The evaluation of evenness of nonwovens using image analysis method

Abstract

Authors studied on the applicability of image analysis technique using a scanner with a CCD (charged coupled deviced) to the evaluation of evenness of nonwovens because it has distinctive features to considerably save time and labor in the analysis compared with other classical methods. As specimens for the experiment, two different types that are unpatterned and patterned ones were prepared. For the unpatterned specimen, webs were chermically bonded, while for the patterned specimen, webs being thermally calendered with engraved roller. Several webs having various areal densities were prepared and bonded. Coefficient of variation (CV%) was used as a parameter to evaluate the evenness. Scanning conditions could be suitably set up through comparing the total variance to the between-group variance and to the within-group variance, respectively, on the images scanned at the different conditions. The 2D convolution method with smoothing filter kernel was introduced to further filter the noises on the scanned images. After the filtering process, the increase of web areal densities gave an uniform decrease of the CV%. This showed that the scanned image analysis with proper filtering process could be successfully applicable to the evaluation of evenness in nonwovens.