A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF 2 AUTOMATED TECHNIQUES FOR MEASURING FIBER LENGTH

Measurements from two automated fiber analyzers-Kajaani FS-200 and Gal ai CIS-100-are compared. The FS-200 measures fiber length and coarsene ss via an indirect optical method. The CIS-100 measures fiber length a nd width by analyzing video images of fibers. Length-weighted average fiber lengths for the FS-200 were 10-20% lower than those for the CIS- 100. Reference measurements from microscopic image analysis suggest th at while the CIS-100 measures length more accurately than the FS-200, it is not accurate enough to measure the width of the thin eucalypt fi bers used in this study. Both instruments showed good agreement weight -weighted fiber length for the whole pulp and weight-weighted length c alculated from fiber fractions classified in a Bauer-McNett device.