Abstract
The methods adopted hithertofore to determine the moisture content of fibers are called drying methods. It takes long time (3-4 hours) by these methods, so, many electrical methods have been developed to obtain more rapid measurements. By these methods it has become possible to measure almost instantaneously, but these methods have insufficient accuracy and must be calibrated for each given condition.
We have made an equipment by which the moisture content can be measured in a short hours (for 10-15 minutes) making use of infrared rays instead of the usual hot air in order to shorten the time for measurements.We report in the present paper the results obtained by this method. This equipment is composed by the combination of the usual infrared rays lamp for drying and the balance for weighing the samples. The moisture content is indicated on the moisture scale utilizing the variation in the weight caused by drying. This equipment has an accuracy of 0.05% in regard to the moisture content.
The moisture vaporized by drying varies with the voltage of the infrared lamp and indicates as the higher value as the voltage becomes higher. This higher value means that the degree of the drying of fibers is promoted as much.
The value obtained by this method is different from that of usual methods according to the drying condition, therefore it is necessary to obtain previously the calibrated value of given conditions beforehand.
One of the characteristics of this drying method is that the same drying rate diagram is obtained regardless of the different initial moisture content, if measured in the same drying condition.
