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US 10,329,690 B2Granted
Drying seed cotton in a feed controller
AssigneesCaroline Marie Nimmo, Jimmy Ray Stover
InventorRonnie Joe Nimmo, Sr.
Life of this patent
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AssigneesCaroline Marie Nimmo, Jimmy Ray Stover
InventorRonnie Joe Nimmo, Sr.
Estimating the term…
A seed cotton dryer comprises an array of electromagnetic wave energy generators in a cotton gin, a cotton picker/stripper. An appropriate amount of energy is used to evaporate a considerable amount of moisture in the seed cotton without producing enough energy to pop the cotton seeds. Seed cotton dried by wave energy is much easier to separate the cotton seeds and lint from leaves, stems and other plant parts. The seed cotton is preferably transported through the dryer in a conduit having flat sides which reflects the wave energy more efficiently than through a round conduit. Provisions are made to prevent arcing in the transport conduit when extraneous metal pieces are inadvertently mixed with the seed cotton. In some embodiments, heated air from a diesel engine is used to dry crops as they are being harvested.
A cotton gin comprising a module feeder, a feed controller downstream of the module feeder for accumulating a quantity of seed cotton and including a conduit providing a surge capacity, a separator/cleaner downstream from the feed controller and at least one gin stand receiving seed cotton from the separator/cleaner and a conveying system adapted to convey cotton discharging from the feed controller to the at least one gin stand including a flow regulator adjacent an exit of the feed controller for controlling flow of seed cotton toward the at least one gin stand and a dryer including an array of electromagnetic wave energy sources in an energy distributing zone on the conduit applying electromagnetic wave energy to the seed cotton.
A method of operating a cotton gin comprising a module feeder, a feed controller including a conduit providing a surge capacity, the conduit being downstream from the module feeder, a separator/cleaner downstream from the feed controller, and at least one gin stand receiving seed cotton from the separator/cleaner, the method comprising
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.