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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #234344
Title: Relevance of AFIS, HVI and MICROMAT to White Specks

Author
item Bel, Patricia
item XU, BUGAO - UNIV OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/3/2010
Publication Date: 3/30/2010
Citation: Bel, P., Xu, B. 2010. Relevance of AFIS, HVI and MICROMAT to White Specks. Proceeding of the 2010 National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference, Jan-4-7, 2010, New Orleans, Louisiana. p.1319-1327. 2010 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary: Fabrics, particularly dark shades, which are littered with “white specks” are unusable in the fashion industry, literally costing millions in losses to the textile industry. White speck neps are composed of immature cotton and are not easily detected until the fabric is dyed. If this defect can be detected, at the bale stage it could be used to make whites or pastel shades of fabrics where it wouldn’t be a problem. Three sets of cottons (Georgia, Texas and Mississippi) were processed identically in the mill through ring spinning. Bale fiber measurements were related to fabric neps. The results show strong relationships between fiber properties of maturity, length and neps to the fabric white speck neps. AFIS was the best predictor. AFIS produces and measures neps in combination with the maturity data and resulted in good predictions of fabric white specks. Once a White Speck Potential (WSP) value can be developed from this type of research it can be used as a tool by the mills and breeders. Bales with high WSP can be put into a special class for whites only, or use for combed, vortex or rotor spun yarns, maximizing the fiber's potential and minimizing mill losses due to white specks. Breeders will be able to change the future of US cottons, by eliminating varieties with high WSP early on in the breeding process, without having going to full field studies.

Technical Abstract: A dye defect known as white speck neps cause significant financial losses to the textile industry. High speed method to predict this defect would allow the mills to use the fibers with high white speck potential into the proper product line, such as white sheeting, toweling, etc., thereby maximizing the fiber’s potential and minimizing white speck defects in dyed fabrics. The objective of this study is to evaluate the data from a diverse set of cottons tested on the HVI, AFIS, and Micromat FMT and then relate the data to white speck defects in dyed fabrics. The cottons for the US Cotton Variety Textile Processing Trials were grown in Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas. The Georgia cottons were grown in the same field, spindle picked and ginned with one lint cleaner. The Texas cottons were grown in one field; stripper picked and ginned using two lint cleaners. The Mississippi cottons were grown in the same area and obtained commercially without ginning information. This research shows high speed fiber measurement systems that are currently on the market have the potential to predict white specks from bale fiber maturity data. This data will be useful to breeders. If the data reflects a high white speck content in the initial breeding samples, those varieties can be eliminated early on minimizing breeding cost and time.