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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #152841
Title: THE EFFECTS OF PEPPER TRASH ON FIBER QUALITY AND SPINNING PERFORMANCE

Author
item Hughs, Sidney
item McAlister Iii, David

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/8/2003
Publication Date: 8/1/2003
Citation: Hughs, S.E., McAlister, D.D. The effects of pepper trash on fiber quality and spinning performance. CD-ROM. Memphis, TN:National Cotton Council. 2003.

Interpretive Summary: Raw cotton going to the textile mill contains a small amount of impurities in the form of plant parts, seed coats, and related material. Some of this material accumulates during the rotor spinning process, causing the yarn to break and requiring the spinning equipment to be cleaned. The source and nature of this accumulated material has not been well defined; however, there are preliminary indications that most of the material is made up of very small fragments of the cotton boll. This is a preliminary report on a research project designed to determine if cotton boll fragments are the source of the rotor spinning problem.

Technical Abstract: Material accumulation in the rotor groove causing the yarn to break is a serious spinning efficiency problem for the open- end spinning industry. Fine trash, sometimes called pepper trash, is blamed for this rotor buildup and subsequent ends down. The origin of this pepper trash has been blamed on various foreign materials from soil to small leaf particles and other plant materials. There is currently some indication that the origin of the material building up in the spinning rotor groove may derive from broken pieces of hull. Specially processed test cotton was produced at the Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory that contained known high quantities of soil particles, and small leaf and hull fragments. This cotton was provided to the Cotton Quality Research Station to be processed through their open end spinning line. Material was collected from rotor grooves for further analysis to determine its origin. Once the origin of the problem material is determined, then the problem of removal can be addressed during the ginning process.