Effect of Cleaning Treatment and Cotton Cultivar on Cotton Fiber and Textile Yarn Quality

Cotton fiber quality and textile yarn quality can be affected by ginning processes and cotton cultivars. The overall goals of this study were to utilize a microgin to evaluate the effect of seed cotton cleaner and lint cleaner on fiber and yarn quality, and to benchmark FiberMax 1740 and Phyto Gen 370 against Deltapine 555 grown in Georgia. Six cleaning treatments in a microgin were arranged by varying seed cotton cleaners (stick machine, cylinder cleaner, and Trashmaster) and one saw-type lint cleaner. Cotton fiber quality and cotton trash content were measured via High Volume Instrument (HVI), Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS), and Shirley trash analyzer. Ring yarn quality was measured in terms of spinning efficiency, tensile strength and elongation, hairiness, defects, and waste. Fiber quality measured by HVI showed significant differences between the six cleaning treatments in both trash content and fiber length properties. Specifically, the saw-type lint cleaner was more effective in reducing trash content but was more likely to create short fiber content than the seed cotton cleaner. Deltapine 555 demonstrated lower upper half mean length and lower length uniformity than FiberMax 1740. A similar pattern was observed in AFIS data, although cleaning treatments only showed impact on total trash count, visible foreign matter, and neps. The three cotton cultivars exhibited significant differences in cotton length properties. Deltapine 555 had the highest short fiber content (by weight) and lowest length uniformity among the three cultivars. Results from Shirley analyzer revealed that the cleaning treatments without the saw-type lint cleaner had both higher visible and invisible trash content. As for the ring yarn quality, cotton lint with less cleaning processes exhibited lower defects, lower hairiness (irregular CV), but more waste than that with more cleaning processes. Given the waste can be cleaned during the carding process and easily manageable, the less ginning options could be beneficial to spinning process. Among the three cultivars, Phyto Gen 370 generated the highest quality yarn suggesting that Deltapine 555 can be replaced by other cultivars with improved yarn quality. This study sheds light on the effect of cleaning and cotton cultivar on lint fiber quality and the spinning performance of the fiber. The information could be useful to improve the profitability for cotton growers, ginners, and spinners alike.