Cotton Ginning introduction
Ginning process
Cotton Gin is a set of machines or an industry in which the ginning process takes place.
In other words, The process of separation of the seeds and debris from raw cotton materials. is known as ginning process.
In general, the cotton is dried first to remove moisture, then cleaned to remove any burs, stems, leaves, or other foreign matter, and at last fibre cleaned fibre tufts are pressed for easy transportation.
Cotton fibres are produced in pods (seed bolls) of the cotton plants at farms. The lint (cotton fibres) is interspersed with seeds in pods.
For the Textile process of cotton, It is necessary to collect lint from it to make that fibre usable for making yarn.
Historically the Whole task of ginning was manually performed. But in that case, man work hours are higher but the final bulk of fibres is less separated. Concerning time developments in ginning, machines occur, Many simple seed-removing devices have been invented over the years. In modern times the whole ginning process is done automatically due to modern machines and achieving higher efficiency.
The objective and the basic idea of ginning
The basic objectives are, that cotton fibres are separate from cottonseed and other stuff, Remove unnecessary wastage, dust, neaps, and other things, collect cotton fibres (lint) and cottonseed separately, and make bales for the spinning process.
Separated cotton seeds are used for growing cotton plants if they are less damaged, If damage is higher then used to produce cottonseed oil and meal for specific animals.
In the ideal case, cotton fibre is completely separate from cottonseed without the slightest damage or injury of fibres.
But, due to some technical and mechanical aspects, this can't be achieved. However with the help of the following machines, production is higher with less damage of fibre compared to conventional and manmade ginning.
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| Cotton Plant |
Types of ginning
1. Conventional ginning system
In this system, the ginning process is done hand in hand. A group of people collect cotton material and clean it by hand and then with the help of a conventional machine ( which lowers the production rate due to its small size ) collect lint from it. The lint was pressed manually and then sent to prepare the yarn. In some regions and places, a small amount of tuft is required to use this kind of system.
2. Modern Ginning system
In this system, the whole ginning process is done by machines. Feeding raw materials into dispensing hot tubes by loaders, transferring of materials by conveyor belts or suction ducts, automatic bale pressing, and transferring bale by machines. In this system, production is higher and widely used for all kinds of cotton fibres.
There are 3 types of Gin according to machines used for the ginning process for certain lengths of fibres.
- Knife roller gin/ Roller gin
- Saw gin
- Macarthy Gin
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| Basic ginning process |
Raw material for ginning
In cotton ginning, Cotton is collected from the local farmers around gin, market yard, and for some cases imported for another region.
The main raw material, Cotton is selected for ginning according to, which kind of quality the ginner wants to make. Ginner figured out to which spinner they wanted to sell Bales and according to that spinner's specific demand ginner collected raw materials.
After Collecting raw material, which is in a range of particular quality and quantity they are mixed or stored in specific bulk for a particular time.
This input material's store time is for maintaining moisture and for the completed cotton fibre's maturity. This time varies in the range of 4-10 days depending that is which kind of cotton grade and how much quantity is present in that particular stock.
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| Raw materials for Gin - Cotton |
Questions -
- What is a ginning process done?
- How ginning process is done?
- What are the objectives of ginning?
- What are the different types of ginning processes?
- What is the raw material for ginning?
References
Cotton: From field to fabric- ginning. (n.d.). Cotton.org. from https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/fieldtofabric/gin.cfm
Shaikat, N. M. (2019, August 17). Ginning: Cotton ginning, process, types, and objectives. ORDNUR. https://ordnur.com/spinning/ginning-process-of-cotton/
Sharratt, B., & Auvermann, B. (2014). Dust Pollution from Agriculture. In Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems (pp. 487–504). Elsevier.
Textile School. (2011, May 3). Cotton fibre ginning. Textile School. https://www.textileschool.com/366/cotton-fiber-ginning/
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2022). cotton gin. In Encyclopedia Britannica.
The story of Cotton- how Cotton is Ginned and marketed. (n.d.). Cotton.org. from https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/story/gin-and-market.cfm
Further reading -
Part-2 Ginning process and its types
Part-3 Technical aspects of the ginning process
Writer - DSPAT Team
