Trash Particle Attachment to Fiber and the Effects of Various Machine-Fiber Interactions

Improving cotton fiber quality is a major concern for maintaining the competitiveness of U.S. cotton.  Machine-fiber interactions involving harvesting and gin machinery are essential to U.S. cotton production, but it is known that some interactions cause fiber damage, mainly in the form of short fiber and neps.  Therefore, the effects of all machine interactions between field and bale on fiber damage and particle-fiber attachment were examined.  Samples of seed cotton were hand harvested at the Texas A&M research farm in Burleson County, TX.  The locations of these samples were selected in an effort to account for field variability.  The hand-harvested samples were hand-ginned, and these represent fiber prior to machine interaction.  At the hand-sampling locations, machine-harvested seed cotton was also collected by hand as it was being blown into the picker basket.  These samples have also been hand-ginned, and they represent fiber that has undergone interaction with the harvester only.  The modules made from the cotton harvested in the same field locations were ginned at a local gin.  Samples that were collected at the feeder apron were also hand-ginned, and these represent fiber that has undergone interaction with the harvester and seed-cotton-cleaning equipment in the gin.  Samples were also collected immediately after fiber-seed separation, and these represent fiber that has undergone interaction with the harvester, the seed-cotton-cleaning equipment in the gin, and the gin stand.  Samples were also collected after one stage of lint cleaning, and these represent fiber that has undergone interaction with the harvester, the seed-cotton-cleaning equipment in the gin, the gin stand, and one lint cleaner.  There were thus five treatments for each hand-harvest field location, and three replications for a total of 75 samples.  A portion of the samples were subsampled to prepare for video microscopy.  Randomly selected particles were removed under microscope and classified according to type, tightness of attachment to surrounding fiber, and the quantity of fibers surrounding the particle.  The results indicate that fibers are attached to particles by adhering in cracks at the fractured edges of particles, and also that each stage of machine processing tends to increase the tightness of attachment between fibers and particles.