Project Number: 6235-41000-006-13
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2005
End Date: Aug 31, 2010

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research is to determine the performance of newly-designed rotary and stationary knives on a roller gin stand that work in combination to remove only the longer, more desirable fibers from the cottonseed.

Approach:
Roller ginning, when compared to saw ginning, does the least amount of damage when separating the fiber from the seed. Roller ginning produces a superior fiber with excellent spinning potential. However, roller ginning is a slow and expensive process and used only to gin the Pima cotton crop which comprises about 3% of the total U.S. cotton crop. If roller ginning can be made to remove only the longer and more desirable fibers on all cottons (Pima and upland), new markets for this better-quality fiber may open up (especially with upland cotton). In addition, differential roller ginning may require less work to separate the fiber from the seed, making roller ginning more cost-effective. A formal experiment will determine the operating parameters of the gin stand and the characteristics of the fiber.