Australia: Round Module Handling and Cotton Classing

Round modules of seed cotton produced via on-board module building harvesters are the reality of the cotton industry, worldwide.  Although round modules have been available to the industry for almost a decade, there is still no consensus on the best method to handle the modules, particularly when they need to be unwrapped and feed into the gin.  A survey of common practices used to unwrap these modules was conducted during the 2016 Australian cotton ginning season.  Round module unwrapping can be performed by either cutting the wrap or pulling the wrap off the module intact.  Regardless of whether the wrap is cut or not, the unwrapping can be performed either manually or semi-automatically, with the orientation of the module to the module feeder dependent on the unwrapping method used. Module handling was evaluated from various perspectives including safety, speed and potential for contamination entering the processing stream.  In addition to the evaluation of round module handling practices, visits were made to Australian cotton classing facilities and compared to USDA classing.