TRASH IDENTIFICATION IN COTTON

Authors: Foulk, Jonn; McAlister Iii, David

Submitted to: Proceedings of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation Meeting
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/8/2005
Publication Date: 3/15/2005
Citation: Foulk, J.A., Mcalister III, D.D. 2005. Trash identification in cotton. Proceedings of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation Meeting. One page only.

Interpretive Summary: The overall aim of this article was to summarize the properties of cotton trash on a card within a multi-bale laydown. High-speed spinning machinery is less tolerant of short fiber, trash, and dust so continued improvements in the cotton card are desirable. New processing techniques and/or instruments are necessary to provide rapid, consistent, and quantitative cotton fiber and trash results. Cotton fiber measurements have progressed from a subjective human classer to the objective High Volume Instrument (HVI). The HVI provides a rapid trash measurement at a low cost using a video camera at one set of conditions. Recent HVI software developments are able to rapidly quantify cotton trash and provide a particle frequency distribution. These trash particles originate either from the cotton plant with various parts of the leaf, stem, back, seed, and hull or from the local environment including grass, sand, dust and other contamination.

Technical Abstract: All cotton contains trash, dust, and other impurities. One cotton bale contains unidentified levels of trash and dust particles. Cotton contamination including large trash and small pepper trash is commonly referred to as visible foreign matter (VFM). Ultimately, textile processing is influenced by trash components found in all cotton bales. Cottons and their trash components are diverse in nature and respond differently to textile cleaning and further processing. The type and amount of trash, fiber-to-trash adhesion, and how well its behavior mimics a fiber determines the ease of trash removal and processing spinning efficiency. It is common practice for textile mills to process cotton on several pieces of opening and cleaning equipment. Prior to spinning, the carding machine is the final opening and cleaning machine. In processing, the card is an excellent location to optimize cotton cleaning due to thin webs of cotton fibers. Further work is needed to determine the effect of cotton trash removal at cleaning points on high speed textile spinning. Textile equipment has become less tolerant of short fibers, trash, and dust with increases in processing speed. Results indicate that card cleaning locations within the card remove trash particles of different sizes and different size distributions and in addition varying levels of dust and short fiber. These different trash particle sizes and distributions may be able to provide additional information to improve card cleaning. These preliminary results may allow textile mills to better understand the type of trash distributions causing processing problems. In other words, more trash particle distribution information may help explain the impact of trash on high speed processing.