BLOWROOM

• Cotton comes in the form of hard compressed

bales.
• Compacting is necessary for ease of handling &
transportation.
• Each bale measures about 50x60x250 cm &
weighs about 180 kg.
• The bale has to be opened & cleaned of
impurities.
• Blowroom line is made of opening, cleaning,
mixing & lap making machines
 Functions/Objects of Blowroom
1. Opening: To reduce hard pressed bales of
cotton to small possible tuft size.
2. Cleaning: To remove maximum possible trash
& foreign matter with least possible amount
of lint loss & damage to fibre.
3. Blending: To blend different cottons in the
‘Mix’ to get consistently uniform yarn quality
4. Lap formation: To produce even, uniform &
compact lap for carding.
 Blending & Mixing Machines
1. Hopper Bale Breaker
• Object of hopper bale breaker is to open cotton & clean
it of heavy trash & foreign matters.
• Cotton from different bales fed on a creeper lattice from which
it passes to feed lattice from where pieces of compressed
cotton are taken up by an strong spikes of inclined lattice.
• Steel Spikes 6.4mm dia and tapering ,195 spikes/sq. m
• Direction of spikes of evener roller opposes free flow of
cotton pieces carried by inclined lattice, big mass of cotton is
sliced.
• Evener roller sends back big lumps of cotton depending upon
distance between evener roller & inclined spiked lattice into
hopper.
• Excess cotton returned back to hopper & is picked-up latter by
spiked lattice.
• Cotton tufts that escape action of evener roller, pass forward
• They are stripped off by a closely positioned fast moving
leather flap beater.
• It has a whipping action over cotton & dashes it over grid bars.
• Some of entrapped impurities are released & fall through
narrow space between grid bars.
• Stripping roller equipped with leather flaps runs very close to
evener roller & helps in cleaning spikes of evener roller.
• Swing door fitted inside hopper & is a panel door across full
width of m/c. It is counterbalanced by dead weight.
• When weight is shifted away from fulcrum, more amount of
cotton piles up in hopper. (generally allowed to fill ¾ ).
• When limit reached, panel door pushed down by mass of
cotton against moment of wt. This disengage drive to
creeper lattice.
• A suction fan placed above evener & stripping roller. It
enables suction of fine floating impurities, dust, fly, & short
fibres.
• With normal setting production varies 3300-3500 kg/shift.
 Hopper Feeder

• Cotton is fed in much more opened form, as tuft size reduced.

• Cotton brought forward by a slow moving feed lattice.
• Inclined spiked lattice plucks tuft & takes them upwards, where evener
roller sends back excess amount back to hopper. Spikes are finer , point
density 577/sqm
• Cotton that escape this action, is cleaned off the spikes of leather flap
beater & sent to next m/c be feeding device.
• Flapping action imposing cotton onto grid bars where some cleaning
occurs. contd……
 …..Hopper feeder
• Hopper feeders mix different cottons further, clean
to a small extent & ensure an even feed.
• This machine is like a bale blender but has no feed
lattice.
• Angle of inclined lattice is less than 90⁰.
• The hopper of feeder is always kept 3/4th full to
ensure a regular feed to the successive machine
• Acute angle of spiked lattice helps in restricting only
small tufts to be taken up.
• In some machines, in place of evener roller, an
evener lattice is used for more effective opening
action.
 Hopper feeder & Reserve Box
• To maintain constant & correct flow of cotton is done by reserve
box with which hopper feeder is equipped.
• In reserve box cotton is allowed to heap to a certain
level.
• It is achieved by control lever. It has a fulcrum & has a
weighted arm on one side & light arm on other side.
• Light arm projects inside reserve box while weighted
panel balances it.
• When cotton inside box above panel door, light arm is
pushed towards inner wall of box against moment of
weighted arm.
• This disconnected circuit through micro switch & thus
feed from previous m/c is stopped.
• At bottom of reserve box, two wooden roller deliver
cotton over feed lattice. This raises the light arm to
restart feed.
• Another method to control level of cotton is to use
photo-cell along with light source.
 Porcupine Opener

• It is particularly useful for low grade cotton (hight trash %)

• Usually positioned early in B.R line.
• feed system of feed rollers feeds sheet of cotton to fast moving porcupine
cylinder.
• Cotton is fed by lattice. Pair of rollers guide cotton to feed system of pedal
& spring loaded pedal roller.
• Cylinder diameter is 24” & has 18-20 circular discs along its width.
• These discs have solid rectangular blades rivetted near
circumference.
• These blades are riveted on both sides & are off-set at various
angles.
• Each blade cover approx. 2” width on either side.
• This enables cylinder blades to strike full width of cotton sheet
issued from feed roller.
• Under beater section of grid bars adjustable independently by
external lever.
• A more open setting of grid bars removes higher trash % however
lint also accompanies it..
• Waste chamber fitted under grid bars have an inspection window
for observation of dropping so that setting can be changed after
observation.
• Beater usually runs at 750 rpm
 Crighten Opener

• Largely used for low grade & short staple cotton. It

generally follows porcupine opener.
• It is a vertical, conical beater comprising a vertical
shaft & 6-8 circular discs that are mounted on it.
 Crighten Opener
• Beater is surrounded by conically set grid bars & may
be raised & lowered by adjustable handle.
• It facilitates increasing or decreasing setting
between beater blades & grid..
• These discs are separated by cast iron spacing
bushes.
• Each disc carries number of strikers which are riveted
to it & each striker is bent slightly different angle.
• It makes tips of their blades follows a differernt path,
thus strikers of one disc lead to next higher disc
forming an intermittent spiral.
• The diameter including blades, at bottom is 18”
while at top is 34”, there being gradual rise from
bottom to top.
• Grid bars are wider at top & narrower at bottom so as to
leave uniform gap between them.
• Number of grid bars varies from 148-208. In some beaters
arrangement is provided for varying spacing & angle of grid
bars.
• Distance between bars can be kept open for low grade
mixings.
• Cotton is fed into beater chamber by a pipe & enters the
casing at lowest position. Reduction in size & mass results.
• Cotton lumps thrown over grid bars & trash & impurities
thus librated are set-off through spacing of grid bars.
• Cotton tufts become lighter & are helped to rise-up by
blade tips pointing upwards.
• Air current is utilised to help cotton rise up & is created by
a fan
STEP CLEANER
 Step Cleaner
• It combines action of opposing striker blades & their beating against
grid bars. Action of beater is gentle but effective.
• It has 6 beaters Beater are set at 45⁰ angle form horizontal.
• Beater consists of tubular body on which four rows of striker of
elliptical cross section are welded.
• Cotton enters the feed chute from bottom. The lowest of 6 beaters
immediately start working on it.
• All beaters run in same direction & helps cotton to rise up easily in
the direction of delivery.
• Each beater flings cotton on grid bars which are adjustable.
• For low grades cotton beaters are set at sharp angle with narrow
distance from beater to permit more extraction of waste.
• Baffle plates interposed between each pair of beater, to baffle air
currents around beater. Generated air current are deflected to move
upto next beater, thus helping cotton to pass further.
Axi-Flow Cleaner
 Axi-Flow Cleaner
• Cotton moves across almost perpendicularly to the plane of the
direction of rotation of beater.
• The machine has two cylindrical beaters A & B placed
horizontally very close to each other. Each beater has its own
system of grid bars A1 & B1 beneath them and rotate in the
same direction.
• Requires the cotton in slightly loose state and hence may be
placed 3rd or 4th in the sequence.
• The beater has round spiked projections C which induce
buffeting and agitating action on incoming cotton.
• The cotton moves around each beater spirally as shown in the
figure and gets well opened and cleaned during the process.
• The baffle plate F deflects the cotton which is thrown up
towards the beater, in to the intersection of two beaters.
• The production of this machine is approximately 550 kgs/hr.
Mono Cylinder Cleaner
 Mono Cylinder Cleaner……
• It ensures a high cleaning of the material with
gentleness.
• The fibre tufts are processed in free flight.
• The impurities are never crushed and least nep
formation.
• This cleaner is employed between bale breaker
and auto-mixer.
• The cotton enters the machine at right angle to
the moving cylinder.
• The cylinder carries 8 pins around its
circumference and there are 6 such sets through
its length. Contd…
 Mono Cylinder Cleaner……
• The tufts are flung on the hood, they fall back
and are worked again by the cylinder.
• There are three guide plates fitted inside the
hood at an angle to the cylinder axis.
• These plates help the cotton to whirl around
the cylinder in helical manner.
• The delivery pipe is arranged tangential to the
cylinder circumference.
• The grid bar is adjustable so that the trash %
can be optimised.
 Salient Features of Mono Cylinder
Cleaner
• High cleaning efficiency with gentle handling of
the fibres.
• High production rates upto 800 kgs./hr.
• The speed of the pin cylinder is 700 r.p.m.
• The air requirement to build up the necessary
pressure for the effective transportation of the
material is – 0.7 to 1.0 cub.met. of air per second
at 10 mm water column.
• The grid bars can be adjusted from 20° to 30° for
their spacing of 20 mm to 26 mm respectively.
Bladed Beaters
 Bladed Beaters…….
• The bladed beaters are positioned in the later
part of blow-room line.
• They have unique action to treat the cotton
for further opening and cleaning.
• The cleaning ability of these beater depends
upon their striking power.
• The bladed beaters are a part of final machine
called “scutcher” where the lap is formed.
• The cotton is fed to the beater in form of thin
loose sheet. Contd…
 Bladed Beaters…….
• The beater blade extend to the full width of
the machine and hence the blow of the beater
is simultaneously received by the fringe along
its entire width.
• The bladed beaters are very effective in
extracting motes having fibres attached to it.
• There are three important settings –
1. Feed System 2. Grid Bars 3. Stripping Rail
• The setting of stripping rail controls the
deflection of air currents and hence deviates
the cotton from the path around the beater.
 Kirschner Beater

• To make a uniform and well textured lap at

scutcher. The Kirschner Beater is best suited for
this role.
• The beater consists of 3 armed spiders A
mounted on the shaft B. The spiders have
wooden lagsC which are firmly fixed.
 Kirschner Beater
• Each lag carries a large number of hardened & well pointed
steel pins D arranged a staggered formation to ensure adequate
combing of the cotton across the width of the fleece.
• Beater is fed by a pair of feed rollers E while feed regulation is
carried out by the pedal and feed roller system F.
• The grid bar system G is placed under the beater and assists in
cleaning action.
• The stripping rail H can be set to the beater pins and is usually
at 1/16 inch from them. It avoids the cotton from going around
the beater repeatedly and directs it into a passage I.
• The cotton passes over the grate bars J and some fine impurities
drop down.
• The beater usually runs at 750 – 800 r.p.m.
• the cotton passes on to pair of condenser cages K.
• After condensation of cotton sheet on the cages it is pass
through the calender rollers for compacting action.
 Design of Cleaning machines
• Most of opening & cleaning machines works on principle of
‘beating’ the tuft of cotton or teasing them into smaller tufts.
• In the process of opening these tufts, impurities locked in them
fall off.
• Use is made of fact that dust, dirt & other trashy material
presents are denser than the loose cotton fibres in separating
the two.
• These machines use sharp needles, blunt spikes, blades, or teeth
or simply blades to open cotton.
• Cotton may be fed by a pair of rollers, a plate & roller or loosely
in the air.
• Commonly used machines are classified according to type of
feed & blade used.
 Blowroom machines
Machine Type of beating Type of feed Nature of Position in
action Blow Room
line
Crighton Blunt blades fitted on discs Loose fed from Severe, good 2 to 3
opener revolving in horizontal plane bottom & recovered cleaner
from top
Step Cleaner 6-8 cylinders with blunt spikes, Loose Gentle, good 1 to 3
mounted on an inclined plane cleaner

Porcupine Blunt blades on horizontal Feed plate & roller Gentle, 3-4
Opener roller medium
cleaner
Two/ Three Two/ three solid steel blades Pair of feed roler Severe, 4-6 (last but
Bladed rotating around a horizontal adequate one)
Beater shaft cleaning
Krishner Series of fine needles rounded Pair of feed roller Mild, adequate lat
Beater on a wooden base three blades cleaning
revolving around a horizontal
shaft
 ANCILARY EQUIPMENT
CAGES:
• These are perforated
cylinders of tin mounted on
cast iron circles & are used for
lap formation.
• A fan situated below causes
suction to that layer of cotton
is deposited on cages.
• Uniformity of suction along
width of cage determines
uniformity of final lap.
• At one area where suction is
blocked by a sheet, the layer
is removed & fed to lap
forming mechanism.
 Lap Formation
• Layer of cotton from cages is condensed finally by a pair of
fluted rollers.
• It then presses a series of heavily weighted condensing rollers,
usually four rollers placed one on top of another.
• After calendaring action lap sheet is wound on lap pin under
pressure, so that compact lap is formed.
• Weight of lap may be 16 kgs or more (depends thickness &
length of sheet)
• In old scutcher, a ratchet controls the length of lap. As required
length is obtained pin knock off the feed & new lap has to be
started.
• In new machines, operation of doffing lap & restarting is done
automatically
Piano Feed Regulating Motion
 Piano Feed Regulating Motion
• To get uniform lap, it is necessary that feed to last beating
point i.e. scutcher should be regulated.
• It is done by piano feed regulator.
• Cotton passes between a feed pedal & feed roller.
• Feed pedal is made of a series of sections, similar to piano
board
• Other end of these sections are connected to pendant links.
• All the pendant links are linked together & work a lever, which
controls speed of feed rollers through a pair of cone drums.
• Movement of lever is determined by thickness of material
passing between feed pedals & feed roller.
• The self regulating drive helps to control variability of lap
from meter to meter.
 Cotton Conveying
• Material is moved from one beater to another through
hollow pipes using suction.
• A fan sucks cotton from beater to beater through these
pipes.
• Dust trunk, built of a set of hoses under a part of these
pipes, filter out sand & dust particles.
• A series of division plates prevent trash from rejoining the
air stream carrying cotton.
• The cotton should not be allowed to curl up.
• This happens if (i) suction is inadequate, (ii) there are many
sharp bends in pipe line path.
• This may cause cotton get lumped together & formation of
neps.
 Two or Three way distributor
• An opener line with production of 300-500 kgs/ hour can
fed 2 or 3 scutcher lines whose production is 130-150
kg/hr.
• Opening line is connected by two or three way distributors
to different scutcher lines.
• Scutcher lines are provided with hopper feeder with
reserve boxes which get cotton from opening line through
automatically controlled two way distributors.
• Stock of cotton in reserve box controls opening & closing of
dampers of two-distributor by photoelectrric cell or
mercury switches.
 Sequence of machines for various Mixing
• In early opening line 1st m/c is hopper bale breaker or bale
blender for opening & mixing of cotton from different bales.
• These are followed by Crighten or super cleaner or mono-
cylinder opener.
• For more trashy varieties two such cleaning points are used.
• In old BR lines mixing is done at mixing bins from where
cotton is fed to opening line.
• In single process line cotton is fed to Crighten or step cleaner
is taken to Pocupine & then to a hopper feeder.
• Thereafter different beaters, openers, hopper feeders etc are
placed depending upon the type of cotton/fibre to be
worked.
 Performance of Blow Room
• Amount of waste extracted in blow room will depend
upon amount of trash in mixing.
• For standard cleaning efficiency the waste (excluding
gutter loss) is – Trash in mixing % + 0.5-1%
• Blow Room Cleaning Efficiency: = Trashremov
TrashFed
ed
x100

Trashin cot ton − TrashinLap

%cleaningefficiency = x100
TrashinCotton
• Cleaning Eff. of blow room cannot be calculated by
adding the cleaning efficiency of different machines

Trash in mixing % 1 2 3 5 8 12
B.R Cleaning efficiency % 50 60 65 70 75 78