High-speed stickness detector measurements: Effect of temperature settings and relative humidity

The problem discussed is stickness contamination in cotton caused by sugars. The sugars may be either plant produced sugars or those originating from feeding insects, entomology sugars. The result is the same regardless of source, manifested in contamination of mechanical components in almost every transformation process from raw fibre to yarn. This study examined samples from 150 cotton bales from three different geographical areas. Using high performance liquid chromatography sugar content was determined for each sample. A high-speed automated stickiness detector was then used on a sample from the same bale to obtain a stickiness reading. The latter test was repeated using two different relative humidity reading and different temperature settings of the hot plate used in the stickiness detector. Results show significantly different readings (∼20%) for the two humidity settings with higher readings also encountered at higher temperature. At lower temperatures (27°C), the results suggest that the origin of the contamination may matter and this may be the subject of further research.