FIBER AND YARN QUALITY FROM COUPLED LINT CLEANER

ABSTRACTSome of the design characteristics of an experimental saw-type lint cleaner which is directly coupled to a saw-gin stand are presented along with performance data. The coupled gin stand and lint cleaner unit is designed to replace one gin stand and two stages of standard saw-type lint cleaning. Raw fiber data from both a small laboratory study and a full-scale mill study show that the coupled lint cleaner, when compared to standard lint cleaning, produces fiber that is significantly cleaner, longer, and with fewer short fibers. Spinning and weaving data also show that the coupled-lint-cleaner fiber has significantly less mill waste and a tendency to produce more uniform yam and stronger, more uniform cloth. Nep counts in the raw fiber were significantly higher for the coupled-lint-cleaner.