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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #193881
Title: COTTON-POLYESTER FABRIC BLEND ANALYSIS BY NEAR INFRARED (NIR) SPECTROSCOPY

Author
item Rodgers Iii, James
item BECK, KEITH - NO CAROLINA STATE U

Submitted to: NIR news (Near Infrared Reflectance News)
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/16/2007
Publication Date: 7/25/2007
Citation: Rodgers Iii, J.E., Beck, K. 2007. Cotton-polyester fabric blend analysis by near infrared (nir) spectroscopy. NIR news (Near Infrared Reflectance News).

Interpretive Summary: Near Infrared (NIR) techniques have been used increasingly to measure key physical and chemical properties of textiles, including the fiber blending ratio in cotton-polyester (PET) blend fibers and yarns. Interest had grown in the measurement of the fiber blend content in dyed cotton-PET fabrics. This project assesses the feasibility of using NIR technology to generate a general model that will quantify the fiber content of dyed fabrics made of cotton-PET blends. The program evaluated two different NIR analyzers at two locations and with different reflectance sampling systems. With FOSS NIR units, both static and interactive fiber optic probe NIR calibrations were developed with a 265-sample calibration set. The rapid and accurate measurement of cotton-PET blend content by NIR was feasible. Both static and probe analyses yielded very good method agreement. The NIR-Lab cotton and PET content results agreed to within ±5.0% for over 90% of the validation samples. In addition to the excellent predictive results, the NIR method required no special sample preparation, and analysis time for the sample was <5 minutes. Advanced chemometric math treatments minimized the impacts of baseline effects and of fabric color and patterns.

Technical Abstract: Near Infrared (NIR) techniques have been used extensively to measure key physical and chemical properties of textile materials and textile auxiliaries, including the fiber blending ratio in cotton-polyester (PET) blend fibers and yarns. Interest had grown in the measurement of the fiber blend content in dyed cotton-PET fabrics. The objective of this project was to assess the feasibility of using NIR technology to generate a general or “universal” model that will quantify the fiber content of dyed fabrics made of cotton-PET blends. The program evaluated two different NIR analyzers at two locations and with different reflectance sampling systems. With FOSS NIR units, both static and interactive fiber optic probe NIR calibrations were developed with a 265-sample calibration set from Sears Canada. The rapid and accurate measurement of cotton-PET blend content by NIR was feasible, with both static and probe analyses yielding very good method agreement. The NIR-Lab cotton and PET content results agreed to within ±5.0% for over 90% of the validation samples. In addition to the excellent predictive results, the NIR method required no special sample preparation, and analysis time for the sample was <5 minutes. Advanced chemometric normalization and derivative math treatments minimized the impacts of baseline effects and of fabric color and patterns.