The American Textile Partnership (AMTEX) is a multi-laboratory Master CRADA that spans the entire U.S. textile industry. AMTEX has a number of subtasks including the On-line Process Control Projects (OPCon). The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is collaborating with Dupont, BASF, Camac Cookson, and Wellman through the Princeton Textile Research Institute, to develop a noncontact diagnostic instrument for use by U.S. synthetic fiber manufacturers to assure that their fibers conform to the required specifications. Measurements must be made on the production line, in real time. A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) has been established between PPPL and the American Textile Partnership. A short News Release, "PPPL Receives Funding for Textile Research Collaboration," was issued describing the work to be done.
Patent No. 6,097,488 has issued related to this work.
The above photo shows laser light scattered from a single fiber of a synthetic polymer. The structural information in the scattered light contains information about the internal structure of the fiber. The goal of the AMTEX OpCon project is to develop a non-contact system that synthetic fiber manufacturers can use on the factory floor to maintain quality control of their fibers in real time.
Shown above is Dr. Dennis Mansfield, Principal Investigator of the AMTEX OpCon Project, next to a four wavelength laser system used to evaluate the birefringence of synthetic polymer fibers.For more information, please contact:
Lewis Meixler, Head
Office of Technology Transfer
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Mail Stop 17
P.O. Box 451
Princeton, NJ 08543Telephone: 609-243-3009
e-mail: lmeixler@pppl.gov
Updated: 08/01/01
Send questions or comments to: Lew Meixler at lmeixler@pppl.gov
