Principles of Dust Removal in Gin Machinery: Theoretical and Measured

Abstract

Some textile mill workers develop byssinosis as a result of cotton dust. A wet extraction process can be used to remove most of the respirable dust but the quality of the yarn is lowered. Gin processes remove proportional quantities of respirable dust as a result of the pneumatic and mechanical forces that are applied to the dust particles. The effectiveness of each gin process in removing 15-micron diameter dust particles was evaluated experimentally and a lint cleaner was the only machine that effectively removed dust particles. Theoretical analyses of the effect of the gin processes on 15-micron diameter dust particles attached to the cotton fibers indicated that maximum pneumatic forces of 17.0 × 10−8 N were applied during the conveyance of seed cotton, and maximum mechanical forces of 28.7 × 10−5 N were applied during lint cleaning.