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2006-ag-246
 INTRODUCTION
Today’s slogan in the international textile or
any other market is quality, so the production
or yield % stand at second priority, no doubt
high production is an even demand of world
population.
Contamination free textiles are the ultimate
target of the manufacturer along with other
quality control applications.
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 Cotton sorter is used for foreign material
detection in the blow room. The contaminants
are removed by means of very fast pneumatic
ejectors. Cotton sorter is useful to improve the
quality of raw material and also upgrade the
low quality cotton bales by removing
contamination.
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 Definition of contaminants
Contaminants in cotton can be described as a deviation in color and size
 The line camera interprets a defect as color level deviations
 The contaminant size is defined as a combination of contaminant width and contaminant length

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 Some contaminant Regions
High level of contamination
India, Pakistan, Sudan ,
Uzbekistan, Syria, Egypt
Lower level of
contamination
Argentina, Israel, Mali,
USA, China, Turkey,
Sudan, Zimbabwe,
Uganda, South Africa

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The CottonSorter in the blow line
 Detect foreign fibres and contaminants in raw
cotton
▪ jute parts, packaging material, parts of
cloths, burnt tufts, oil, dirt, plastic,
feathers, etc.
▪ wood, leaves, branches, stones, etc.

 Remove the contaminants by means of very

fast pneumatic ejector
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 Affect of contamination (present in
cotton bale) on constructed fabric
If a 3cm by 3cm contaminating rag is present in a
cotton bale then
 Output of the card is 20 meter contaminated sliver
 Output of a two step drawing process (E=8x8) is 1280 meter
contaminate sliver.
 Output of a spinning spindle (E=150) is 192.000 meter
contaminated yarn.
 In this yarn there will be a contamination each 5 meter.
 The fabric construction will result in 6 contaminations/cm .
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 Cotton Sorter in Blow Room Line
Auto-Plucker
↓
Multi Mixer
↓
3-Roller Opener
↓
Cotton-Sorter
↓
Heavy Particle Remover
↓
Integrated Opener
↓
Vertical Opener
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↓
Deduster
 COTTON SORTER in practice

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 Characteristics
 Enclosure sealed for dust
protection
W=1.75 m H=1.24m
L=1.55 m
 Power consumption 2 kW
 Rectangular ducts to guide
the cotton in a perfect way
through the sensor tube
 Pneumatic ejector to remove
the contaminants
 Waste basket for ejected
contaminants
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 The key words of the
Cotton Sorter
 Installed in the opening line after the first opener
 Using 4 very fast CCD cameras
 No influence of environment
 Easy to operate
 Easy to maintain

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 Working principle
mirror
camera’s

windows
ejectors

speed sensor

waste basket
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 The COTTON SORTER in
practice Pneumatic ejector

Detection area

Ejector area

Waste basket

Electronic cabinet

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 Inside the COTTON SORTER

Tube with windows for camera’s

100% transparent (glass
plate)
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 Inside the COTTON SORTER
• CCD line scan cameras
– 2594 pixels

• Illumination by 16 light
tubes
– High frequency light
(28 kHz)
– White light spectrum
– Two year life time

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 The ejection system

20 valves-10 msec. reaction time-50 msec. blow

time
Ejection of about 10 grams of material
Pneumatic requires 80 psi filtered air
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 CottonSorter: Layout

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 SPECIFICATIONS
 Detection of color deviation in cotton
 Minimum 1x1 cm² detection surface guaranteed
 (85-90)% effectiveness at stable flow (compensation
with speed sensor)

▪ with cotton tufts smaller than the size of a fist

▪ with clean optics
▪ optimal setting of parameters
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 Comparison of Cotton Sorter
BARCO and Loptex
Cotton Efficiency Production Detection Speed
Sorter Rate Method Sensor
(%)
Kg/hr

BARCO 85-90 1200 Cameras Yes

Loptex 80-85 1000 Sensors No

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 Keep it cool
Air conditioner

Eliminate the influence of outside

temperature fluctuations.

Keep the inner side of the cabinet

in perfect operating conditions.

Avoid penetration of humidity

inside the enclosure.
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 Why install a COTTON
SORTER ?
 Independent of the operator’s
goodwill
 Upgrade possibilities for low
quality cotton bales

65 girls/shift – Bangladesh
Improve the quality of raw
material input
 Evaluation of cotton suppliers
 Higher and constant quality
of the end product
 Higher efficiency in the
spinning and winding
200 girls/shift – Mainland China
processes
 Less complaints from
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customers
 THANKS

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