Cotton plays an important role in the U.S. economy with an economic value of approximately $5.5 billion per year. Textile carding has been considered a critical or pivotal operation that directly influences the quality of cotton being processed. This work examines the potential effects of aggressive card treatments on the physical properties of cotton fiber. Different degrees of aggressive treatment were achieved by varying the production rate, cylinder speed, and flat settings of a Trutzschler 901 cotton card. The design included three production rates, three cylinder speeds and three flat settings. Nine separate cottons with a range of fiber properties were utilized as samples for the research. With this research design, each sample was processed with 27 different treatments. As a result of the testing it was found that the most significant effect was the card cylinder speed. Cylinder speed had a detrimental effect on key properties such as: neps, short fiber content and length.