RESEARCH OF THE EFFECT OF FIBER CLEANERS MANUFACTURED IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES ON THE FIBER CLEANING PROCESS

ABSTRACT

To study the efficiency of fiber cleaners manufactured in foreign countries, research was carried out on the aerodynamic and condenser-type fiber cleaners manufactured in China, which are used in the Juma cotton ginning enterprise. During research work, it is determined that the mass fraction of defective fiber and dirty impurities in the fiber produced from the ginning of Omad selection I and III grade 2 class cotton was on average 3.78% and 4.3%, an average of 3.32% and 3.64% after MQPQ-3000 aerodynamic fiber cleaner. In this case, the average cleaning efficiency of the cleaner is 12.2% and 15.3%, which is 2.8 (abs)% and 2.7 (abs)% less than the cleaning efficiency of the passport. During the operation of the cleaner in an aerodynamic position, due to the defect in the construction of the pump between the gin and the cleaner, blockages occurred in the pump, which had to be stopped frequently. This, in turn, led to a decrease in productivity. After the aerodynamic cleaner, when the fiber was cleaned in the condenser type MQP-600x3000 fiber cleaner, the mass percentage of fiber defects and impurities was 1.98% and 2.12% on average. In this case, the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner was on average 40.4% and 41.8%, and it showed that it was on average 4.6 (abs)% and 8.2 (abs)% less than the cleaning efficiency of the passport. In this case, the fiber content of the waste was higher than the required standard and was 49% and 53%. The power consumption of the cleaner was 27.2 kWh, which was 16.2 kWh more than the local 2VPM fiber cleaner. In addition, it has been studied that this type of fiber cleaner cannot be used in local cotton ginning enterprises today because the cleaner has a complex construction and causes specific difficulties in its use.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Для изучения эффективности очистителей волокна, производимых в зарубежных странах, были проведены исследования на очистителях волокна аэродинамического и конденсаторного типа производства Китая, которые используются на хлопкоочистительном предприятии Джума. В ходе научно-исследовательской работы установлено, что массовая доля дефектного волокна и грязных примесей в волокне, полученном из джинирования хлопка Омад селекции I и III сорта 2 класса, составила в среднем 3,78% и 4,3%, в среднем 3,32% и 3,64% после очистителя аэродинамического волокна MQPQ-3000. При этом средняя эффективность очистки очистителя составляет 12,2% и 15,3%, что на 2,8(абс)% и 2,7(абс)% меньше паспортной эффективности очистки. При работе очистителя в аэродинамическом положении из-за дефекта конструкции насоса между джином и очистителем возникали засоры насоса, которые приходилось часто останавливать. Это, в свою очередь, привело к снижению производительности. После аэродинамического очистителя при очистке волокна в конденсаторном очистителе волокна типа МКП-600х3000 массовая доля дефектов волокна и примесей составила 1,98% и в среднем 2,12%. При этом эффективность очистки очистителя составила в среднем 40,4% и 41,8%, что показало, что она в среднем на 4,6(абс)% и 8,2(абс)% меньше паспортной эффективности очистки. При этом содержание клетчатки в отходах было выше требуемой нормы и составляло 49% и 53%. Потребляемая мощность очистителя составила 27,2 кВтч, что на 16,2 кВтч больше, чем у местного очистителя оптоволокна 2VPM. Кроме того, изучено, что этот тип очистителя волокна сегодня не может быть использован на местных хлопкоочистительных предприятиях, поскольку очиститель имеет сложную конструкцию и вызывает определенные трудности.

Keywords: Saw gin, aerodynamic cotton cleaner, condenser-type cleaner, rollers.

Ключевые слова: пилоджин, аэродинамический очиститель хлопка, очиститель конденсаторного типа, валики.

Introduction. In cotton ginning enterprises, the process of fiber cleaning is mainly carried out in equipment with three different designs. These are fiber cleaning equipment in aerodynamic, pneumomechanical, and mechanical methods [1].

In the USA, China, India, etc., which are developed in the field of cotton, the fiber produced from the ginning of medium-fiber cotton is mainly cleaned in aerodynamic and mechanical fiber cleaners [2, 3].

Aerodynamic fiber cleaners are installed after the saw gin and before the fiber cleaner. Aerodynamic fiber cleaning equipment does not have moving working parts, and the efficiency of fiber cleaning is because it is cleaned by air in the bending zone of the fiber channel. In this case, the impurities contained in the fiber, which are heavier than the fiber, are separated from the total mass of fiber and fall into the dirt hopper, and the fiber is transported by air to the main fiber cleaner of the condenser type. Therefore, the cleaning efficiency of such equipment will not exceed 15-20% on average. However, fiber cleaners with such construction are widely used in the technological system of fiber cleaning of cotton preliminary processing in the USA, China, India, Brazil, and other foreign countries [4]. To this day, American "Platt-Lummus", "Continental Eagle" and other companies, Chinese "Lebed", "Hongron" and other companies, and Indian "Bajaj" and other companies produce this type of fiber cleaner. In aerodynamic fiber cleaners, the absence of moving working parts and the mechanical effect caused by them preserves the natural properties of the fiber needed for the textile industry [5].

In the cotton industry, the mechanical cleaning of the fiber came from the textile industry. The mechanical cleaning consists mainly of moving drums with piles, knives, saws, and moving saws. Because pile and blade drums have good fiber-crushing properties, such drums have been used in fiber-crushing acceleration zones with a certain mass volume. An example of this is the VTM and ON-6-3 equipment at roller gin enterprises. Pile and blade fiber cleaning equipment are more effective than aerodynamic equipment because they effectively affect the fiber in separating impurities from the fiber composition [6]. However, to reduce the amount of separation of fiber into the waste, the distance between the ginning ribs is small, which makes it difficult for the impurities to be separated into the waste since there is no feature of retaining the fiber in the cleaning process in the knife and pile drums. Therefore, in such a process, the separation of impurities from the fiber composition is carried out by hitting the fiber on ginning ribs.

Mechanical fiber cleaning fiber cleaner construction is mainly condenser type, the fiber is first separated from air and then mechanically cleaned. In this case, separating, conveying rollers, supply roller, and supply table are used to spread the air-separated fiber to a drum with a saw or a comb that cleans it mechanically [7].     

Among all fiber cleaning equipment, the highest cleaning efficiency is grouped with a saw cylinder. At the same time, such cleaners take up less space in production than cleaners with drum piles and blades.

In production conditions, the effective cleaning process occurs through the interaction of the fiber saw cylinder with the colossal grid, therefore, colossal grids are used in such equipment. The number of ginning ribs in the fiber cleaners, the distance between the ginning rib blade and the saws, and the construction and technological conditions of the equipment are determined. That's why in practice fiber cleaners with different numbers of ginning ribs are used.

In the mid-1960s, to improve the quality of fiber produced from hand- and machine-picked cotton, fiber cleaners manufactured by "Continental/Moss Gordin" and "Platt Lummus" companies in the United States of America were installed in "Pakhtaorol" and "Sofiqishloq" cotton ginning enterprises in our Republic.  

The result of the research conducted on the "Loud Star" fiber cleaner manufactured by the "Continental/Moss Gordin" company, installed in the fiber cleaning technology of the "Pakhtaorol" cotton ginning enterprise, the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner in cleaning high and low-grade cotton fiber is on average 35%-40%, showed an average of 5 (abs) % and 6 (abs) % less than the passport cleaning efficiency. It has been shown that the amount of fiber separated into waste during fiber cleaning is on average 40% and 45% according to the types of waste mass, and it is on average 5 (abs) % and 10 (abs) % higher than the fiber content of the waste in the technical characteristics [8].

As a result of the research conducted on the "86" fiber cleaner manufactured by the "Platt-Lummus" company installed at the "Sofiqishloq" cotton ginning enterprise, the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner in cleaning high and low-grade cotton fiber is on average 40% and 45%, compared to the cleaning efficiency in its passport. It was determined that it was less by 5 (abs) % on average. The structure of the cleaner is mainly composed of two parts.

The amount of fiber in the total waste separated from the cleaner during fiber cleaning was on average 40% and 50% by grade concerning the mass of waste, and showed an average of 5 (abs)% and 10 (abs)% higher than the fiber content of the waste in the passport.  

In 2009, the Juma cotton ginning enterprise of the Samarkand region was equipped with cotton pretreatment equipment and technology produced by the Chinese company "Lebed" to improve the efficiency of cotton ginning enterprises and learn modern techniques and technologies [9]. In the technological system, after MY-171 sawing gin used in cotton ginning, MQPQ-3000 type fiber cleaner is installed, which cleans the fiber in an aerodynamic condition (Fig. 1). The cleaning efficiency of the cleaner is 15-18% according to its passport when cleaning high and low-quality fibers. In the aerodynamic fiber cleaner, the cleaned fiber is transported and cleaned with the help of air to the MQP-600x3000 filter-type condenser type fiber cleaner, which is the main cleaner (Fig. 2). The structure of the cleaner mainly consists of two parts, that is, separating the fiber from air and cleaning it from small impurities, and cleaning the fiber from small and large impurities. The first part is of the condenser type, the outer diameter of the mesh surface in the condenser is 520 mm, and the hole size is 1.8 mm. The second part consists of the supply rollers, the supply table, and the roller drum, the outer diameter of the roller drum is 600 mm, and the rotation speed is 800 rpm.

In the technological process of fiber cleaning, after the aerodynamic cleaner, the fiber is transported by air to the MQP-600x3000 condenser-type fiber cleaner and is separated from the air through a mesh surface in the cleaner. Then the fiber is separated from the mesh surface with the help of a separating roller, and with the help of the guide rollers, it is first fed to the supply roller and then through the supply table to the drum. It separates the impurities from the fiber by hitting the fiber on the ribs located around the pile drum, knocking, and combing. The cleaned fiber is separated from the drum with a brush drum and transported to the press by air through the fiber pipe. Large, small, and large impurities separated during fiber cleaning are transported from the waste chamber to the cyclone using air.

Figure 1. Schematic of MQPQ-3000 aerodynamic fiber cleaner manufactured by the Chinese company "Lebed":

1- body, 2- fiber receiving throat, 3- fiber carrying throat, 4- separating knife, 5- waste chamber, 6- lever for adjusting the position of separating knife.

To study the effectiveness of cleaners, research work was carried out on the cleaning of high and low-grade cotton fiber at the Juma cotton ginning enterprise. The research work was carried out in Omad selection I and III grade 2 of cotton with initial moisture content of 10.8% and 12.4%, dirtiness of 9.3% and 11.7% [10-12]. First, research work was carried out on high-quality cotton. The average moisture content of Omad selected 1st grade 2nd grade cotton, which was dried and cleaned by technology, was 7.9%, and 2.2% dirtiness on average. The mass fraction of defective fiber and impurities in the fiber produced from this cotton gin was 3.78% on average. According to the technological process, when the fiber was passed through the MQPQ-3000 aerodynamic fiber cleaner installed after the gin, the mass percentage of defective fiber and dirty impurities in the fiber after the cleaner was on average 3.32%. In this case, the cleaning efficiency of the aerodynamic cleaner was on average 12.2%, which was 2.8 (abs)% less than the cleaning efficiency of the passport (Fig. 3). During fiber cleaning, the amount of fiber separated into waste was high, on average 17% of the waste mass.

Figure 2. Scheme of fiber cleaner MQP-600x3000 manufactured by "Lebed" company:

1- air pipe, 2- mesh drum, 3- separating rollers, 4- guiding roller, 5- supply roller, 6- supply table, 7- saw drum, 8- ginning ribs, 9- brush drum, 10- fiber pipe, 11 - exhaust pipe.

After the aerodynamic fiber cleaner, the fiber is transported by air to the main MQP-600x3000 pile fiber cleaner, separated from the air, and cleaned. When the quality of refined fiber was studied, the mass fraction of defective fiber and impurities in the fiber was equal to 1.98% on average. It was found that the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner is on average 40.4%, which is on average 4.6 (abs)% less than the cleaning efficiency in the passport. Based on the state standard UzDst 632:2016, according to the quality index of the manufactured fiber, it was studied whether it belonged to the first grade "High" class. When the composition of the waste during fiber cleaning was studied, it was shown that the fiber content of the waste was on average 49% compared to the mass of the waste, which is higher than the required standard.

Figure 3. Cleaning efficiency of equipment in cleaning high and low-grade fiber: 1- in an aerodynamic fiber cleaner, 2- in a condenser-type fiber cleaner

Then, the research work was carried out in the 2nd class of the Omad selection III grade cotton. The mass percentage of defective fiber and impurities in the fiber produced from ginning of cotton with a moisture content of 8.8% and impurity of 2.4% in ginning was equal to 4.3% on average. After this fiber was cleaned in an aerodynamic fiber cleaner, the mass fraction of defective fiber and impurities in the fiber averaged 3.64%. It showed that the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner was 15.3% on average, which was 2.7 (abs)% less than the cleaning efficiency of the passport. During fiber refining, the amount of fiber separated into waste was high, on average 21.4% of waste mass. In the course of the research work, there were no blockages in the box that transports the fiber between the gin and the aerodynamic cleaner with the help of air when the saw gin was working at low productivity. When the required amount of cotton was given to the gin from the supplier to increase the gin's performance, there was a blockage of the fiber in the box between the gin and the aerodynamic cleaner, and the gin had to be stopped. This situation was repeated several times. When the gin was working at the required performance, frequent shutdowns due to fiber blockages in the pipe caused the gin to decrease its daily performance.

After the aerodynamic fiber cleaner, the fiber was cleaned in a condenser-type MQP-600x3000 comb fiber cleaner. The mass percentage of defective fiber and impurities in the fiber after the cleaner was equal to 2.12% on average.

In this case, the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner was 41.8% on average, which was 8.2 (abs)% less than the cleaning efficiency of the passport (Figure 4). Based on the state standard UzDst 632:2016, it was determined that the produced fiber belongs to the III grade "Good" class [13]. It showed that the amount of fiber separated into waste during fiber cleaning was on average 53% of the waste mass, which is higher than the required standard. During the research period, the electricity consumed by the purifier was studied. In this case, it was found that the electric energy consumed by mesh and roller drums and the drum with a pile was 27.2 kW/h, and it was 16.2 kW/h more than the domestic two-drum 2VPM fiber cleaner [14-19].

Figure 4. Impurity level of post-equipment fiber in high and low-grade fiber cleaning: 1- in an aerodynamic fiber cleaner, 2- in a condenser-type fiber cleaner

Conclusion. To study the effectiveness of fiber cleaners manufactured in foreign countries, research was conducted on the MQPQ-3000 aerodynamic fiber cleaner and the MQP-600x3000 condenser-type fiber cleaner used at the Juma cotton ginning enterprise equipped with Chinese technology. During the research period, the cleaning efficiency of the Omad selection I and III grade 2 class cotton fiber in the aerodynamic fiber cleaner was 12.2% and 15.3% on average, compared to the cleaning efficiency in the passport, on average 2.8% (abs) and showed 2.7 (abs)% less. In addition, the frequent clogging of the gin due to the jamming of the gin between the saw gin and the cleaner has led to a decrease in the gin's daily work productivity.

When the fiber is cleaned in a condenser-type fiber cleaner after the aerodynamic cleaner, the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner is on average 40.4% and 41.8% for the varieties, showing that it is less than which is 4.7 (abs)% and 8.2 (abs)%, respectively, compared to the cleaning efficiency in the passport. The mass percentage of defective fiber and dirty impurities in the produced fiber is on average 1.98% and 2.12% according to the grades, and according to the quality indicator, according to the state standard UzDst 632:2016, grade I is "High" and grade III is "Good" affiliation was determined. It was found that the fibrousness of the waste in fiber cleaning is higher than the required standard, on average, 49% and 53% according to the types of fiber being cleaned. In addition, it was found that the electricity consumption of the cleaner is 27.2 kWh, which is 16.2 kWh more than the domestic two-drum 2VPM fiber cleaner. 

According to the results of the research work, aerodynamic fiber cleaners have low efficiency and the above-mentioned disadvantages, condenser-type fiber cleaners are not very efficient in cleaning, have a complex construction with a large amount of fiber separation in the waste, and since they consume a large amount of electricity, this type of cleaners are not used locally today. It was studied that it is not possible to use fiber cleaning systems in cotton ginning enterprises.

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