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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #250132
Title: Using High-Speed Video to Examine Differential Roller Ginning of Upland Cotton

Author
item Armijo, Carlos
item VAN DOORN, DONALD - Lummus Corporation
item Hughs, Sidney
item GILLUM, MARVIS - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/2/2010
Publication Date: 4/1/2010
Citation: Armijo, C.B., Van Doorn, D.W., Hughs, S.E., Gillum, M.N. 2010. Using High-Speed Video to Examine Differential Roller Ginning of Upland Cotton. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. p. 699-708. 2010 CD.

Interpretive Summary: Roller ginning, when compared to saw ginning, is a gentler method of ginning cotton, yielding improvements in fiber length, length uniformity, short fiber content, nep content, and lint turnout. Roller ginning is a slow and expensive process that traditionally has been used to gin the higher-quality extra-long-staple Pima cotton. Recent advancements in high-speed roller ginning have made the processing rate of a roller gin stand comparable to a saw gin stand on a per-foot-of-width basis, and ginning plants in the Southwestern and Western parts of the U.S. have begun to gin upland cotton on roller gin stands to take advantage of the improved fiber properties. Differential roller ginning is an attempt to make further improvements in fiber length of upland cotton. With the help of a digital high-speed video camera, results showed that it may be possible to selectively remove only the longer fibers off of cottonseed by controlling the time and position that seed cotton dwells at the ginning point. The videos also showed that precise feed control and single locking of seed cotton are needed to prevent excessive congestion at the ginning point. The improvements in fiber length from differential roller ginning may earn a substantially higher price and open up new markets for upland cotton.

Technical Abstract: A digital high-speed video camera was used to show what occurs as upland fiber is being pulled off of cottonseed at the ginning point on a roller gin stand. The study included a conventional ginning treatment, and a treatment that attempted to selectively remove only the longer fibers off of cottonseed (differential roller ginning) by controlling the time seed cotton dwells at, and its proximity to, the ginning point. Results showed that by changing the surface velocity ratio between the ginning roller and the rotary knife, it was possible to control the movement of cottonseed with respect to the ginning point. The videos showed precise feed control and single locking of seed cotton are needed to prevent excessive congestion at the ginning point during differential roller ginning. In this study, fiber lengths were not different between conventional and differential ginning treatments. Further testing is needed to determine the optimum surface velocities of the ginning roller and rotary knife, and the optimum number of blades on the rotary knife for differential roller ginning.