Honeydew and seed coat fragments : identifying and counting two major cotton fiber contaminants

Spinning techniques are constantly progressing. Equipment is getting faster and more automated. Spinners are less and less tolerant of fiber contaminants. Honeydew and seedcoat fragments (SCF) are a major problem that cannot be detected by HVI systems CIRAD developed techniques for honeydew and SCF detection and quantified them for use by researchers, producers and spinners. Thermodetection detects cotton entomological stickiness, results being expressed as the number of sticky spots in the specimen, providing a sample of stickiness potential. High Speed Stickiness Detector (H2SD) is fully automated and allows a bale by bale classification for stickiness at speeds comparable to HVI speed (30 seconds per sample). Results correlate well with the reference Stickiness Cotton Detector. Sticky spot size distribution is available. TRASHCAM image analysis on a card web detects seedcoat fragments. Results are expressed as an SCF total count in the specimen. Very small SCF are detected so the results can be considered as samples of SCF potential. TRASHCAM uses a scanning device and a specific algorithm. SCF size distribution is available. Yarn SCF assessment is possible without spinning any yarn. TRASHCAM can count SCF in yarn. (Resume d'auteur)