Project Number: 6235-41000-006-01
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2005
End Date: Aug 30, 2010

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research is to determine the long-term findings of roller ginning cotton at high speed in a commercial ginning plant. Operating the high speed roller gin stand over multiple ginning seasons will give a true assessment of the engineering and economic performance of the machine.

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. The Pima crop comprises about 3% of the total U.S. cotton crop. Improving the efficiency of the roller gin stand will decrease the ginning cost of the Pima crop, and may allow upland cotton to be ginned at an economical rate. As roller ginning becomes more cost-effective, the producer benefits by providing a superior fiber in greater demand, and the consumer benefits by having a higher-quality product. A high speed roller gin stand has been built and tested successfully at the Laboratory. The next phase is to determine the performance of the gin stand in a commercial ginning environment. This cooperative research will allow a gin stand to operate over multiple ginning seasons. Its performance will be evaluated by both gin personnel and ARS researchers. In addition to the engineering and economic data obtained at the commerical ginning plant, samples will be collected to ensure that fiber properties are not being compromised.