EFFECTS OF COTTON FIBER BLENDING AND PROCESSING ON HVI MEASUREMENTS .1.

To obtain a better understanding of the relationships between fiber pr operties of the constituents of a cotton blend and the processes up to drawing, a review is presented of the effects of blending, orienting, and removing crimp from fibers on HVI test results. These effects are also explored experimentally by testing fibers from the same laydown in bale, card sliver, and drawn sliver form using HVI equipment. Appar ent reductions in upper half mean and increases in short fiber content of card sliver may be due to the formation of hooks. Significant corr elations between micronaire and fiber properties related to length tha t are present in bale samples are lacking in both card and drawn slive r samples, suggesting that there is at least one unmeasured factor in this analysis. Measured micronaire values are sensitive to crimp and f iber packing density. Differences in fiber property distributions can have significant effects on HVI measurements, and distributions of sin gle fiber properties of a blend may differ drastically from those of s ingle bales, Strength tests of blended bundles may not include all con stituents in the blend, because only the longest fibers are clamped in the jaws. Testing the fiber population at various stages of processin g yields different information about fiber bundles.