New wool testing laboratory

Press, 24 October 1980, Page 16

New wool testing laboratory

The New Zealand Woo) Testing Authority has a new laboratory in Christchurch, which is now its biggest in the countrv, surpassing in size what has been its main laboratory in Wellington. This expansion of the activities of the authority ’’’> a rcflecti .t of the big inert e in New Zealand in the last two years or so of pre-sale testing of wool for sale by sample and by separation. The

hjective measurement of wool characteristics — in particular yield and fibre diameter — is an essential part of the new selling procedure, with a certificate showing these measur: nents being displayed with the sample of wool in a box for inspection by buyers.

An indication of the way that this activity has been increasing is that last season about 27 per cent of wool offered by auction in New Zealand was offered by sample. This seacon this is expected to increase to 44 per cent.

Mr H. W. Oates, technical manager of the authority, says that over the last two years there has been a 100 per cent increase in the volume of testing done by the authority and this sort of rate of expansion

is expected to continue for another two vears.

The authority was set up under the Wool Testing Authority Act of 1964. Although its board reports to the Minister of Agriculture it is a completely independent entity being financed out of the charges it- makes for the tests that it performs for the trade and growers. It is non-profit making. The test certificates that it issues are used in international trade in wool. Its board comprises members nominated by the Wool Board and also representatives of various sections of the wool trade. Prior to the new laboratory being established in Christchurch, it had a main laboratory in Wellington and regional or branch laboratories in Auckland, Napier, Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin and Invercargill. The branch laboratories perform only one sort of test — a moisture content test on scoured wool for the trade.

The main laboratory in Wellington has performed a series of tests and the Christchurch laboratory, which is double the size of the Wellington laboratory', will do likewise. The main ones are those for fibre diameter and

yield of clean wool but the authority can also test for fat or grease content of scoured wool, the vegetable content of greasy or scoured wool, the colour of scoured wool, and the wool content of mixtures of wool and other types of fibres.

Although a statutory authority, the authorityworks in a competitive environment with a competitor, which provides a similar service, and as a result of the increasing volume of testing it has performed in the last few years there has been no increase in its charges for pre-sale testing on behalf of woolgrowers for about three years now, and in fact they have been reduced.

The new laboratory in Christchurch has been made necessary by the increase in pre-sale testing. It will do all South Island testing and also where necessary some testing of North Island wools, where the Wellington laboratory cannot cope with the volume of testing offering in the north. It is very likely that in the not too far distant future the Wellington laboratory will also be replaced by a much larger laboratory. The new Christchurch

laboratory occupies leased premises in St Asaph Street. The cost of equipment and alterations to the building has amounted to about 5750.000. Much of the equipment for testing has come from Australia. where now more than 90 per cent of wool offered for sale is tested, and where the present stage of expansion in test-

ing being experienced in New Zealand was reached about .Tve years ugo. There

is close contact with the Australian Wool Testing Authority and to a lesser extent with the South African Wool Board’s testing laboratory, with there being an interchange of test results to check on their accuracy.

The expectation is that this wool selling season the Christchurch laboratory will carry out about 40,000 tests, while the authority' as a whole will be doing about 60,000 yield tests and about 25,000 moisture tests on scoured wool.

The new laboratory- represents a very big expansion in authority activity in Christchurch. The branch manager, Mr M. F. Mattson, previously headed a team of three in an SOO-square feet laboratory. Already in the setting up process the staff is up to about 15 and will be expanded to about 30 this season. Later it could reach 60 or 70 and a peak of about 100. According to Mr Oates, how soon this peak will be reached will depend on the demands on the laboratory for testing and how many shifts it has to work. If necessary it would work on a threeshift basis. The tendency is to employ young people on a temporary basis, as for a period in the middle of the winter when there are no wool sales the demand for testing will fall off.

The general manager of the authority, Mr S. J. Fooks, sees die laboratory being able to handle all South Island testing for several years to come and also with room to expand on the present site where

only about 60 per cent of the space will be utilised at this stage. He sees the laboratory improving the opportunity for testing and considerably improving the time or speed of service. For pre-sale testing the laboratory receives samples of at least a kilogram of greasy wool, drawn by core sampler, which on average will represent sale lots of about 10 to 12 bales, although for some tests it may receive larger samples representing as many as one thousand bales.

The samples at first are put into an air blender that ensures that the wool is thoroughly blended or mixed, for this weight of wool has subsequently to be split up into a series of sub-samples of fixed weight to be submitted to testing for various purposes.

After blending the samples go into a miniature or test scour where the wool is washed. After-

wards it is dried with hot air. Then the same sample is split up into sub-sam-

ples. One such sub-sample

may be dissolved in caustic soda to determine the vegetable content or presence of elements like seeds, twigs and also dags. In another test the last vestige of grease is extracted with alcohol being used to dissolve out the grease. In still another test the

wool is burnt in a furnace with the remaining ash being a measure of mineral matter or dirt.

Fibre diameter measurements will be carried out in a compartment with

two rooms, with the wool at first being combed out

to remove vegetable matter and the measurement of fibre diameter then being carried, out in a controlled atmosphere room by the air flow method. Conditioning ovens are also used to measure the moisture content of scoured wool. The results will- all be fed into a computer and will be transmitted directly to branches around the country. Later results may be fed into the computer at the point of testing. The official opening of the new laboratory will not be performed until April of next year at the time of the conference of the International Wool Textile Organisation in Christchurch.