Evaluating a Pneumatic Fractionator for Cleaning Ginned Lint

Abstract

<abstract> <b><sc>Abstract. </sc></b>The pneumatic fractionator has long been used to determine foreign matter content of seed cotton at the USDA-ARS cotton ginning laboratories. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the pneumatic fractionator as a device to remove foreign matter from ginned lint. No modifications were made to the standard device, except that air pressure to internal jets was reduced to 276 kPa (40 psi) from 517 kPa (70 psi). Three lint cleaning treatments after normal saw ginning were used: no lint cleaning, one standard controlled-batt saw lint cleaner, and cleaning with the pneumatic fractionator. Process times in the pneumatic fractionator were varied from 5 to 30 s. Foreign matter content (2.0 leaf grade and 253 counts g^-1 AFIS total foreign matter) and color measurements (78.69 Rd and 10.20 +b) for the pneumatic fractionator were not statistically different from the saw lint cleaner (2.0 leaf grade, 257 counts g^-1 AFIS total foreign matter, 79.08 Rd, and 10.18 +b). Length measurements of pneumatic fractionator cleaned lint were similar to or better than those of lint with no lint cleaning and, in most cases, better than lint cleaned with a saw lint cleaner. For example, upper- half mean length for pneumatic fractionator cleaned, no lint cleaning, and saw lint cleaner fiber was 29.7, 30.0, and 29.2 mm (1.17, 1.18, and 1.15 in), respectively. Also, the pneumatic fractionator produced about the same number of fiber entanglements as the saw lint cleaner. Processing time in the pneumatic fractionator had very little effect on fiber quality parameters with the exception that the 5 s processing time had the highest levels of foreign matter. These results showed that the pneumatic fractionator cleaned lint about as well as a saw lint cleaner, but maintained fiber length better.