A Close Look at Seed Coat Fragments as Measured by AFISPro

Seed coat fragments (SCF) can cause spinning problems and fabric defects, which ultimately cause financial losses to the cotton industry. SCF are parts of a seed coat that have been broken from the surface of either mature or immature seeds during mechanical processing..  The objective of this study was to evaluate AFISPro measurements of SCF (SCN –Seed Coat Neps is the primary measurement) and compare AFISPro data to the dark specks measured on fabrics made from these fibers.  First two controls (polyester and combed cotton) were run on AFIS. Five cottons were seeded with specific levels of SCF and Trash (10 SCF, no trash; 10 Trash particles, no SCF; and 10 SCF and 10 trash particles) and then run on AFISPro. U.S. and international cottons were hand cleaned, sorting trash and SCF from the fiber, to quantify the levels of SCF and Trash before testing on AFISPro.  Five 0.5 gram hand cleaned samples were prepared where the SCF and Trash were counted.  The fibers were then seeded with the removed SCF and trash and run on AFISPro.  The matching bale fiber samples, without any cleaning were also run on AFIS Pro The fabrics (from these fibers) are measured by Autorate an image analysis tool that detects SCF on fabrics.  The fiber data was then related to the fabric data.