Spraying water on ginned cotton
AssigneeMicro Dryer, LLC
InventorRonnie Joe Nimmo, Sr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a cotton gin, water is sprayed into a duct transporting pneumatically conveyed cotton fibers from a gin stand toward a battery condenser to improve the operation of a bale press where the ginned fibers are compacted into a bale. In some embodiments, a taggant is incorporated into the water to mark cotton fibers so threads or fabrics made from the cotton can be identified for quality control purposes. Spray nozzles may deliver water droplets of roughly the same size as the diameter of the cotton fibers. The nozzles may be located on a duct in a location adjacent dead air in the duct to promote coverage of the spray onto the cotton stream. Air may be delivered around the nozzles into the duct to prevent buildup of cotton and debris around the nozzles.
Claims21
A cotton gin comprising at least one gin stand, a battery condenser receiving cotton lint from the at least one gin stand and including a device to separate cotton lint from propulsion air, a duct and equipment configured to pneumatically transport cotton lint from the at least one gin stand to the battery condenser, a bale press, a lint slide delivering a cotton batt from the battery condenser to the bale press, a source of water and at least one spray nozzle configured to receive water from the source and emit droplets, the nozzle being configured to direct the droplets onto the pneumatically transported cotton lint, downstream of the at least one gin stand and upstream of the device in the battery condenser.
A method of marking cotton lint in a cotton gin with a taggant comprising pneumatically conveying cotton lint, in a duct, away from gin stands toward a battery condenser having a device to separate cotton lint from propulsion air and creating a spray of droplets of a liquid solution of the taggant from a nozzle and directing the droplets into the duct onto the cotton lint at a location between the gin stands and the battery condenser device while the cotton lint is being pneumatically conveyed toward the battery condenser.
A method of spraying water on cotton lint in a cotton gin comprising pneumatically conveying cotton lint, in a duct, away from gin stands toward a battery condenser having a device to separate cotton lint from propulsion air and spraying water droplets from a nozzle into the duct onto the cotton lint at a location between the gin stands and the battery condenser device while the cotton lint is being pneumatically conveyed toward the battery condenser.
A cotton gin comprising at least one gin stand, a battery condenser receiving cotton lint from the at least one gin stand and including a device to separate cotton lint from propulsion air, a duct and equipment configured to pneumatically transport cotton lint through the duct from the at least one gin stand to the battery condenser, a bale press and a lint slide delivering a cotton batt from the battery condenser to the bale press and at least one spray nozzle configured to emit water droplets and direct the water droplets into the duct onto the pneumatically transported cotton lint at a location between the at least one gin stand and the battery condenser.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.