The Move to Wider Gin Stands and Narrower Saw Spacings.
A current trend in cotton ginning today is the movement towards wider
gin stands, and in many cases narrower saw spacings. This of course was started
in 1992 with the introduction of the Consolidated 198 saw gin stand, “A Product
of Vandergriff Research.” It was the world’s
first 20 bale per hour stand. It took
well over 10 years for the rest of the industry to catch up and buy-in to the
concept of bigger gin stands. Continental
followed with its 201 saw gin stand and then Cherokee with its massive 244
Magnum. In 2009, Consolidated Cotton Gin Company came out with their 222 saw
gin stand, also a “Product of Vandergriff Research,” but there was one key
difference that differentiated this stand from the rest of the field. This was
not an extension or addition to the width of the gin stand itself, it was a
narrowing of the saw spacing’s in the
existing 198 frame to ultimately get to 222 saws.
Mr. Vandergriff had suggested this to Consolidated in the late
1990’s providing sketches and drawings with the proper, well calculated saw
spacing’s to ultimately get to the final 222 saws. He even labeled it, “The
222.” All of this was based on his research at Elbow Gin on further narrowing
saw spacing’s from what was standard at the time on the Continental161, Lummus
170, and Consolidated 164 and 198. So, Mr. Vandergriff wanted to push the
envelope even further, and make the spacing ever narrower. He did exactly this
by converting a Continental Gin Stand to182 saws at Elbow Gin in
Visalia, California for the 1996 ginning season. This stand ran for close to 10
years in relative obscurity, drawing little attention from the cotton gin manufacturers, so it was very interesting for Vandergriff Inc. to
hear that 4 Consolidated 222’s had been installed at Lubbock Cotton Grower’s
Co-op Gin for the start of the 2009 gin season.
Mr. Vandergriff passed away in 2004 at the age of 93. He had no idea his
proposal for the Consolidated 222 would ever be considered, much less
implemented. Of course, it came as a
complete shock to Vandergriff Inc. that work had started on these 222 saw gin
stands, and they were actually going to put them into production.
Mr. Vandergriff has been such a seminal figure in gin stand development,
and has played such a vital role; I feel that people in the industry would find his involvement
very interesting. I have pulled
information from his archives and from his book, “Ginning Cotton, An
Entrepreneur’s Story,” published in 1997 by Texas Tech University. All information is well documented in this article. Of course, I have had countless hours of
discussion with my father on gin stand development as well as other aspects of
ginning over the years.
The Move To Narrower Saw
Spacing in a Cotton Gin Stand.
Initial work on this concept started at Lummus with the Super 88
saw gin introduced in the mid 1950’s. In 1970, at J.G. Boswell Company in
Corcoran, CA., he converted a Continental 119 saw gin to a 141 saws taking the saw spacing to unheard of dimensions for the time. Why did he do this? To increase
capacity of the stand and enhance the cleaning of the seed. A representative from Continental Gin Company
flew out and watched the stand run during testing. There was a significant increase in capacity
of the gin stand. This same representative flew back to Prattville, Alabama and
it wasn’t long before Continental was marketing their NEW 141 saw gin
stand. Lummus quickly followed suit
moving from their 128 saw gin to their new 158 saw gin stand using the same
spacing’s as the 141. In the late 1970’s
he signed a consulting agreement with Continental to work on the incorporation
of a seed tube and to continue his work in the area of narrower saw spacing’s. Much of the research from this had already
started at Elbow Gin in Visalia, CA where he initially converted a Continental
120 saw gin stand to 152 saws and had installed seed tube arrangements in these
same stands. He suggested to Continental
the use of narrower saw spacing’s (161) and also suggested they modify their
rib to improve seed discharge. At the end of 1978, he terminated his consulting
arrangement with Continental because he felt certain stipulations in their
agreement were not being honored.
Continental continued on with their work and this ultimately led to the
Continental 161 Golden Eagle Gin Stand. The research at Elbow gin was the
template for the development of the Consolidated 164 saw gin stand, the first
complete new gin stand since the Continental 16” saw introduced in 1961 while
Mr. Vandergriff was President. These saw
spacing’s , would be the same ones he had suggested to Continental Gin Company.
Soon after, Lummus followed suit with
their 170 saw gin stand. It is not a
coincidence that all the saw spacing’s were the same as Elbow Gin, Continental
and Consolidated.
Implementation of Narrower Saw Spacings.
At this time, almost everyone in the industry felt that it would
not be feasible to narrow these spacing’s any more. But in 1995 he began toying
with the idea of taking these spacing’s down even further. As mentioned
earlier, the spacing he ultimately came up with would place 182 saws in a continental
120 saw frame. A stand was converted in 1995 to 182 saws at Elbow Gin in
Visalia, California. The seed tube
arrangement was left in place. Testing
was difficult due to limited lint cleaning capacity behind the gin stand. Certainly more seed was removed from the seed
roll and the potential for increased capacity was evident. Elbow Gin ran this stand for close to 10
years, and it was virtually unnoticed by the rest of the ginning industry. However, information regarding the saw
spacing’s etc. was made available to Consolidated Cotton Gin Company whom Mr.Vandergriff
was a Consultant with up until 1999.
From this work at Elbow gin on the 182 saw gin, he began to encourage
Consolidated to apply this same spacing to the 198 saw gin. This would ultimately create a gin stand with
222 saws. This same saw spacing was also applied to their 164 saw stand, that ended up being the Consolidated 184. Mr. Vandergriff provided
drawings and sketches with key dimensions regarding this. Very little was heard back from Consolidated on any of
this. Mr. Vandergriff passed away in 2004 at the age of 93. However, at some point in time Consolidated’s
interest was renewed with wider gin stands becoming in vogue. In 2009, Loyd
Vandergriff was informed that 4 Consolidated 222 saw gins were operating at
Lubbock Cotton Grower’s. He was also
informed that “Product of Vandergriff Research,” stickers were on each
stand. Because of this, Loyd approached
executives at Consolidated about the 222 saw gin stand, since this was a Vandergriff Idea that had been clearly documented on drawings that dated back to Elbow gin. These drawings that were given to Consolidated were labeled "222 Saw Gin" and had the key specifications for the new saw spacings. Loyd Vandergriff felt that given this, royalties to Vandergriff Inc. should be considered. Keep in
mind that Mr. Vandergriff ‘s relationship with Consolidated ended in 1999,
and he passed away in 2004. An executive on Consolidated and a good friend of Mr. Vandergriff, was receptive to this and agreed to approach the CEO of Lummus about this issue. His initial response was informal, but he stated there was there was no justification for any royalties. In 2013, a Consolidated 222
was on display at the Texas Cotton Ginner’s Show in Lubbock, TX. A Product of Vandergriff Research Sticker was
on the gin stand, and a hand-out giving Mr. Vandergriff credit for his role in
their new technology. Once again, Loyd Vandergriff brought the topic up yet again about this issue. This time a formal response was given to Vandergriff Inc. in writing stating their was no justification for royalties to be paid. Vandergriff Inc. had no desire to pursue this any further lacking resources to really take this on. This clearly, in Loyd's view did not pass "the smell test," ethically or morally. Since this time all major manufacturers of cotton ginning equipment are implementing the narrower saw spacing Mr. Vandergriff first used in his conversion at Elbow Gin in 1996.
Vandergriff Inc wanted to inform the industry of Mr.
Vandergriff’s seminal roll in not only wider gin stands, but narrower saw spacings
as well. While the industry is certainly better off from his reseach, he received little compensation for his efforts.
The history of cotton ginning has way of getting facts and
events distorted over time. As a keeper of the Vandergriff flame, I am making sure that
does not happen here. All information in this article is well documented, and most is included in Mr. Vandergriff's book, "Ginning Cotton, An Entrepreur's Story."
Loyd Vandergriff
June. 2013.
Updated, May 2015
