Development of a portable digital colour meter for lignocellulosic fibers

Abstract

The present study has intended to develop a battery-powered portable digital colour meter that works on the principle of photo reflectance to measure the whitness value of lignocellulosic fibres. The developed instrument has comprised light-emitting diodes, photodiodes, capacitor, display, microcontroller, and battery with booster. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) of 5 mm have been used to provide uniform illumination and BPW34 silicon PIN photodiode sensors provided to measure the reflected light from the fibre, which intern produces voltage, which has then calibrated for color values. The calibration has revealed that there is a high degree of correlation between output voltages for given whitness value with R2 value more than 0.97. The developed instrument has been tested for three fibres i.e., jute, mesta and kenaf. The results have been compared with commercially available colour measuring instruments like colour and lustre meter and spectrophotometer. A comparative analysis has shown that the readings from the developed portable instrument are not significantly different (P > 0.05) from those of commercial instruments. Further, instrument measurements are repeatable and reproducible in nature. The device is battery-powered, with a charge lasting up to two days. The instrument can be used to measure the color of other fibers as well.