Experiences in High-Speed Roller Ginning of Mid-South Grown Cotton

Abstract

Four cotton cultivars were ginned with a saw-gin equipment line and also with a high-speed roller-gin line. The saw-gin line using an air-jet and controlled-batt saw-type lint cleaner was compared to the high-speed roller-gin line using two versions of an experimental lint cleaner, of a basic design not used with commercial roller ginning, one design with a lint reclaimer and the other without the lint reclaimer. The high-speed roller-gin processed the seed cotton at the same rate as the saw-type gin stand per m of machine width; however, the roller-gin stand is narrower than the saw gin stand. The roller-gin line produced lint with better fiber length properties than the saw gin line. The roller-gin stand did less damage to the fiber than the saw-gin stand and the experimental lint cleaner, with or without the reclaimer, did less damage to the lint than the controlled-batt saw-type lint cleaner. Fewer neps were created in the roller-gin line than the saw-gin line. The experimental lint cleaner did not remove as much non-lint as the traditional controlled-batt lint cleaner, about ¾ as much, but cleaned well and the measurements of the negative effects of the lint cleaner were not statistically significant for the experimental cleaner but were significant for the traditional cleaner. The fiber processed with the lint cleaner with the reclaimer had somewhat lower quality than the fiber processed with the same lint cleaner without the reclaimer. Also, the lint cleaner with the reclaimer removed nearly as much material as without the reclaimer. Therefore, the reclaimer will not be included in further testing.