Belt Feeding a 10-Saw Gin Stand

HighlightsSample sizes ranging from 200 to 400 g of seed cotton.Belt feeder resulted in consistent ginning times at each sample size.Belt feeder evaluated using 90 runs of cotton.Abstract. Breeder gin stands are often hand-fed, unlike commercial large-scale operations that have a feeder system. However, hand-feeding makes it difficult to obtain a consistent feed rate, and it becomes a variable that is hard to account for when comparing data. This study investigated the system performance of using a conveyor belt for feeding the seed cotton to a breeder gin stand. To achieve this objective, a 10-saw breeder gin stand with 10-in. saws was instrumented with a power/energy logger and operated on cotton samples ranging from 200 to 400 g by three different operators. The instrumentation recorded the electrical power over time, and the power data was post-processed into energy and ginning time per run. Over the course of 90 runs, sample size was a significant factor for ginning time. A pairwise comparison failed to show that the operator significantly affected energy or ginning time. The belt feeder system was successful at feeding the cotton. Therefore, the system does help maintain consistency of feeding and consequently improve the accuracy of data obtained when operating the breeder gin. Keywords: Breeder gin, Energy, Ginning time, Instrumentation, Mechanical feeding.