Influence of cotton varieties and gin machinery on trash particles

Small trash particles create serious operational problems for textile mills during spinning. Samples of cotton from five studies involving numerous gin machinery sequences, moisture levels, cotton varieties, and two harvesting methods (spindle and stripper) were evaluated before and after gin processing. The foreign matter before any cleaning, after cleaning of the seed cotton, and ginning and lint cleaning was measured. The particle sizes of the foreign matter in the ginned and cleaned lint were evaluated with an Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS). The more aggressive seed cotton cleaning and lint cleaning machinery treatments produced the lowest levels of all types of trash particles including the particles 50 to 500 microns and 500 to 1000 microns, which include the sizes of concern to the textile industry. Very large differences also occurred as a result of different varieties, harvesting methods, and field locations.