User Friendly Low Cost Suitable Aids for Grading of Coconut Fibre at Farmers’ End

Coconut fibre is graded based on colour, lustre, length and defects in fibres only. The grading is carried out by hand and eye method which is unscientific and subjective process. In this work, a manual fibre length and diameter measuring gauge scale, and an electronic fibre tensile tester have been developed. So, in addition of above parameters, coconut fibre may be graded considering thickness and strength also. The novelty of the developed length and diameter measuring gauge scale and tensile instrument are their portability, user friendliness, corrosion resistance and low cost. The gauge scale, and the tensile tester are suitable for most types of rigid as well as flexible vegetable fibres even having very high diameter viz., coconut fibre, sisal, areca nut. The foldable gauge is light weight and very thin to carry even in a shirt pocket. As also, the 98 N capacity tensile strength tester being lighter in weight, and compact in size (desktop type), is suitable for outdoor ambience and can be shifted from one place to other community based centralized test centres.