Use of Pressured-Air for Cotton Lint Cleaning

Saw-type lint cleaner (STLC) was most efficient lint cleaner in cotton ginning. However, STLC damaged fiber quality. An air-bar lint cleaner (ABLC) was developed and evaluated to preserve cotton fiber quality. The ABLC used pressurized-air to remove non-lint materials from cotton fiber. During lint cleaning process, non-lint materials attached to the fiber were blown off the fiber without the fiber making aggressive mechanical contact with a grid bar in conventional saw-type lint cleaner (STLC). It was expected using this concept that the fiber quality could be preserved by reducing the damage from mechanical impact of the fiber against the grid bar. Preliminary testing of the ABLC prototype showed that ABLC generated less lint waste and had a higher turnout rate than STLC. Use of ABLC could save 2.8 kg of lint in each 225 kg bale of cotton. The High Volume Instrument (HVI) analysis indicated the fiber properties in fiber length, uniformity, short fiber content, and color were not significantly different between ABLC and STLC. However, the Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS) tests showed STLC had better performance than ABLC in fiber length and short fiber content while the trash and dust content with ABLC was lower than the STLC. More research was necessary to further prove the concept of ABLC and improve its performance in preserving cotton fiber quality.