Equipment Selection for Recovering Fiber from Stripper Harvested Gin Waste

Previous research focusing on the importance of segregating gin waste revealed fiber portions that could be reclaimed as motes.  Since the information was first presented, several other presentations of other research findings as well as practical experience at a commercial cotton gin in the South were given at the National Cotton Ginners’ Association’s gin schools in Lubbock, TX and Stoneville, MS.  The presentations given at the gin schools prompted several inquiries as to what pieces of equipment would be best to use to reclaim fiber from the gin waste most effectively.  In this study, nine scenarios were evaluated using various combinations of gravity, separators, cylinder cleaners, and extractors to determine the sequence of equipment that yielded the cleanest fiber.  The gin waste used in this study was obtained from a West Texas gin during the 2005 - 2006 ginning season and was stored in a shed until processing for this study.  The gin waste was obtained from modules that had been stripper harvested without a field cleaner.  Motes from the lint cleaners were not included in the gin waste used in this study.  Samples were collected from each piece of equipment evaluated and sent to Cotton Incorporated for length and trash content evaluation of the recovered fiber. The objective of this research is to provide guidance as to the sequencing of equipment that would be most beneficial to a cotton gin that is considering reclaiming fiber, for addition into their mote bales, from their gin waste.