Legends: Cotton Quality

In the Legend Configuration page, you can view the legends and scales associated with cotton quality. This article will explain the details of each legend and its associated quality measurement. 

Access the Legend Configurator here: https://my.pct-agcloud.com/apps/#/legends

Length

Quality Length or fiber length is the average length of the upper-half mean length of the cotton fibers. The upper-half mean length is the average length of the longer half of the fibers. Quality length is measured in inches. Each colour change of the legend scale represents a 0.3” increase in length, except for the first two values which represent 0-.79” and 0.8-0.85”.

Uniformity 

Quality Uniformity or length uniformity refers to the ratio between mean fiber length and upper-half mean fiber length. Quality uniformity is expressed as a percentage with 100% representing perfect fiber uniformity. The legend scale is adjusted according to typical variations of quality uniformity to best display the differences.

Staple

Quality Staple is a measure of the average length of the upper-half mean length of the cotton fibers, similar to ‘Quality Length’. Fiber staple is generally measured in 32nds of an inch while fiber length is measured in 100ths. However, they share the same legend scales in PCT. 

Leaf

Quality Leaf refers to the leaf grade, which is a measure of the leaf content in the cotton after ginning. The legend scale is based on the parameters set by the Universal Upland Grade Standards and American Pima Grade Standards. The scale runs 1 (least amount of leaf matter) through 7 (most amount of leaf matter).

Micronaire

Quality Micronaire is a measurement of the fitness and maturity of the cotton fiber. In the legend scale, readings of 3.8 to 4.5 fall into the premium label (green), while readings outside of this range fall either in the base (yellow) or discount (red) range depending on their deviation from the premium range. These ranges are indications of the cotton’s market value based on the micronaire.

Strength

Quality Strength or fiber strength is a measurement of the force required to break a one tex unit bundle of fibers. A tex unit is the equivalent weight in grams of 1,000 meters of fiber. Fiber strength is measured in grams per tex. The higher the grams per tex, the higher the strength of the fiber. A strength of 31 and above, represented by dark green in the legend scale, is considered very strong, while a strength of 23 or below, represented by very light green in the legend scale, is considered very weak.

Color

Quality Color or color grade is a measurement of the reflectance and yellowness of the fiber. Reflectance is an indication of the brightness of the fiber. Yellowness is an indication of the amount of pigmentation in the fiber. The intersection of these readings gives a code by which colour labels can be assigned. These labels are displayed in the legend. Lower numbers indicate a more desirable colour (higher reflectance and lower yellowness).

Further information can be found at the following links:

Classification-of-Cotton.pdf

http://cotton.tamu.edu/Harvest/Cotton%20Classification%20USDA.pdf