Experiments were conducted at three commercial gins to study the characteristics and efficiency of flow-through air-type lint cleaners operating under standard field conditions. Overall, one air lint cleaner gave a cleaning efficiency of 9% compared to 36% for one saw lint cleaner following an air lint cleaner. However, the air-type cleaners caused less fiber damage than the saw-type cleaners. Although textile mills prefer that ginned lint be cleaned at gins with only one saw-type lint cleaner, many gins use two stages of saw lint cleaning to obtain higher grades. An air-type lint cleaner can be substituted for one of the gin's usual saw machines. These results, however, indicate that air-type cleaners need to be improved to better supplement lint cleaning with only one saw-cylinder lint cleaner to ensure acceptable grades and market return.
