Cotton gin condenser with humidification and batt compression

The process of operating a cotton ginning gin having

• a) a condenser drum in
• b) a housing connected by
• c) a lint slide to
• d) a baling press, and
• e) rotation means for rotating the drum in an operating direction,
• f) a doffing chamber,
• g) two doffing rollers in said doffing chamber to doff the cotton from the condenser drum, and
• h) a lint inlet for conveying lint carried in a stream of delivery air to the condenser drum in the housing upstream from the doffing chamber:
• wherein the improved method comprising the following steps:
• i) supplying warm moist air to a moist air inlet upstream of the doffing chamber, thus
• j) forcing warm moist air through a batt adjacent to the doffing cylinders,
• k) preventing the warm moist air from mixing with conveying air conveying the lint to the lint inlet,
• l) supplying warm dry air to the condenser drum downstream of the doffing chamber, and
• m) preventing the warm dry air from mixing with the lint inlet.

In a cotton gin having

• a) a condenser drum in
• b) a housing connected by
• c) a lint slide to
• d) a baling press,
• e) a doffing chamber on the housing,
• f) rotation means on the drum for rotating the drum in an operating direction, and
• g) a lint inlet in the housing upstream from the doffing chamber;
• wherein the improved structure comprises:
• h) a fixed air seal between the housing and drum upstream of the lint inlet,
• i) a moist air inlet in the housing upstream of the doffing chamber,
• j) a source of warm moist air connected to the moist air inlet, and
• k) an air valve between the housing and the drum upstream of the moist air inlet and downstream of the lint inlet.

In a cotton gin having

• a) a condenser drum in
• b) a housing connected by
• c) a lint slide to
• d) a baling press,
• e) the cotton batt is doffed from the drum in the doffing chamber segment
• wherein the improvement comprises:
• f) said housing divided into segments so that a circumferential element of the drum is successively exposed to:
• i) a lint inlet segment,
• ii) a moist air inlet segment,
• iii) a doffing chamber segment, and
• iv) a warm dry air segment;
• whereby:
• g) a cotton batt is formed on the condenser drum in the lint inlet segment,
• h) moist air is blown through the batt on the drum in the humid air segment,
• j) the cotton batt is doffed from the drum in the doffing chamber segment,
• k) the drum surface is dried in the warm dry air segment,
• l) a fixed air seal separating the lint inlet segment from the warm dry air segment,
• m) an air valve separating the warm moist air segment from the inlet segment, and
• n) a flap doffer separating the doffing chamber segment from the warm dry air segment;
• o) said doffing chamber segment including:
• i) a smooth doffing roller and said flap doffer,
• ii) a smooth compression roller,
• iii) a grooved compression roller,
• iv) a delivery roller,
• v) flexible flaps on said flap doffer wiping across the smooth doffer roller, the drum surface, the housing, and the smooth compression roller,
• vi) said compression rollers and said smooth doffing rollers each having a diameter which is about equal to the others,
• vii) said compression rollers biased together to compress a batt there between, and
• viii) said compression rollers receiving the batt from the doffing rollers,
• ix) the delivery roller having a diameter less than the diameter of the compression rollers, and
• x) the delivery roller having a surface close to the smooth doffing roller,
• p) a lint slide air chamber beneath and in thermal conductive relationship to the lint slide,
• q) a conduit connecting a source of warm humid air to a lower portion of the lint slide air chamber, and
• r) the upper portion of the lint slide air chamber forming the moist air segment.