Author
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Le, Sanh |
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Submitted to: Applied Engineering in Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 4/20/2007 Publication Date: 12/1/2007 Citation: Le, S. 2007. Performance of a Pin Cylinder Lint Cleaner. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 23(5): 579-582. Interpretive Summary: As U.S. cotton increasingly relies on foreign markets, new machinery is needed to process cotton to meet the demand of overseas customers for longer fiber with fewer entanglements (neps) and less short fiber content. Saw-type lint cleaners are the standard equipment used for lint cleaning of upland cotton. While they are efficient in cleaning and increasing bale value, they also cause fiber damage and increase neps. An experiment was conducted and performance of a scaled-down lint cleaner with a standard saw cylinder was compared to one with a special pin cylinder. The smooth body of the pins on the cylinder was thought to be gentler and to cause less damage in handling fiber while cleaning. Results of the experiment revealed that both cleaners yielded fiber of similar appearance. In comparing the performance of the two cylinder configurations, the pin cylinder cleaned 11% better, but generated 6.6 lb/bale less in turnout and 4.0 lb/bale more in fiber waste. It also created more short fiber (3.3 lb/bale) and increased neps by 44 neps/g. Results showed that the standard saw-type lint cleaner performed superior to the alternative pin cylinder design. Technical Abstract: Saw-type lint cleaners are efficient cleaners, but their aggressive nature also causes more fiber damage and wastage. As the U. S. cotton market shifts to overseas where customers are interested in longer fiber with fewer neps and fiber damage, there was a renewed interest to re-evaluate the performance of a pin cylinder lint cleaner. A pin cylinder, because of its round pins, was expected to cause less damage to the fiber and create fewer neps in the process. A total of 48 runs with 3 replicates were conducted for the experiment. The four bi-level treatment factors evaluated in the experiment were: cleaner treatment (pin or saw cylinder), cylinder speed, combing ratio, and cotton variety. Results from this study show that High Volume Instruments (HVI) properties produced by the pin and saw cylinder cleaners were indistinguishable across the board except in micronaire and percent trash area. Compared to the saw cylinder lint cleaner, the pin cylinder lint cleaner produced 3 kg/bale less in turnout, generated 1.8 kg/bale ( STV4892) more in cleaner waste, and cleaned at 11.1 percentage points higher in efficiency. The smooth body of the pins on the cylinder did not significantly decrease neps and short fiber content. In fact, bales produced by the pin cylinder cleaner contained 44 more neps per gram and 1.5 kg/bale more in short fiber. |
