The objective of the NIR-Q project is to investigate an automatic quality control system throughout the textile and fashion production chain. This is a major challenge since this industry uses raw materials of very diverse compositions and origins and there is currently no automatic system to identify the fiber composition of the fabric and, therefore, it is done manually, with the limitations that this entails. Without being able to guarantee the correct composition of the fibers, it cannot be ensured that these fibers provide the desired properties to the fabric; a problem that NIR-Q technology will solve.

To achieve this aim, it is necessary to develop powerful mathematical models that allow the treatment of NIR spectra and thus be able to identify the differences between textile fibers according to different suppliers, origins, or if it is a recycled material, the differences in its quality. Models based on statistical multivariate analysis, on convolutional neural networks and artificial intelligence will be developed.

The project has a strong environmental component, since it will reduce the production of defective batches due to quality deficiencies in the raw materials and, therefore, the textile waste generation will be reduced.

NIR-Q project has been supported by ACCIÓ