Abstract:
A ginning rib for use in a saw type cotton gin stand constructed from a plate or sheet of raw material, with the material thickness defining the width of the rib, and the shape or profile of the rib defined by the path of the cutting means of the plate or sheet. Furthermore, the shape of the rib being such that it can be economically produced with current cutting technology while concurrently of a unique design to reduce raw material waste, and to include features improving functional reliability and serviceability.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims priority from provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/257,005 filed Nov. 18, 2015. 
     
    
     FIELD OF INVENTION 
       [0002]    This invention relates to a novel cotton ginning rib for ginning seed cotton. In particular, this invention relates to the construction and features relating to how the novel rib is mounted in the gin stand, and incorporation of a rib spacer at the point where the rib meets at least one of the rib rails. Additionally, the rib design includes a feature allowing relief at the bottom of the rib to reduce the chances of accumulation of cotton fiber, thus reducing the chances for a fire created by the friction between the rotating gin saw and stationary cotton fiber inadvertently being held in place on the back surface of the lower section of the rib. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    The process of picking cotton and removing seeds, trash and other foreign materials from the seed cotton is well known and understood by those familiar with the art. After seed cotton is harvested, it is then transported from the field to a cotton ginning facility. This facility has apparatus for receiving the seed cotton, drying and cleaning the seed cotton, removing the seeds from the cotton fiber or lint, cleaning the lint, and pressing the lint into bales for transport to warehousing, and later sold for commonly processing into yarn, thread, and fabric. 
         [0004]    Central to the processes found in the type of cotton ginning facility relating to the present embodiment is the machine which separates the seed from the cotton fiber. This machine is referred to as a saw type ginning stand, or simply, a gin stand. 
         [0005]    A typical prior art gin stand currently in use is shown in cross section in  FIG. 1 . Referring to  FIG. 1 , a gin stand  10  typically comprises an inlet chute  11  wherein seed cotton enters the machine in a single locked or separated state, and at a controlled rate. The seed cotton is urged by a picker roller  12  onto a gin saw cylinder  13 , comprised of a large number of spaced apart circular saw blades  14  having teeth along their periphery and rotating about a common axis  15 . The seed cotton is carried upward on the periphery of the saw blade through a seed discharge outlet  16  into the lower portion of the roll box  17  directly below an oscillator cylinder  18 . The multitude of saw blades  14  rotate between closely spaced stationary ginning ribs  19  which serve to strip a portion of the cotton fibers from each seed as the saw teeth and attached fibers pass between the closely spaced ribs. 
         [0006]    The partially ginned seeds are larger than the gap between the ribs  19 , and become part of a seed roll rotating around the axis of the oscillator cylinder  18 . The fibers remaining on the partially ginned seed tends to keep the seed loosely attached to the seed roll, which is a large mass made up of seeds with varying amounts of fiber remaining. Each seed will rotate around the roll box  17  a multitude of times until it no longer has enough long fiber to keep it adhered to the seed roll, at which time it will fall out through the seed discharge outlet  16  and out of the bottom of the machine. 
         [0007]    The cotton fiber passing between the ribs  19  will remain attached on the periphery of the saws until doffed off of the saw teeth by a counter-rotating brush cylinder  20 . The surface speed of the brush cylinder  20  is greater than the tip speed of the saw cylinder  13 , which allows the cotton to be lifted off the teeth of each saw blade  14  and passed out of the machine through the lint outlet  21 . 
         [0008]    In cotton saw gin stands employing ribs  19  that are mounted at both the upper and lower extremities, the mounting surfaces typically lie in what are essentially parallel planes. The surface inside the gin stand where the upper end of the ribs  19  mount are commonly referred to as the upper rib rail  22 . Correspondingly, the surface where the lower end of the ribs  19  mount is known as the lower rib rail  23 . 
         [0009]    Typically, ginning ribs are manufactured from a metal casting, usually iron or steel. The shape or profile of the rib  19  as viewed from one axial end of the rotating gin saw cylinder  13  shaft towards the other, and the distance between the parallel rib mounting planes  22 ,  23  can vary from one model of gin stand to the next depending on a number of factors. Saws and ribs are high wear items and are therefore common replacement parts in existing saw gin stands. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    An object of the present invention is to offer a novel saw ginning rib which can be manufactured by cutting the rib profile from a sheet of metal plate in a cost effective manner. Cutting ribs from plate in the axial profile direction has been considered cost prohibitive in the past. 
         [0011]    It is another object of this invention to change the profile of the rib near at least one of the mounting surfaces so the rib mounting surfaces are no longer in essentially parallel planes, such that the ribs can be nested closely together when cutting from a sheet of raw plate material to reduce the amount of unused raw material, thus reducing the cost to manufacture significant quantities of the saw ginning ribs. 
         [0012]    Since these saw ginning ribs are intended for use not only in new gin stands, but also in gin stands of existing design where the rib mounting surfaces lie in what are essentially parallel planes, it is necessary to also introduce a wedge-shaped spacer between the mating mounting surfaces of the gin rib and the gin stand rib rail. This wedge-shaped spacer can be manufactured to support a single or a multiple number of ribs. It is understood this spacer could also take forms other than a smooth wedge with one contiguous surface being in contact with the mounting surface of the ginning rib, and/or with one contiguous surface being in contact with the rib rail and still achieve the intended result. 
         [0013]    A further object of this invention is to combine the function of a wedge-shaped spacer as described immediately above in conjunction with a plurality of grooves, each groove defined by two fins, with each groove having a tapered bottom to accept the mounting surface of one distal end of the ginning rib. The wedge-shaped spacer extends from one end of a rib rail to the other; however as a practical matter the spacer can be broken up into multiple pieces instead of one continuous piece, with each piece configured to hold one or more ribs. The rib correspondingly has a complimentary tapered bottom such that it sockets into the groove with the tapers serving to center each rib along the rail precisely spaced apart from one another as determined by the geometry of the spacer. 
         [0014]    Another object of this invention is to reduce the tendency of undoffed cotton fiber from accumulating on the back side of a ginning rib. It is well understood by those familiar with the art of cotton ginning that cotton fiber can occasionally accumulate on the back side of a gin rib and create potential for a rib fire wherein the friction between the rotating saw blade and a stationary mass of cotton fiber generates enough heat to begin the combustion process. This object is accomplished by removing material from the back of the rib in the region where the periphery of the freshly doffed, rotating saw passes between the rib immediately prior to being exposed to fresh seed cotton urged onto the periphery of this rotating saw by the picker rollers such that corresponding tapers on either side of the rib allow any undoffed cotton fiber remaining on the saw teeth to easily pass between the ribs. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0015]    Referring to the drawings which are appended hereto and which form a portion of this disclosure, it may be seen that: 
           [0016]      FIG. 1  is a side cross section view of a modern gin stand containing conventional ginning ribs made of cast iron or cast steel. 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  is a side cross section view similar to  FIG. 1 , but with most features removed for the purposes of demonstration. 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  is a side cross section similar to  FIG. 2 , but fitted with ginning ribs of the present embodiment. 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  is a view showing a set of ribs utilizing the traditional mounting arrangement nested together on a sheet of plate raw material. 
           [0020]      FIG. 5  is a view showing a set of ribs of the present embodiment nested together on a sheet of plate raw material. 
           [0021]      FIG. 6  is a side cross section showing the upper end of the rib and the wedge-shaped spacer of the present embodiment mounted to the upper rib rail. 
           [0022]      FIG. 7  is an orthographic view of the wedge-shaped spacer. 
           [0023]      FIG. 8  is an orthographic view showing the upper end of the rib and the wedge-shaped spacer of the present embodiment mounted to the upper rib rail. 
           [0024]      FIG. 9  is a singular rib of the present embodiment with a 
           [0025]      FIG. 10  is a sectional detail along section  10 - 10  of  FIG. 9  showing the tapered relief of the tuft region on the back of the rib near the lower end of the rib. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0026]    One or more of the above objects can be achieved, at least in part, by providing ginning ribs which utilize less material in creation. As shown in  FIG. 2 , a traditional cast iron or cast steel rib  19  is mounted to the upper rib rail  22  and lower rib rail  23 , in close proximity to the circular gin saw  14 . It should be noted that the mounting surfaces of the rib  19  and rib rails  22 ,  23  are essentially in parallel planes. 
         [0027]    As best seen in  FIG. 3 , the rib  29  of the current embodiment is mounted to the upper rib rail  22  and lower rib rail  23 , in close proximity to the circular gin saw  14 . It should be noted that the upper and lower mounting surfaces of the rib  29  are not essentially in parallel planes. 
         [0028]    As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , hypothetically a nest, or grouping of ribs having the same configuration as prior art cast ribs with mounting surfaces in essentially parallel planes could be arranged on a sheet of raw plate material in a manner to best utilize the raw material in cutting the ribs from the material rather than making them from cast iron. In this hypothetical , the ribs are oriented such that the width of the rib is defined as the raw material thickness, albeit prior to subsequent machining processes; the outline or profile of the rib as seen in this view will be cut in a plane parallel to the axis of rotation of the saw cylinder in the finished gin stand. The mounting surfaces on the rib  24 ,  25  can be readily identified by the close proximity to the mounting holes  26 ,  27  where a fastener is used to attach the rib to the rib rail. It is important to note that rib  28  is of a hypothetical design not currently commercially available and is considered to be cost prohibitive, and is essentially employed herein as a construct to demonstrate by contrast the features of the current embodiment. Specifically note the spacing A and B between the ends of adjacent ribs wherein waste material would be left by this hypothetical design. 
         [0029]    As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , a nest, or grouping of ribs  29  of the present embodiment with mounting surfaces  24 ′,  25 ′ oriented essentially in-line with the immediately proximate segment of rib can be arranged on a sheet of raw plate material in a manner to best utilize the raw material when cutting ribs therefrom. This requires the mounting surfaces  24 ′,  25 ′ to not be oriented essentially parallel. It will be noted this arrangement allows for more efficient usage of the raw material than the rib shown in  FIGS. 2 and 4 , by eliminating the waste shown at A and B of  FIG. 4 , thus allowing the possibility for more ribs to be cut from a similar sized sheet of raw material, and reducing the amount of raw material wasted. Furthermore, the ribs are oriented such that the width of the rib is defined as the raw material thickness, albeit prior to subsequent machining processes; the outline or profile of the rib as seen in this view will be cut in a plane parallel to the axis of rotation of the saw cylinder once assembled in the finished gin stand. The mounting surfaces on the rib  24 ′,  25 ′ can be readily identified by the close proximity to the mounting holes  26 ′,  27 ′ where a fastener is used to attach the rib to the rib rail. 
         [0030]    Since the upper proximal end of rib  29  and its corresponding mounting surface is not in a parallel plane with the corresponding mounting surface of the upper rib rail  22 , there is introduced a wedge-shaped spacer or filler bar  30  to allow the mounting of the rib to the rib rail even though they do not share a common plane along the corresponding mounting surfaces. 
         [0031]      FIG. 6  shows the rib  29  of the current embodiment at the upper proximal end where it meets the upper rib rail  22  and the filler bar  30 . This illustration is essentially the same as  FIG. 3 , but is a magnified view of one area of interest, and serves to show greater detail of this connection point. 
         [0032]    As can be seen in  FIG. 7 , one embodiment of the filler bar  30  has a series of grooves corresponding to the width of the upper end of the rib  29  of the current embodiment. It is to be understood that the filler bar can include any number of grooves and may be unitary across the width of the rib rail or be composed of a number of like units affixed end to end across the width of the rib rail. 
         [0033]    As best demonstrated in  FIG. 8 , the upper end of the rib  29  has tapered or beveled surfaces  29 ′ that correspond to the beveled grooves  30 ′ in the filler bar  30 . It can also be seen that both the width and taper of the mounting surface of the upper end of the rib  29  are complimentary and can be manufactured in such a way that once installed, the spacing and angular positioning of the ribs  29  can be precisely and uniformly set. 
         [0034]    Referring to  FIGS. 9 and 10  note that a novel bevel is created when material is removed from the back of the rib  29  in a tuft region where the periphery of the freshly doffed, rotating saw  14  passes between the ribs immediately prior to being exposed to fresh seed cotton thrown onto the periphery of this rotating saw by the picker roller. When multiple ribs are aligned with corresponding tapers on either side of the ribs allows any undoffed cotton fiber remaining on the saw teeth to easily pass between the ribs. As shown in  FIG. 9 , the rib  29  of the present embodiment includes a novel bevel  31  in the tuft region facing the oncoming saw and created by the bi-lateral removal of material from the parent raw material. 
         [0035]    While in the foregoing specification this invention has been described in relation to certain embodiments thereof, and many details have been put forth for the purpose of illustration, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention is susceptible to additional embodiments and that certain of the details described herein can be varied considerably without departing from the basic principles of the invention.