ABSTRACT
Cotton gin machinery manufacturers have an opportunity to play several important roles in improving cotton quality. The present cotton classing system does not reward the farmer for producing the highest quality lint for the textile mills, and this is the greatest retardant to the improvement of cotton quality. While cotton gin machinery manufacturers must produce machinery to optimize cotton for the existing classing system, machinery manufacturers have played an important role in sounding the alarm that the present classing system should be changed. With the advent of HVI, the classing system is now being changed, but in the initial stages HVI will not impact the processes and practices in cotton gins. Gin machinery manufacturers can be helpful in pointing out the additional quality factors needed to provide incentives for the ginners to employ machinery and practices to preserve fiber quality for textile mill use. Among these additional quality measurements are short fiber content, a qualitative analysis of the trash in the lint in addition to the present quantitative analysis and a "cleanability" evaluation of the lint. Further quality test factors may be added through cooperative efforts involving in machinery manufacturers.
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