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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #236230
Title: Effects of lint cleaning on lint trash particle size distribution

Author
item Whitelock, Derek
item SIDDAIAH, MURALI - NMSU
item Hughs, Sidney
item BARNES, ED - COTTON INC.

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/22/2009
Publication Date: 5/15/2009
Citation: Whitelock, D.P., Siddaiah, M., Hughs, S.E., Barnes, E.M. 2009. Effects of lint cleaning on lint trash particle size distribution. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. 2009 CD 514-520.

Interpretive Summary: Small trash and dust particles can cause machinery problems at the textile mill. Cotton quality trash measurements used today typically yield a single value for trash parameters for a cotton lint sample. A Cotton Trash Identification System developed at the USDA-ARS Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory was used to identify and size trash objects in lint samples collected before and after lint cleaning to produce a particle size distribution for the trash. Analyses to date have provided insight into foreign matter removal, beyond typical measures that simply indicate that lint cleaning reduces foreign matter content. It was found that foreign matter was reduced for all particle sizes, but not at the same rate, and the average particle size increased due to lint cleaning. This research will aid in understanding foreign matter removal from ginned lint, may help identify class sizes of particles that cause mill machinery problems, and will aid in developing new technologies to better clean ginned lint; all leading to higher quality US cotton.

Technical Abstract: Cotton quality trash measurements used today typically yield a single value for trash parameters for a lint sample (i.e. High Volume Instrument – percent area; Advanced Fiber Information System – total count, trash size, dust count, trash count, and visible foreign matter). A Cotton Trash Identification System developed at the USDA-ARS Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory was used to identify and size trash objects in the lint samples collected before and after lint cleaning as part of a two-year beltwide commercial cotton gin sampling project. The CTIS trash categorizations were used to develop particle size distributions (PSD) for the lint samples. These PSD were then compared to assess the effect of lint cleaning. Also, different probability density functions were explored to characterize the shape of the lint trash PSD. Typical of standard foreign matter analyses, foreign matter content was decreased by lint cleaning. Further, the data suggested that foreign matter was reduced for all particle sizes, but not at the same rate for all particles sizes. Surprisingly, though total foreign matter levels, both count and area, and maximum particle size decreased with lint cleaning, the average particle size increased.