A large scale production experiment has been conducted at a denim plant. A total of 121,200 bales (4,180 laydowns) was tested for HVI bundle strength, elongation, micronaire, length and other variables. The cotton bales were processed to produce 6/1 ring spun yarns and woven into an identical style of denim fabric. The HVI data and lab test results on tensile properties of yarns and fabrics were analyzed to evaluate the relationship between them. The study has shown that the variance of bundle breaking elongations between bales is useful as a criterion for bale selection based on the large scale production experiment.

Based on a new model for estimating single fiber tensile properties form HVI bundle tensile data, the variance of breaking elongations was estimated for all fibers contained in each laydown. The estimated single fiber tensile properties together with HVI data provided an enhanced method for optimizing the yarn and fabric strengths. MANTIS^®; single fiber test results were used for obtaining the single fiber tensile properties from the HVI bundle data.