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Submitted to: ASAE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 8/28/2004 Publication Date: 10/10/2004 Citation: Holt, G.A. 2004. Fiber quality comparison tests of the power roll gin stand to three different makes of conventional gin stands. In: Proceedings of the ASAE Annual International Meeting, August 1-4, 2004, Ottawa, Canada. Paper No. 041055. 16 p. Interpretive Summary: During the 2003-04 ginning season, there were eleven cotton gins that operated eighteen powered roll gin stands. This was the first year for this technology to be utilized in a commercial application. The technology was retrofitted on four different makes and models of conventional gin stands. This paper reports on comparison studies conducted in three commercial cotton gins operating different makes and models of gin stands. The cotton gins were located in Arkansas, California, and Texas. This study focused primarily on fiber quality comparisons of the powered roll gin stand technology versus conventional gin stands. Results showed the best performance was obtained on the same model of gin stand as the initial prototype evaluated in the USDA-ARS ginning laboratory in Lubbock, Texas. Overall, the power roll technology shows great promise and should be optimized for different makes of gin stands currently in use. Likewise, the power roll gin stand lends itself to potential real-time process control applications where the gin stand would be able to adjust operational settings based on the quality of seed cotton being ginned. The potential for this gin stand to perform "prescription ginning" is discussed. Technical Abstract: The powered roll gin stand is a new saw-type ginning technology that has undergone numerous studies evaluating its use for ginning seed cotton. Past results have shown increased production and turnout without adversely affecting fiber properties. In some cases, improvements in fiber properties over a conventional gin stand were demonstrated. This paper reports High Volume Instrument and Advanced Fiber Information System fiber property results from three recent field tests evaluating the technology on three different makes of gin stands. Results indicate the make of gin stand where optimization studies have been performed to determine optimal operational settings performed significantly better than the conventional gin stand in processing rate, lint turnout, and some fiber properties. Current and planned future studies are also discussed, including the potential to use this technology for real-time process control of fiber properties. |
