Cotton ginning can be a harsh process and some fibres break. CSIRO has modified mechanical components of cotton gins to reduce breakage. We are also assessing two promising instruments for measuring fineness and maturity of cotton: Cottonscan and SiroMat.

Our textiles research is being used not only for clothes, but for filters, antiballistics, gaskets, insulation, upholstery, carpets, bedding, bandages and wound dressings.

A guide designed to help the Australian cotton industry improve the quality of the fibre it produces has been released by CSIRO and the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC (Cotton CRC).

A textile technologist with CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering, Rene van der Sluijs, has won the Australian Cotton Growers’ Research Association (ACGRA) Researcher of the Year 2008 award.

A cotton training program will be held at CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering, Belmont, Geelong 21 - 23 July 2009.

Fibre Science and Engineering is one of four research programs within CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering.

Our highly skilled microscopy unit uses state of the art microscopes both electron and optical with imaging and analysis facilities to solve a vast range of problems.

To combat falling international prices and competition from synthetic fibres, the Australian cotton industry relies on CSIRO research for continuing quality improvement.

This video illustrates the capabilities of the CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Fibre Science and Engineering Research Program, operating at Belmont, Geelong and Clayton, Victoria, Australia. (3:06)

A video showing CSIRO's new circular knitting machine for constructing miniature hollow tubes. This new resource will enable our biomedical research team to experiment with tissue engineering from textile structures. (0:30)

Dr Stuart Gordon is perfecting a new way to measure cotton quality, improving cotton processing and adapting cotton spinning systems.

Dr Geoff Naylor's Fibre Science and Engineering Research Program investigates the structure, properties and behaviours of fibres and fibrous structures for new industrial materials.

Download the report on contamination, prepared for the Australian Cotton Industry by CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (36 pages)

Australian cotton varieties produce excellent fibre. CSIRO are enhancing its marketing characteristics even further by developing the best management practices for cotton growers and using both genetics and physiology.