METHOD TO DEFINE DEGREE OF COTTON FIBER RIPENESS Russian patent published in 2009 - IPC G01N33/36 

FIELD: physics, measurements.

SUBSTANCE: proposed method of defining the degree of ripeness of cotton fibers includes the analysis of interference pattern in passing polarised light through fibers placed between prismatic cover glasses. The fibers are placed in nematogene mesomorphic phase medium, heated up with nematic. The width of the nematic zone with distorted homeotropic orientation in skin areas of fibers before phase transition of nematic in an isotropic state is determined and the temperature of this transition is measured. Now the fibers ripeness is estimated. The nematic double refraction factor is selected to make 0.2 to 0.3. The fibers, between the prismatic cover glasses, are arranged along their longer side, while the light flow is directed parallel to the arrangement of fibers in the sample. The fibers are scanned over their entire length and their image is displayed on the monitor and processed by a special computer program, the said program data base incorporating the data on the dependence of ripeness factor on brightness of cotton fiber standard samples with due allowance for the total brightness of pixels on the entire area of analysed sample. The aforesaid data additionally includes twist of fibers, their image being distinguished for by brightness that allows using it in final analysis of the fiber image to define the ripeness factor.

EFFECT: fast and accurate definition of cotton ripeness.

1 tbl, 7 dwg