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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #213532
Title: A New Grid Bar Design for a Modified Cylinder Cleaner

Author
item Le, Sanh

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/5/2007
Publication Date: 7/1/2007
Citation: Le, S. 2007. A new grid bar design for a modified cylinder cleaner. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. CD ROM pp. 707-719.

Interpretive Summary: The saw-type lint cleaner is the standard equipment used domestically to reduce trash level and improve fiber appearance after ginning. Unfortunately, this highly effective lint cleaning machine also causes fiber damage and reduces yield. To maintain our technology lead and competitive advantage in the global market, we need to develop new lint cleaning technology to improve fiber quality and yield. The new cleaner must also reduce fiber damage to preserve fiber length to meet market demands. An alternative cleaner, a modified cylinder cleaner, was developed to meet the challenges. The modified cleaner was tested at a research ginning facility. Test results showed that the modified cleaner increased yield by 14.0 lb per bale with fiber quality and appearance comparable to that from a standard saw-type lint cleaner. The modified cleaner has a potential of increasing the value of the 20 million bales of U.S. cotton by $7 per bale.

Technical Abstract: Grid bars having a chisel shape and sharp cutting edge were designed and installed in a modified cylinder cleaner. The modified cleaner’s seed cotton and lint cleaning performances were evaluated in two tests. Results indicated that seed-cotton cleaning efficiency of the modified cylinder cleaner equipped with the chisel-shape grid bars was 2 to 2.5 times higher than that of a cylinder cleaner equipped with narrowly spaced flat, square grid bars. The tests also showed that in comparing to a saw-type lint cleaner, the modified cylinder cleaner could potentially gain a maximum of 6.4 kg/bale of fiber without compromising color and other fiber properties. This modified cleaner was equipped with narrowly spaced chisel-shape grid bars connected in series with a saw-type lint cleaner with one cleaning point. The tests also showed no significant difference between the manual and labor saving suction pipe packing methods for seed cotton.