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US 2018/0209068 A1Published application
Cottonseed Delinters and Methods
AssigneeCotton Incorporated
InventorsGregory A. Holt, Thomas C. Wedegaertner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for removing material, e.g., linters, from seeds, e.g., ginned cottonseeds, are provided. The systems and methods involve rotating the seeds in a rotatable drum having a plurality of longitudinal brushes. The centrifugal force created by the rotation of the drum and the plurality of longitudinal brushes urge the seeds against an interior surface of the drum that is lined with brushes or the like. In this way, work is performed that removes the material from the exterior of the seeds. A pre-conditioner may be used to prepare the seeds for introduction and a linter off-take chute may be used to remove linters. Other embodiments are presented.
Claims20
A system for removing linters from ginned cottonseeds, the system comprising:
- a rotatable drum having an exterior surface and an interior surface, wherein the interior surface defines, at least in part, a drum cavity, wherein the drum cavity has a first longitudinal-end opening and a second longitudinal-end opening;
- a plurality of flexible abrasive members coupled to and substantially covering the interior surface of the rotatable drum;
- one or more frames coupled to the rotatable drum for rotatably supporting the rotatable drum;
- a first end plate substantially covering the first longitudinal-end opening of the cavity;
- a second end plate substantially covering the second longitudinal-end opening;
- a plurality of longitudinal brushes, each longitudinal brush of the plurality of longitudinal brushes is coupled to the first end plate and the second end plate and each longitudinal brush has brush elements that are configured to bias the cottonseeds having linters against the flexible abrasive member on the interior surface of the rotatable drum;
- at least one linter-removal aperture formed on the first or second end plate and fluidly coupled to the cavity and to a first reduced-pressure source for removing linters from the drum cavity;
- at least one seed-removal conduit fluidly coupled to the cavity for removing the cottonseeds after delinting;
- and
- a pre-conditioner seed feed subsystem for removing a portion of the linters from the ginned cotton seeds prior to introduction into the rotatable drum, the pre-conditioner seed feed subsystem comprising:
- a longitudinal auger trough member having a first longitudinal end and a second longitudinal end and formed with a first side wall, second side wall, and a third side wall, and wherein the first side wall, the second side wall, and the third side wall form an interior auger cavity having a longitudinal opening,
- a longitudinal lid member sized and configured to cover the longitudinal opening in the longitudinal auger trough,
- a seed introduction port formed at one end of the longitudinal auger trough member,
- a seed exit port formed at another end of the longitudinal auger trough member and spaced from the seed introduction port,
- a rotatable auger disposed within the interior auger cavity of the longitudinal auger trough member,
- an auger rotation assembly coupled to the rotatable auger for rotating the rotatable auger,
- a plurality of brush members coupled to at least one of the first side wall, second side wall, and third side wall of the longitudinal auger trough;
- a plurality of lid brush members coupled to an interior surface of the longitudinal lid member, and
- a pre-conditioner linter removal subsystem fluidly coupled to the interior auger cavity and having a second reduced-pressure source.
16 more elements
A method for removing linters from ginned cottonseeds, the method comprising:
- preconditioning a plurality of ginned cotton seeds with a pre-conditioner seed feed subsystem to remove at least 5% of remaining linters, wherein the pre-conditioner seed feed subsystem comprises a longitudinal auger trough member having a plurality of brush members lining an interior surface, an auger disposed in the longitudinal auger trough, and having a longitudinal lid member having a plurality of lid brush members that form a plurality of brush zones;
- removing remaining linters from the ginned cotton seeds after preconditioning the ginned cotton seeds using a rotating drum member lined with abrasive members and a plurality of longitudinal rollers disposed proximate the abrasive members, and at least one rotation device for rotating the drum;
- removing the ginned cotton seeds from the rotatable drum through a seed removal port after the remaining linters have been removed from the ginned cottonseeds;
- and
- removing linters from the rotating drum using a linter off-take chute fluidly coupled to a drum cavity of the rotating drum member.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.