Preliminary Comparison of Portable near Infrared (NIR) Instruments for Laboratory Measurements of Cotton Micronaire

Micronaire is a key quality and processing parameter for cotton fiber.  A program was implemented to determine the capabilities of portable Near Infrared (NIR) instrumentation to monitor cotton fiber micronaire both in the laboratory and in/near the field.  A key component of this program is the demonstration of the robustness of NIR technology and methodology for micronaire measurements through the use of multiple portable NIR analyzers with different measurement techniques.  Prior to field trials, multiple commercial portable NIR analyzers were compared for instrument agreement of micronaire on a large fiber sample set.  Good spectral agreement was observed between the scanning portable NIR units.  The initial micronaire results for the laboratory trials with multiple portable NIR units were very encouraging.