Optical Sensing System for Real-Time Physical Quality Evaluation of Hand Reeled Silk Yarn

Hand reeled Thai silk yarns can be classified based on its physical quality such as diameter, color and weight. In general, certified inspectors are randomly select parts of the silk yarn and evaluate the uniformity of diameter and color by their naked eyes. This process is laborious, and sometimes gives uncertain results due to the experience of inspectors, which affects the price of the silk yarn. To overcome these difficulties, we propose and implement an optical sensing system called “Silk Check” for classification of the hand reeled Thai silk yarn. It can determine in real time the length and the linear mass density of the silk yarn, and correctly classify into the corresponding grade under the Thai Agricultural Standard. Field test operation for 34 silk yarns shows that our “Silk Check” can precisely classify 24 silk yarns of the 1
^st
class into the premium, the first, and the second grades. It also can separate 10 silk yarns of the 2
^nd
class into the first and second grades. Additional important parameters such as the color shade and Ratio
_xy
of silk are also determined by our “Silk Check.” These results indicate that our optical sensing system can benefit to the sericulture industry 4.0.