At the ITMF International Committee on Cotton Testing Methods (ICCTM) meet in Bremen, Germany recently four companies from Germany, India, Italy, Switzerland and a research organization in Australia made presentations on developments in instruments to assess cotton quality parameters for ‘Recognition’ by the ICCTM.

German firm Textechno demonstrated the capabilities of a new instrument for detecting, counting and classifying neps and trash in samples of cotton and cotton sliver while MAG, an Indian company, discussed recent engineering advances in trash-testing technology.

Italian company Mesdan and Switzerland based Loepfe explained the engineering principles behind new instruments developed jointly by the two companies to test cotton and cotton sliver for stickiness and other parameters. CSIRO, an Australian research organization, requested ‘Recognition’ for an instrument to test cotton fibers for maturity. Cottonscope has been developed over several years by engineers at CSIRO to make direct measurements of fiber maturity using image analysis of cross sections of fibers. The meet also reviewed the latest developments in cotton fiber testing to set priorities for research over the next two years.