Fleecescan |
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Not to be outdone by the development of the OFDA 2000, CSIRO has brought the Sirolan Fleecescan(tm) to the market. The Fleecescan brings the benefits of the Laserscan into the shearing shed. Fleecescan is an automatic fleece corer-washer unit that is used in conjunction with Laserscan The Fleecescan's major components include
Use of the Fleecescan involves wighing and coring the fleece, and then washing and drying the sample. The sample is then assessed using a specially designed Laserscan that is heavily protected to avoid damage as it is being moved. Throughput is claimed to be over 100 fleeces per hour The Fleecescan (like the OFDA 2000) represent the effort to move technology into the shearing shed. But, this movement does not come cheap. The Fleecscan/Laserscan unit comes in at $94,000 each While technologies such as the Fleecescan might do well in the wool sorting shed, there is reason to doubt their effectiveness with other fiber bearing animals. Alpacas, for instance, lack the consistency across their fleece to benefit from such technology at present. Neither the Fleecescan or OFDA 2000 are approved by IWTO or ASTM. Wools separated into different micron ranges by these instruments still have to be core sampled and tested by IWTO and/or ASTM approved methods and instruments when offered for sale. For the small scale producer, Fleecescan is more of a curiosity than a tool. It is used to supplement existing test intrumentation (the Laserscan) allowing it to be moved into the shearing shed. The immediacy of results will not justify the expense for most small producers, given that the same technology can be accessed via mail order on a per fleece basis. |
