Lint cleaners in cotton gins generally improve fiber quality by removing significant amounts of extraneous material. However, they are also the principal source of damage to fiber in the ginning process, increasing the proportion of short fiber content and the number of neps. Therefore, new and less damaging methods for cleaning lint are being sought. One of the objectives in this effort is to gain a thorough understanding of what happens to cotton fibers in a lint cleaner so that new designs may be able to mitigate the processes where damage primarily occurs. To meet this objective, models are being developed to determine the strains imparted to a cotton fiber at the critical points in a lint cleaner. The simplest model involves static bending of the fiber. A more complex model accounts for the fiber stretching caused by fiber momentum and changes in direction at cleaning points. An even more complex model accounts additionally for the effect of friction between the fiber and machine surfaces at cleaning points. The most complex model would account for the fact that fiber stretching occurs progressively along the length of the fiber because of whipping action. This paper will describe efforts to date at modeling fiber actions associated with cleaning points in a lint cleaner.