High-speed photography was used to investigate the state of fibres during the short-staple carding process. Image processing was employed to investigate the flow uniformity and the degree of opening and fibre individualisation of the fibre mass. The results showed that there is a considerable mass flow variation at the taker-in stage and at the back of the cylinder. Due to the carding action between the cylinder and the revolving flats, most tuftlets are separated into individual fibres, but some remain as micro tuftlets and are transferred to the doffer. With the increased discretisation the fibre mass becomes more uniformly distributed at the front of the cylinder. However, on the doffer the mass flow variation increases, which suggests that the transfer is not a uniform action. The angle of orientation of fibres was measured at the taker-in, at the front of the cylinder after the revolving flats and at the doffer stage. It was found that the fibres are highly orientated at the front of the cylinder. However, after the transfer region the degree of orientation of the fibres on the doffer decreases. In order to establish an understanding of the state of individual fibres, the change in the crimp level of fibres during the process was studied. It may be assumed that crimp level is directly related to the forces applied to the fibres. The results showed that the fibres at the front of the cylinder are subjected to more tension as compared to the fibres at the taker-in stage. A study was also carried out on the effect of the boundary layer around the cylinder by directly measuring the speed of individual fibres at the front of the cylinder. This study showed that the majority of the fibres are hooked to the cylinder wires and travel at the speed of the cylinder surface.