis System (FIAS)(2) was developed to provide an automatic method for measuring cotton maturity from fiber snippets or cross-sections. An uncombed cotton bundle is chopped and sprayed on a microscopic slide. The snippets are imaged sequentially on a microscope and measured with customized image analysis software. Cotton maturity is assessed from fiber width variability (convolution) and intensity (translucency) of fiber ribbons. The highly translucent fibers are labeled by the system as 'dead' fiber. Dead fibers are the main source of nep formation, causing dye defects, known as white specks, in finished fabrics. This work compared the fiber longitudinal measurements with white speck data of 16 different cottons, and studied the possibility of establishing a predictive equation for white speck contents from bale fiber samples. The main advantages of using the longitudinal FIAS test are that it can more readily detect dead and immature fibers and takes much less time in preparing sample slides than the cross-sectional FIAS test.