A multiple-saw carding-type lint cleaner (Fig. 1) initially developed for textile applications has been found to be substantially more efficient than gin-type lint cleaners for removing trash and dust from ginned lint (4). Carding techniques, when used in combination with multiple-saw arrangements, provide a high degree of drafting and opening of the fiber for easier release of trash particles (3). Unfortunately, the processing capacity of the carding-type cleaner is too low for normal cotton ginning applications. In prior research where these two types of cleaners were compared, it was necessary to operate the carding-type cleaner at a feed rate that was substantially lower than that used for the gin cleaners. These variations in feed rate clouded efforts to accurately measure inherent performance differences between the two types of machines. Thus, one of the objectives of this work was to compare the performances of carding-type and gin lint cleaners under similar lint feeding conditions.

Prior research results and machinery developments suggest that multiple-saw lint cleaners might overcome some of the performance limitations of conventional gin-type lint cleaning systems, especially if these cleaners could be equipped with carding components (2). For these possibilities to be realized, however, highly efficient lint transfer techniques need to be developed for the high production rates normally encountered in gin cleaning. Another objective of this work was to determine the operating characteristics of a special airblast method for transferring lint from one saw cylinder to another in an experimental dual-saw lint cleaner.