Intensive wool research projects at W.R.O.N.Z.

Press, 29 August 1986, Page 14

Intensive wool research projects at W.R.O.N.Z.

Highlights of the work of the Wool Research Organisation at present include length/strength and bulk testing of wool; the installation of a pilot scour; computer blending and the “Chemset” project for continuous yam scouring and chemical setting. Aspects of these projects were shown to many people in the wool industry during the 25th anniversary celebrations at the W.R.O.N.Z. laboratory, Lincoln.

Sale by sample after objective measurement of some of the characteristics of greasy wool was developed by W.R.O.N.Z. to aid the marketing of wool, according to Dr Garth Carnaby, the textile physics leader. Yield, vegetable matter, diameter and now colour were all being commercially measured in greasy wool before sale, at a saving to the industry estimated to be $3O million annually. Bulk could successfully be measured in the core samples of greasy wool, he explained, and W.R.O.N.Z. had developed a “bulkometer” for test houses and was now writing a New Zealand test standard for bulk. It would be introduced to the sale by sample system shortly. The next major specification of wool — length and strength — would be tackled in New Zealand on scoured wools and not greasy wools as has been done in Australia. The Australian Atlas testing system for length and strength of greasy wool did not translate well to New Zealand’s crossbred wools, where the staple profile was different. But more than 60 per

cent of New Zealand’s wools are scoured before exporting and much of the clip is blended before processing. Testing the length and after carding of scoured crossbreds has proved more straightforward using a card, gill and almeter process developed by Dr Errol Wood, of Dr Carnaby’s textile physics section. The fibres drawn from a scourment have to be carded in a special small sample card, gilled and then put into an almeter, which takes out fibres from a sliver and aligns them along a baseline. These are then measured electronically for length in one of the methods accepted by the woollen processing industry. The sample card is the most expensive part of the testing process and one has been installed already in the Christchurch laboratory of the Wool Testing Authority as the first stage of a testhouse line for the routine length testing of scoured wool. New Zealand will shortly have a complete technical specification of scoured wools, said Dr Carnaby, and no other country would have anything like that. The total cost for the package of six tests will be about $250 a scourment for this “customer oriented” system of wool specification. The specification of scoured wool has also led to another W.R.O.N.Z. initiative — computer blending or, as it is now known, objective blend specification. Overseas manufacturers can now specify what they want from a wool blend in terms of processing requirements and the

W.R.0.N.Z.-developed computer programme will put together a mixture of scoured wool lines to meet that specification. The Wool Board is about to launch a major marketing thrust on objective blend specification. Manufacturers should be able to find that different wools, available through the auction system and the New Zealand scours, at different times of the year and at various prices, will suit their enduse and relieve them or their buyers of some oi the need to carry stocks of particular types. As much of New Zealand’s crossbred wool is blended for use in manufacturing, this computerenhanced method is expected to be popular. Pilot scour Seventeen per cent ol the annual budget oi W.R.O.N.Z. is spent in the pilot scouring plant, built at a total capital cost ol nearly $1 million to expand the work of the laboratory in scouring technology, in which New Zealand leads the world. The W.R.O.N.Z. minibowl scouring system is perhaps the best-known ol the organisation’s applied research projects and it is now employed throughout the world. But until now scouring research was carried out at commercial scours. Two years ago the scouring industry decided through its W.R.O.N.Z. technical committee to support the building of a pilot scour at Lincoln. The research commitment needed from the small number of New Zealand scouring firms is considerable, but they wish to stay in the lead worldwide.

The new facility incorporates every development and advance in scouring, is computer controlled and is just one foot wide, compared with the normal width of a commercial scour at one metre or more. The steps in the scour are highly variable and the staff will use the facility to experiment with all inputs and operating conditions in searching for cost efficiencies. Chemset The high-technology, high-cost Chemset process has been taken up by the New Zealand manufacturing industry recently and W.R.O.N.Z. hopes that it will spread overseas. The process is described as a “continuous, package-to-package, yam scouring and chemical setting machine.” The concept has also been extended to yam dying and even carpet dying after manufacture. Three one-million-dollar commercial Chemset machines have now been installed, at Feltex subsidiaries in Christchurch and Marton, and at U.E.B. Industries in Auckland.