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: 1/4/2006 Publication Date: 6/10/2006 Citation: Le, S. 2006. Performance of a pin cylinder lint cleaner. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. CD ROM pp. 651-657. Interpretive Summary: As U.S. cotton increasingly relies on foreign markets, new machinery is needed to process cotton to meet the demand of overseas customers for quality long fiber with less entanglements (neps). Saw-type lint cleaners are standard equipment used for lint cleaning. While they are efficient in cleaning and increasing bale value, they also cause fiber damage and increase neps. The performance of a scaled-down lint cleaner with a standard saw cylinder was compared to one with a special pin cylinder. The smooth bodies of the pins on the cylinder were thought to be gentler and would cause less damage in handling fiber while cleaning. Results of the experiment revealed that both cleaners yielded fiber of similar appearance. In comparing the performance of the two cylinder configurations, the pin cylinder cleaned 11% better, but generated 6.6 lb/bale less in turnout and 4.0 lb/bale more in fiber waste. It also created more short fiber (3.3 lb/bale ) and increased neps by 44 neps/g. Based on the disappointing performance of the pinned cylinder, further investigation is not warranted. Technical Abstract: Saw type lint cleaners are efficient cleaners, but their aggressive nature also causes more fiber damage and wastage. As the U. S. cotton market shifts to overseas, where customers are interested in longer fiber with fewer neps and fiber damage, there was a renewed interest to re-evaluate the performance of a pinned cylinder lint cleaner, a study first initiated by Columbus (1989). A pinned cylinder, because of its round body pins was expected to cause less damage to the fiber and create less neps in the process. A total of 48 runs with 3 replicates were conducted for the experiments. The bi-level treatment factors included cylinder treatments (pin or saw cylinder), cylinder speed, combing ratio, and variety. Results from this study show that High Volume Instrument (HVI) properties produced by the pin and saw cylinder cleaners were very similar in reflectance and yellowness. The pin cylinder lint cleaner produced less turnout (6.6 lb/bale) and generated more cleaner wastes (4.0 lb/bale of STV4892) at higher cleaning efficiency (11.1% more trash removed than the saw-type cleaner). Compared to the saw cylinder lint cleaner, the smooth body of the pins on the cylinder did not significantly decrease neps and short fiber content. In fact, bales produced by the pin cylinder lint cleaner contained more short fiber (3.3 lb/bale) and neps (44 neps/g). |
