A New Hooked Needle Device For Forming Fiber Beards For Length and Strength Measurement

Research was conducted in the design, development, and evaluation of a new hooked needle device for obtaining from a sample of cotton a parallelized beard of fiber suitable for instrumented length and strength testing. Through systematic definition of critical design parameters, needle combs were developed capable of forming thin profile fiber beards of exceptional uniformity and visual appearance. The acceptability of a hooked needle method for preparing beards of cotton fiber for automated analysis was demonstrated as this device was compared with conventional clamp and comb arrangements of fiber sampling.