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Title: THE ANALYSIS OF STICKY COTTON BY NEAR INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY

Author
item BARTON II, FRANKLIN
item BARGERON III, JEFFERSON
item GAMBLE, GARY
item MCALISTER III, DAVID
item HEQUET, E - INTL TEXTILE CENTER

Submitted to: Journal of Applied Spectroscopy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/26/2005
Publication Date: 11/1/2005
Citation: Barton II, F.E., Bargeron III, J.D., Gamble, G.R., Mcalister III, D.D., Hequet, E. 2005. The analysis of sticky cotton by near infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Applied Spectroscopy. 59(11):1388-1392.

Interpretive Summary: Stickiness in cotton is one of the two major problems for the spinning and weaving textile industry. In an industry with very low profit margins any down time is horrendously expensive. Sticky cotton can shut down a spinning plant for hours and days. A method has been developed to detect stickiness in cotton by FT-Near infrared. The method produces the first rapid assays to aid the cotton industry. This method when integrated with remediation steps at the cotton gin will eliminate this problem from American cotton.

Technical Abstract: "Stickiness" in cotton is a major problem affecting throughput in cotton gins and spinning mills alike. Stickiness is thought to be caused by the deposition of sugars by insects, principally aphid and white fly, on the open bowl. Fourier Transform Near Infrared Spectroscopy was used to develop models for sugar content from High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) data, Thermo-detector and Mini-Card data. A total of 457 cotton samples were selected to represent both Upland and Pima varieties and cotton processing before and after ginning. The Unscrambler software package was used to develop the models. A successful model was made to determine the Mini-Card value and successfully detect "stickiness." The Standard Error of Cross Validation (SECv) was 0.26 with R**2 of 0.96. The model was not improved by increasing the range of "stickiness" as measured by the "mini-card" from the usual 0-3 scale to a scale of 0-8. If a value is determined to be greater than 1 it will be difficult to blend bales at a spinning plant "opening line" to allow for maximum efficiency of spinning.