Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #250482
Title: Seed-Coat Fragment Fiber and Fabric Quality in World Cottons

Author
item Bel, Patricia
item XU, BUGAO - University Of Texas

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/8/2010
Publication Date: 3/30/2010
Citation: Bel, P., Xu, B. 2010. Seed-Coat Fragment Fiber and Fabric Quality in World Cottons. Proceeding of the 2010 National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference, Jan 5-7, 2010, New Orleans, Louisiana. p.1605-1611. 2010 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary: There is a perception that the US has high levels of neps, and this has cost the cotton industry millions of dollars. One particularly troublesome form of biological nep is the seed coat fragment with attached fiber which is not easily removed in processing and can contaminate yarn and fabric. In this study we are concerned with seed coat fragments (SCF) which is measured in fiber and fabric and reported in this paper. Image analysis of the fabrics using Autorate had high correlations to the dark specks in the fabric based on hand counting. AFISPro SCN had reasonable correlations to the SCF in the fabric, and the regressions were strengthened by the addition of AFISPro Fineness & Length by weight CV%. Ultimately, we are trying to find ways to measure SCF in fiber to predict problems in the mill, this could be used as a tool by breeders to eliminate varieties which have a propensity for high SCF.

Technical Abstract: Seed coat fragments (SCF) can be neps that can cause spinning problems and fabric defects, which ultimately cause losses to the cotton industry. 12 US and 10 International cottons were processed with AFIS and compared to the fabric samples. Fabrics were tested on the new Autorate (for dark specks) system and then compared to the hand-counted fabric data. The AFIS data showed promising relationships to the fabric data.