Author
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Le, Sanh |
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Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 1/4/2005 Publication Date: 1/7/2005 Citation: Le, S. 2005. Lint cleaning performance of modified cylinder cleaners. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. CD ROM pp. 714-731. Interpretive Summary: As the United States cotton market shifts to export, several fiber quality parameters do not meet foreign needs and monetary discounts are received. These fiber qualities must be improved to meet the demands and product needs of global customers. Fiber quality must be preserved during gin processing to remain competitive. This research explores alternative machines to clean lint after ginning that are less aggressive than current machines. Cylinder cleaners that are normally used to clean seed cotton prior to ginning and are less aggressive and damaging were considered to clean ginned lint. Based on results from a previous report, this study focused on the effects of two key components in a cylinder cleaner: the shape of the cleaning bars and the spacing between the bars. While results from this study did not show that cylinder cleaners studied caused less damage to fiber properties, it did reveal that they provided higher fiber yield with excellent quality. The gain is potentially 7.5 pounds of good fiber per a 500 pound bale for an optimally configured cylinder cleaner. This amount is easily translated into 150 million pounds of good fiber annually in the United States. The improved lint yield will help offset discounts due to less than desirable fiber qualities and help U.S. farmers remain competitive. Technical Abstract: Lint cleaning performances of a cylinder cleaner equipped with six different grid bar configurations were evaluated. The configurations varied depending on cylinder positions, grid bar geometries--flat squares or diamonds, and gaps between grid bars--narrow 6.4 mm (0.25 in) or wide 9.6 mm (0.375 in). A baseline saw-type lint cleaner configuration was also included in the experiment. Results indicated that all but one cylinder cleaner configuration (number 7, a six cylinder cleaner with a special saw-type lint cleaner connected in tandem), yielded higher turnouts than that of the saw-type lint cleaner and lost less fiber to waste. The saw-type lint cleaner and configuration 7 cleaned most efficiently and provided the best reflectance (Rd) values. Configuration 1 was the best overall performer among the cylinder cleaner configurations in the study. This configuration is composed of cradle of flat, square grid bars with both wide and narrow gaps depending on cylinder position. This cylinder cleaner configuration provided an adequate reflectance value and cleaning performance, a high turnout, and a moderate fiber loss to waste. |
