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Title: Correlation of HVI vs. stelometer fiber strength and its application

Author
item Liu, Yongliang
item Gamble, Gary
item Thibodeaux, Devron

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/11/2011
Publication Date: 4/21/2011
Citation: Liu, Y., Gamble, G.R., Thibodeaux, D.P. 2011. Correlation of HVI vs. stelometer fiber strength and its application. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference, January 4-7, 2011, Atlanta, GA. p. 1298-1303.

Interpretive Summary: Cotton strength is one of important quality characteristics and is related with the manufacturing of quality goods for consumers. Currently, two types of instrumentals have been developed to assess the cotton fiber strength, namely, automation oriented HVI and laboratory based Stelometer device. Each of these instruments has its unique advantages, and apparently, correlation between the two strength readings was relatively low. Meanwhile, HVI strength based near infrared (NIR) models were observed to lack the power for practical applications. Although both HVI and Stelometer strength readings have been adapted in numerous publications, none has attempted to unravel the relationship between the two. In this study, both HVI and Stelometer strength readings were corrected by respective micronaire values, and then the effect of modified HVI strength values on NIR model performance were examined through partial least squares (PLS) regression. 2 modified strength readings were observed to have a much improved relationship, and also corrected HVI strength was found to have a better correlation with NIR spectra and resultant model was acceptable for quantitative determination of cotton strength index. The outcome provides cotton fiber / textile engineers, researchers and regulators a new sight in applying both HVI and visible/NIR spectroscopy for rapid and routine determination of cotton strength qualities.

Technical Abstract: Cotton fiber strength is an important quality characteristic that is directly related to the manufacturing of quality consumer goods. Currently, two types of instruments have been implemented to assess cotton fiber strength, namely, the automation oriented HVI and the laboratory based Stelometer. Each of them has unique merits and correlation between the two strength readings was reported to be relatively low. In this study, both HVI and Stelometer strength readings were corrected by respective micronaire values in both quotient (strength/micronaire) and product (strength*micronaire) forms, and the modified strength readings were found to have a much improved relationship. Also, the relationship might suggest a way to determine the suitable samples in creating the NIR model for predicting the cotton strength effectively.