ARS | Publication request: Micronaire, Maturity and Fineness Research

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings/Symposium
Publication Acceptance Date: June 1, 2005
Publication Date: June 15, 2005
Citation: Montalvo Jr, J.G., Von Hoven, T.M. Micronaire, maturity and fineness research. CDROM. Memphis, TN. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. 2005.

Interpretive Summary: Fineness and maturity are important because yarn made from fine fibers is stronger and mature fibers absob dye better, The mirconaire of cotton is a combined meaure of the fineness and maturity. Two problem areas related to fiber quality are validity of rapid measuremtnes of thes properties and a clearer understanding of their associations. There is a need to validate the fast near-infrared (NIR) method to meausre all three properties and, independently, to model fineness and maturity data fro various analytical metods to understand how to enhance this specific association. For the NIR studey, a group of 404 worldwide cottons was split into separate sets of 304 calibration and 99 validation samples. After analyzing all the samples by an appropriate refernce method, NIR calibration equations were deloped and used to perdict the proteries in the validation set. The good results indicate that NIR can be used to accuately prdict fiber micronaire, fineness and maturity. To enchance the spicific association bewteen fineness and maturity, a new model was developed that provides a proof of important principles in the fiber quality determination of these two properties. The work goes on to successfully demonstrate the fit of a fineness and maturity association to the new model. Advances in these two areas of research may help to corroborate the micronaire, fineness and maturity database on U.S. cottons, which could positively impact cotton consumption.

Technical Abstract: Fiber property research to measure micronaire, maturity and fineness is ongoing at the Southern Regional Research Center. This paper presents an update of recent advances in several aspects of this research. First, these fiber properties were measured with an upgraded Micromat Fineness and Maturity Tester (FMT) as well as with a near infrared (NIR) instrument. Secondly, the NIR was calibrated with 300 cottons analyzed by the FMT. Prediction algorithms were generated and used to predict the fiber properties of a different set of cottons. Thirdly, the experimental relationships between properties were investigated further and compared with modeling studies.