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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 #375220
Research Project: Improved Quality Assessments of Cotton from Fiber to Final Products

Location: Cotton Structure and Quality Research

Title: Calibration of HVI cotton elongation measurements

Author
item Delhom, Christopher
item HEQUET, ERIC - Texas Tech University
item KELLY, BRENDAN - Texas Tech University
item ABIDI, NOUREDDINE - Texas Tech University
item MARTIN, VIKKI - Cotton, Inc

Submitted to: Journal of Cotton Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/25/2020
Publication Date: 11/13/2020
Citation: Delhom, C.D., Hequet, E.F., Kelly, B., Abidi, N., Martin, V.B. 2020. Calibration of HVI cotton elongation measurements. Journal of Cotton Research. 3(31). Available: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42397-020-00073-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42397-020-00073-1

Interpretive Summary: Cotton fiber elongation has largely been ignored in breeding efforts due to the lack of a calibration procedure for the high volume instruments (HVI) used in cotton testing. A set of elongation calibration materials has been developed at Texas Tech University. ARS researchers conducted an international round trial to assess the effectiveness of the calibration materials. Additionally, the effectiveness of a two-point calibration method was compared to a single point calibration. The effectiveness of the two-point calibration to reduce variation between instruments was demonstrated as was the stability of the elongation measurement within an instrument. Implementation of elongation-to-break calibration for high volume cotton testing will allow breeders to make gains in another area of cotton fiber quality.

Technical Abstract: Cotton strength has been extensively studied while elongation-to-break has largely been ignored by major breeding efforts. A lack of calibration materials and methods for use on high volume instruments (HVI) has prevented researchers from studying elongation. A set of elongation calibration materials have been developed as part of a previous effort. In this work, a round trial of ten Australian and U.S. instruments was conducted on six cotton samples representing a range of 4.9 to 8.1% elongation. A two-point calibration method was compared to a single-point calibration method. The single point elongation calibration method was demonstrated to be inferior to the two-point method. The two-point calibration method reduced the average coefficient of variation in instrument measurements from 34% for the uncalibrated measurements to 5% for the calibrated measurements.