Technical & Commercial Requirements of Wool Testing Systems

This paper is Part 1 in a series titled Fundamental Principles of Fibre Diameter Measurement.

Abstract

Objective measurements now provide the primary information used to determine the market value of greasy wool.  They ensure that wool producers get paid a fair price and that processors are able to purchase greasy wool and then manufacture tops, yarns and fabrics of a specified quality.

The important parameters that are now measured and certified for most of Australia’s wool are:

• Wool Base;
• Vegetable Matter Base and Hardheads & Twigs;
• Mean Fibre Diameter & Coefficient of Variation of Diameter; and
• Staple Length, Strength & Position of Break.

A small proportion of the clip is also certified for colour.  Other, non-certified information, such as curvature and vegetable matter base, is also available.

The Test Methods and associated technologies for determining these parameters have been developed and refined over the last 30 years by the International Wool Textiles Organisation.  This has involved technical input from engineers and scientists from all around the world, and commercial input from wool producers, wool agents, wool buyers, wool traders and wool processors, thereby ensuring that the Test Methods are technically sound while at the same time meeting, as far as is reasonably practicable, the commercial requirements.

The technology used for IWTO Certification has also found application in providing information for selecting animals, although the testing systems or protocols used have not been standardised.

Increasingly, alternative technologies for measuring some parameters are becoming available, and expenditure for research into and development of as yet unknown but hopefully less expensive new technologies is also being considered.  Before the commercial implications of using these new technologies can be understood it is necessary to understand the criteria for establishing their equivalence to those they are designed to complement or supplant.

This paper provides an overview of these criteria.

Citation

"Fundamental Principles of Fibre Fineness Measurement. Part 1: Technical & Commercial Requirements of Wool Testing Systems", P.J. Sommerville, AWTA Ltd Newsletter, September 2001