The Sheffield apparatus measures the fineness of cotton fibers in a sample. It gives a direct readout of the micronaire reading, that is to say, the average number of micrograms per inch of the fibers. The principle is based on a permeability-to-air method. The drawback with this apparatus is that the measurement is made on a sample with a mass defined to the nearest milligram (3.240 ± 0.001 g), which requires a relatively long measuring time. This paper attempts to show that it is possible to overcome this constraint by using a sample with a mass of between 2.5 and 3.5 g, thus reducing the measuring time by approximately 50%.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AFNOR (Association Française de Normalisation) , Textiles, terminologies et méthodes d'essais, "Recueil de Normes," vol. 1, 1975.
2.
Dupont, D., LtJarm, P., Automatisation d'un Micronaire, L'ind Textile1254, 35-36 (1994).
3.
Lord, E., Air Flow Through Plugs of Textile Fibres, Part I: General Flow Relations , J. Textile Inst.46, 191-213 (1955).
4.
Neelakantan, P., and Radhakrishnan , T., Airflow Through Fiberplugs, Part II: Obtaining Coton Linear Density and Maturity from Airflow Data, Textile Res. J.60, 329-333 (1990).
5.
Neelakantan, P., and Radhakrishnan , T., Airflow Through Fiberplugs, Part III: Linear Density and Maturity of Coton, Textile Res. J.61, 382-385 (1991).
6.
Radhakrishnan, T., and Neelakantan , P., Airflow Through Fiberplugs, Part I: Review of Theory and Its Limitation, Textile Res. J.60, 293-296 (1990).
