DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENTAL METHOD FOR TESTING AND ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF FLAX FIBER

In the context of import substitution in the textile industry, a pressing challenge is the improvement of fibre quality in newly developed breeding varieties of fibre flax (Linum usitatissimum). Addressing this issue requires the development of rapid and precise methods for fibre quality assessment based on predictive modelling of relative breaking load and yarn breakage rates. It has been established that predicting the spin-ability of flax fibre necessitates consideration of factors such as fibre tensile strength, optical fibrewidth as an indirect measure of linear density, and the variability of this width. A novel fibre quality index, associated with these parameters, has been proposed for the first time. To facilitate fibre testing on small-scale samples, specialised hardware-software complexes have been developed, enabling the determination of fibre proper-ties for subsequent computation of the proposed quality index. Experimental validation and testing of the fibre quality assessment method, using methods for growing of different flax kinds with known differences in fibretechnological value, confirmed the effectiveness of the recommended approaches and quality control tools.