Fiber micronaire testing system

Abstract

A gin process control system including sensing stations for sensing the physical properties of cotton as it progresses through a gin. A moisture sensor determines, over a wide range of values, the amount of moisture in the cotton. A quality monitor determines the color of the cotton, color distribution, and the amount and type of trash or other impurities which may be entrained in the cotton. A micronaire unit determines both micronaire and cotton maturity. A fiber length tester provides information on the length distribution, breaking strength, and elongation of the cotton fibers. Cotton samples are gathered from the gin flow stream and presented to the sensing stations in a variety of manual, semi-automated, and automated fashions. In a fully automated unit, the sensing stations are connected directly to the gin. The sensing stations are also in communication with the gin process control system, which uses the data from the sensing stations to automatically control the operation of the gin. Alternately, the sensing stations are assembled into a stand-alone unit. In a semi-automatic version of the stand-alone unit, samples are manually gathered and presented to the unit in cassettes for automated subsampling and testing by the sensing stations. In this semi-automatic version, the sensing stations may be in a configuration identical to that of the fully automatic, on-line unit. In a manual version of the stand-alone unit, the samples are manually gathered and manually placed into contact with the various sensing stations. The information reported by the stand-alone units can be used to manually control the operation of the gin.

Description

Background of the invention [0001] The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for processing fibrous materials such as cotton. In particular, the present invention relates to a cotton ginning treatment method and apparatus for optimizing cotton quality. [0002] The term "cotton" is used to refer to either "seed cotton" or "lint cotton". Seed cotton is the original natural flower of a cotton plant with living seedlings compacted with flower fibers. Lint is the flower fiber from which the seeds have been removed. [0003] Cotton ginning involves drying and removing debris from seed cotton, separating seed from lint, removing additional debris from lint, compacting lint, and baling rolls. Depending on the mechanical capabilities of the processing equipment, the gin can process 150,000 lbs of seed cotton per hour into 12,000 lbs of lint, which is baled into 500 lb rolls. It goes without saying that a cotton ginning system consists of several different k...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Fiber length, fiber length variation, fiber strength, fiber elongation, and relative prop...

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