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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 #322899
Research Project: Improved Quality Assessments of Cotton from Fiber to Final Products

Location: Cotton Structure and Quality Research

Title: Upgraded almeter gives detailed measures of fiber length parameters

Author
item THIBODEAUX, DEVRON - Fiber Physics
item Delhom, Christopher - Chris
item URS, MEYER - Texmaorg Ag

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2016
Publication Date: 4/18/2016
Citation: Thibodeaux, D., Delhom, C.D., Urs, M. 2016. Upgraded almeter gives detailed measures of fiber length parameters. Proceeding of the National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference,January 5-7,2016,New Orleans, Lousiana. p. 331-336.

Interpretive Summary: Studies were conducted to compare an upgraded Almeter (AL-101) instrument to both the reference method of measuring fiber length array and the defacto industry standard AFIS instrument. The original Almeter, based on technology over 40 years old, has been upgraded with modern electronics allowing a resolution of 0.125 mm for fiber length measurements. The current version of the AFIS instrument was found to perform better than expected and to be significantly faster at sample preparation and testing. The upgraded Almeter performed well against the array reference method, however sample preparation is still time consuming and has a large impact on the accuracy of the test results.

Technical Abstract: Preliminary results are reported on a study to determine the feasibility of The Almeter (AL-101) is used together with the Fibroliner (FL-101) that prepares a small sample of fiber into an aligned array that is transferred to the AL-101 where it is sandwiched between two plastic foils and inserted between the plates of a condenser slot where it can be accurately scanned. The scan records the length of the fiber array in steps of 0.125 mm. The original Almeter that was based on forty-plus year-old technology has been upgraded with state-of-the-art electronics and revised software. Results are reported on a set of cotton length standards measured for mean length and short fiber content calculated based on both fiber weight and number. Comparisons are made with measurements on the same samples with AFIS Pro and Suter-Webb array analyses.