Abstract:
A reclaimer cylinder for use in reclaiming cotton seeds containing spinnable lint from partially ginned cotton seeds utilizes channel saws mounted axially on a cylindrical body with axially closely spaced teeth that virtually eliminate the variation in likelihood the teeth will fail to grasp the fibers present on such cotton seeds. Triangular grid bars facilitate removal of fully ginned seeds that are not entrained in fibers of other seeds.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to the field of raw cotton fiber and cotton seed processing. In the cotton processing industry, a saw is not a device for cutting into a material, but rather it is a device that has sharply pointed teeth for grasping the cotton fibers. The early “saw” gins used discs with sharp teeth around their peripheries that resembled circular saws, which probably is how the name, “saw” originated. Later, as seed cotton (cotton before ginning) was brought to the gins containing more and more extraneous matter, including the cotton hulls, machines were developed to extract this foreign matter, and these machines became known as “extractors”. 
         [0002]    A common element in such extractor machines is a “channel saw.” Referring to  FIGS. 1 to 4 , the channel saw  11  is a thin metal strip formed into a right angle channel shape with sharp teeth  12  formed in rows  13  on the edges of the two equal legs of the channel shape. These outwardly opening channels are formed into arcs defined by the circumference of the cylinder  14  onto which the channel saws are to be peripherally mounted as shown in  FIG. 2 . Thus the channel runs perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the cylinder. These channel saws are about ½″wide between the legs and are mounted about ½″ apart axially on the surface of the extractor machine cylinder. This spacing has proven to be efficient in extracting the large foreign matter from the seed cotton locks before ginning removing the fibers from the seeds. 
         [0003]    Recently there have been developments in roller ginning that have increased the roller gin&#39;s ginning rate to near the rate of the saw gin. The roller ginning process has been proven to break fewer fibers than saw ginning, thus to make the fiber more valuable to the textile mills. Roller ginning has largely been confined to the relatively small extra long staple cotton varieties such as Pima because of the slow, more expensive roller ginning process. With the recent ginning rate increase of roller ginning, the better quality of roller ginned cotton should open the much larger upland cotton market to roller ginning. However, while the saw ginning process can adequately control the uniformity of the fiber remaining on the seeds, the roller ginning process must depend on “seed reclaimers” to retrieve the seeds with valuable fiber left on them from the seeds that are properly ginned and send the seed with valuable fiber back for further ginning. That is to say, the reclaimer removes un-ginned and partially-ginned seeds from a seed flow and directs them to a further lint removal process. 
         [0004]    The increase in roller ginning rate, of course, must be accompanied by an increase in the rate of seed reclaimers to be successful. While the saw extractor technology of the prior art as described above shows promise for use in seed reclaimers, the efficiency of the current standard circumferentially extending extractor saws is not adequate. The seeds leaving the reclaimers that are to be sent to the properly ginned seed bin contain too many seeds with good fiber on them and the seeds that are to be returned for further ginning have too many already well ginned seeds. It should be understood that the output of a cotton gin stand has three components: the spinable cotton fiber (lint), which is the most valuable component; the cotton seeds from which the fiber has been removed by the ginning process, which is salable at a lower rate than the fiber; and, the trash which was entrained with the seed cotton and has been extracted. When cotton seeds with ginnable fiber still on them are discharged with the well ginned seed component, the unginned fiber is sold at the rate of the seed, or worse, the fiber lowers the seed value for the sale to the daisy industry, thereby creating an inefficiency. Likewise, when the ginned seeds are discharged with the trash, the value of the seed is lost, yielding further inefficiency. It should be understood that cotton gin plants have many seed cotton cleaners (before the ginning process) that use spiked cleaning cylinders that convey seed cotton over spaced apart grid bars or coarse screens that are sized to allow optimum trash removal without allowing full seed locks to pass through the grids or screens. When partially or fully ginned seed pass over these grids or screens, there are often too few fibers on the seeds to prevent the seeds from falling out with the trash. 
         [0005]    It is an object of the present invention to increase the processing rate of roller ginning of upland and pima cotton. It is a further object of the invention to more efficiently return cotton seeds having recoverable fiber attached thereto to the gin stand for further ginning. It is a concomitant object to eject well ginned seeds such that they do not return to the gin nor to the trash. 
         [0006]    These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    An apparatus for processing cotton seed is depicted in the accompanying drawings which form a portion of this disclosure and wherein: 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a side elevation view depicting the prior art reclaimer saw. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is an end view of the prior art saw shown in  FIG. 1   
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a sectional view of the prior art reclaimer saw shown in  FIG. 1  showing the profiles of typical cotton seeds. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a cross sectional view of the prior art channel saw shown in  FIG. 2  showing the profile of typical cotton seed. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  is a side elevational view depicting an embodiment of the axially aligned saw of the current invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  is an end view of an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 7  is a partial sectional side elevational view of an embodiment of the present invention showing profiles of typical cotton seeds. 
           [0015]      FIG. 8  is a partial sectional end view of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 6  along with the profiles of typical cotton seeds. 
           [0016]      FIG. 9  is a projection along line  9 - 9  of  FIG. 8  showing the offset orientation of the axially aligned saw teeth. 
           [0017]      FIG. 10  is an end view of the saw cylinder and support panel carrying the grid bars of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 6 . 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0018]    Referring to the  FIGS. 1-10  for a clearer understanding of the invention, it may be seen that the preferred embodiment of the invention contemplates a new saw profile and a new orientation of the saw profile. 
         [0019]    Referring to  FIGS. 3 ,  4 ,  7  and  8 , note the comparative views of the current standard extractor saw and the axial reclaimer saw of my invention along with the profiles of typical cotton seeds. In each figure note that a cylinder  14  or  14 ′ is mounted for driven rotation about its axis. The standard channel saw presents parallel rows  13  of teeth  12  extending around cylinder  14  and spaced about ½ inch apart. The rows  13  cannot be much closer because screw head  16  is seated with in the channel to attach the saw to cylinder  14 . In  FIGS. 5 to 8 , note that the illustrated embodiment of the present invention utilizes channel saws  11 ′ with rows  22  of teeth  23  affixed to the cylinder  14 ′ and extending axially along the outer surface of cylinder  14 ′. 
         [0020]    The efficiency of the reclaimer process is dependent upon the certainty of the reclaimer saws grasping and holding the seeds with valuable fiber attached while centrifugal forces and grid bars  44  around the reclaimer cylinders are efficiently designed to expel the seeds without significant amounts of valuable fiber attached.  FIGS. 3 and 7  most clearly illustrate the comparative certainty of a seed being grasped and held by the standard extractor saw as compared to the axial reclaimer saw of my invention. The roller gin process often strips only one side of a seed S. leaving a profile of less than ½″, that is to say, a profile less than the spacing between the prior art saws. It also should be understood that in the conventional extractor process the seeds are applied to the extractor saw teeth by stationary brushes  17  with bristles  18  about 3″ long that comb the fibers straight back, parallel to the saw movement. Thus, the conventional extractor saw teeth may not contact the fibers of some seeds with valuable fiber, let alone firmly grasp the fibers. 
         [0021]    By contrast the teeth  23  of my axial channel saw may be made as close to each other axially as desired. Furthermore the teeth  23  of the of the two rows  22  formed by the channel may be offset axially to further increase the certainty of grasping the valuable fibers or increasing the grip of the combined teeth to allow more vigorous centrifugal forces and grid bar  44  designs to eject the seeds that are already properly ginned. 
         [0022]    The significance of the different actions of the two saw structures needs to be fully understood. Significantly, the seed rotation with the reclaimer saw cylinder is caused primarily by the saw teeth grasping the fibers attached to the seeds, however some seeds are just entrained with seeds that are impaled on the saw teeth, thus these entrained seed are not grasped by the saw teeth. Some of the seeds being presented to the reclaimer saw teeth are already adequately ginned and therefore must depend upon being entrained by the seeds impaled on the saw teeth or to a lesser extent, the paddle effect of the bare saws themselves as these seeds don&#39;t have enough long fiber to be grasped by the teeth. These seeds are free to properly be ejected by centrifugal force and grid bar action unless they are entrapped under seeds that are impaled on the saw teeth. Here the advantage of the axial reclaimer saw becomes apparent. Whereas the current extractor saws with their ½″ axial spacing have at best only three teeth  12  per inch axially to grasp and hold the seeds with long fibers, my axial channel reclaimer saw can have as many teeth  23  axially as is practical to punch, say eight or ten per inch per leg of the axial channel. The axial channel, of course has two legs angularly spaced a little over ½″ apart which may be offset axially one half a tooth space to offer sixteen or twenty teeth axially to grasp the long fibers for every angular saw cylinder surface movement of a little over one inch. The channels may be spaced apart on the cylinder surface by 1/2″ for uniform spacing of the legs of the channels, or the separation may be varied. 
         [0023]    The stationary brush  17  extends axially from end to end of the seed reclaimer machine and has very uniform bristles  18 . The bristles  18  uniformly press the axially randomly located seed with attached fiber onto the saw teeth or spaces axially between the teeth without moving the seed axially, but perhaps combing the fibers on the seeds back into the spaces behind the seeds. In an alternative embodiment, the use of more than one stationary brush in series further increases the likelihood of the saw teeth grasping or more firmly holding the seeds with long fibers attached. A second or third stationary brush could physically “roll back” seeds not already firmly grasped, to the next axial row of teeth. Mounting surfaces in the housing are used to mount two and even three stationary brush sticks at thirty to forty-five degrees from tangent to the saw surface just ahead of the first grid bar. This inexpensive addition could help assure that the seeds with significant long fibers attached are firmly impaled on the reclaimer saw teeth and help insure that the seeds with insignificant amounts of long fiber are brushed free of the seeds impaled on the reclaimer teeth and swept free of the reclaimer teeth themselves. Also the additional combing action of the added stationary brushes potentially would free the well ginned seed entrapped under the seeds with fibers attached clinging to the saw teeth or uncover the well ginned seed trapped in an uneven surge of seeds, thus making the well ginned seed free to move outward by centrifugal force. 
         [0024]    Since the seeds present profiles from about 3/16″ to ⅜″ wide, the prior art reclaimer saws will grasp almost 100% of the seeds with fibers attached which are aligned with a circumferential row  13  of teeth, and fewer of the seeds that are aligned with the spaces (½″ wide) between the rows  13 . Even the seeds aligned with the saw teeth will have only a narrow band of fibers grasped by the saw teeth because the teeth  12  are aligned in a row  13  with no significant extension parallel the axis of rotation. 
         [0025]    By contrast the reclaimer saws of my axial channels have axially closely spaced teeth  23  as shown in  FIGS. 5 ,  7  &amp;  9  that virtually eliminate the variation in likelihood the teeth  23  will grasp the fibers. Furthermore the axially closely spaced teeth  23  of my axial channels will grasp a wide band of fibers, at least the width of the seed profile, that the stationary brushes  17  press onto the saw teeth. Accordingly the teeth  23  not only uniformly grasp the seed with fiber attached, but the embodiment greatly increases the number of teeth  23  holding the seed to allow use of more vigorous forces to eject the well ginned seed without losing seed needing further ginning. The angular (peripheral) tooth spacing of my axial channel is greater than that of the current extractor channel and furthermore, my axial channel saws may be mounted farther apart peripherally. Neither structure should have a problem with processing rate, but there is a large difference in the firmness of the grip of the teeth holding the seed with fibers attached. The somewhat wider angular spacing of the axial rows of teeth of my axial channels along with the variable peripheral spacing of the axial channels may be helpful in freeing the well ginned seed that may be entrapped under the seeds with long fiber attached that are clinging to the axial rows  22  of teeth  23 . My axial channel, with its superior fiber grip, should be accompanied with faster reclaimer cylinder rotational speeds to increase the centrifugal forces needed to eject the properly ginned seed. This, of course, should also increase the potential processing rate. 
         [0026]    Further, as shown in  FIG. 10 , the reclaimer of the proposed embodiment uses new grid bars  44  of an improved design. Specifically, prior art grid bars were generally tubular having a round cross-section. The new grid bars  44  are substantially triangular with a linear surface  46  proximal and spaced from the line of travel of the tips of teeth  23  such that the linear surface  46  extends substantially along a plane that would be parallel to the tangent plane of the teeth on the cylinder. Therefore the line of travel of the teeth  23  diverges from the linear surface such that cotton seed which does not have fiber grasped by the teeth  23  nor entrained with the fiber from other seed is ejected without interference from the surface in the interstices between grid bars. The number of grid bars and their spacing is empirically dependant upon rotational speed and the quantity and length of cotton fibers remaining on the reclaimed seed. The apex of the grid bars  44  will be rounded sufficiently to avoid damaging seed as it passes between the grid bars and the cylinder. 
         [0027]    It is to be understood that the form of the invention shown is a preferred embodiment thereof and that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or scope as defined in the following claims.