Image Analysis as a Method of the Assessment of Yarn for Making Flat Textile Fabrics

During the technological processing of staple fibers into yarn drafting, waves are formed which increase the irregularity of yarn linear density and consequently affect the yarn quality. Even a correctly performed technological process does not allow one to completely eliminate yarn faults (thin and thick places, neps) and yarn irregularity. All the yarn imperfections distinctly become apparent in flat textiles made of such a yarn. The quality of the yarn produced should be assessed already in spinning mill, using the results obtained to conclude on the quality of woven or knitted fabrics. Modern metrological laboratories in spinning mills possess Uster Tester 5 (UT5) apparatuses that not only assess the yarn quality with respect to the irregularity of linear density, faults (thin and thick places, neps), or hairiness, but also using the test results obtained make it possible to create a digital image of the predicted appearance of a flat fabric made of the yarn tested. This article presents a computer-aided method of the analysis of the woven and knitted fabric images obtained from UT5 that allows one to assess the significance of particular yarn parameters in the predicted appearance of flat fabrics.