ABSTRACT

Various statistical parameters of cotton fiber length distributions were calculated from AFIS (Advanced Fiber Information System) test data of 21 cottons of different varieties and growth locations. The results show that the SFC (short fiber content) defined by 0.5 inches is a good indicator of short fibers in a sample based on the high correlation coefficients with short fiber content values defined by other lengths such as 0.4 or 0.6 inches. However, the measured short fiber content has very high variation, as high as 6.8 times the CV% of UHML (Upper Half Mean Length). The high variation of SFC is one of the major problems hindering its use in the cotton classing system. The LHML (Lower Half Mean Length), a new parameter of short fibers is introduced in this study. The results show that the LHML has very high correlation coefficient with short fiber content, but much lower variation, only 1/3 of the CV% (Coefficient Variance) of the SFC. Therefore, the LHML is a good candidate for substituting the short fiber content. The uniformity index that is used in the U.S classing system correlates to the SFC, but the Upper Half Mean Length has very low correlation with the SFC.