In April 1986, Mr. Jesse Moore, Director, USDA, AMS, Cotton Division, appointed a 7-person committee to review the AMS Cotton Division's HVI Quality control Program. The committee included representatives from the Cotton Division, from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, from Clemson and Texas Tech Universities, and from Cotton Incorporated. The committee was charged with two objectives. The first was to review and evaluate the Cotton Division's calibration procedures for high volume instrument systems. The second was to review and make recommendations with regard to the Cotton Division's interlaboratory check sample program. The committee met for the first time in May 1986.

The committee recommended that the Cotton Division use a procedure based on control charts to calibrate the Motion Control HVI systems in the classing offices. Control charts were developed for the calibration of micronaire, length, length uniformity index and strength. Because of questions about the stability of the relative humidity in some classing offices, it was recommended that calibration checks be made every one-half hour. After a preliminary test of the control chart procedure a test was run in the Harlingen and Corpus Christi classing offices during August 1986. The results of this test showed that the control chart method required more time than the calibration procedure previously used by the classing offices and that it did not improve the HVI test results. Therefore the committee did not recommend the control chart method for use in the classing offices.

The committee did make the following recommendations to the Cotton Division: (1) That the Motion Control systems be modified to report strength data to 0.1 g/tex instead of to 1.0 g/tex. (2) That the Cotton Division's Grading Section Laboratory in Memphis (later named the Quality Control section) be added as a fifth laboratory to test cottons to establish the HVI calibration values. This lab was to be added only after it's atmospheric conditions were set at 70 F and 65% relative humidity. (3) That both Motion Control and Spinlab systems be calibrated for strength to 1.0 g/tex. (4) That Motion Control should provide a method for the adjustment of the strength range between the high and low strength calibration cottons. (5) That the calibration tolerance for length uniformity index be lowered from 2 units to 1 unit.

All of these recommendations have been adopted by the Cotton Division.