A diffraction method of monitoring the angular distribution of the fibers in the structure of a flat fibrous material

This paper proposes a noninstrumental method of monitoring the angular distribution of the fibers in fiber-containing materials (FCMs) such as paper, semifinished textile products, and similar materials, based on a computer calculation of the Fraunhofer diffraction pattern using computer microimaging of the surface of the FCM, corrected for illumination by a laser light beam. An algorithm is proposed for the computer processing of the diffraction pattern thus constructed, with output to an angular light-scattering diagram, from which the angular distribution of the fibers in the material can be judged. Our experiments on semifinished textile products and paper showed that the proposed method is workable and that it has an advantage over an analog method of monitoring, using the angular diagram of the backscattering of light.