Application of the Optical Fiber Diameter Analyzer for Assessing Cotton Fiber Ribbon Width

Existing methods for measuring fineness are time-consuming, tedious, and impractical to evaluate many samples. For this reason, the Textile Industry has sought a rapid, accurate, and reliable instrument to determine fiber fineness. Recently, the Optical Fiber Diameter Analyzer (OFDA) was introduced for rapid and precise evaluation of the diameter of different types of fibers. In this study, the OFDA was evaluated for measuring the ribbon width of cotton fiber snippets. One hundred and four carded cotton samples covering a wide range of fiber properties were selected and tested with nine replications per sample. The repeatability of the OFDA diameter measurement was confirmed. Comparisons with the data (cross-sections, AFIS, and Cottonscope) obtained from previous studies on the 104 samples were used to assess the effectiveness of the proposed method. The relationship between ribbon widths measured by Cottonscope and OFDA was found to be weak. Yet, there is a strong correlation between OFDA ribbon width and AFIS standard fineness. We hypothesize that the poor relationship between the Cottonscope and the OFDA is related to the medium in which the measurements are performed. The results are stable and provide measurements closely related to AFIS standard fineness, a trusted measurement within the Textile Industry.