SOLAR SPINNING OF 6000 MILLION KG LINT COTTON IN FARMS
Cotton is grown in the farms. So it is quite natural that it should be processed in the farms. With the advent of small 10 KW solar power plants costing Rs 6 lakhs, millions of such 10 kw solar power plants should be installed in farms for water pumping mainly. But water pumping is not required daily and for all 12 months. So intermittently solar power will be surplus. This surplus power can be ideally utilized for further processing of cotton. India produces 600 crores of kg of lint cotton annually. Almost 40 % of lint cotton is exported in the form of bales. Lakhs of bales are exported draining of our wealth out of country. I am sure that entire production of 6000 million kg lint cotton can be converted in to yarn in farms by using 30 lakhs of solar power plants of 10KW only. Entire scheme is as under.
(1) COTTON GINNING
The modern double roller ginning machine costing Rs 125000/-works on 5 hp electric motor and gives output of 80kg of lint cotton and 100kg of cottonseed per hour. So in 6 solar hours, it can produce 480kg of lint cotton. So any farmer having 10 KW solar power plant in his farm will install ginning machine and he will run it on surplus solar power when water pumping is not required. So all neighbouring farmers will prefer to gin their Kapas cotton and sell lint cotton and cottonseeds in stead of selling their kapas as selling lint cotton and cottonseeds separately will fetch them some more income. So ginning activity will be fully decentralized in to farms. The biggest benefit of decentralization of ginning activity will be that it will save power consumed in ginning factories and also save transport of cotton. And all profits of ginning factories will be automatically distributed among farmers.
(2) BLOW ROOM PROCESSING
But what to do with loose lint cotton produced in the farm. It is more difficult to transport. So textile spinning activity must start in the farms. It is observed that present blow room machinery has been designed in England to process hard pressed cotton bales imported from India. Nobody applies the mind that now bale binding is not at all necessary. Loose cotton spinning can be done with more ease and cloth becomes 20% more durable if loose cotton is spun directly. So present day complicated blow room machinery can be simplified such that 20 hp power required in blow room will reduce to 10hp, space requirement will reduce to half and also cost will reduce to half. The best quality second hand blow room is almost 50 ft long x 15 ft wide, it employs about 6 electric motors of total 20 hp and costing Rs 8 lakhs. Same capacity simplified blow room for loose lint cotton will cost Rs 4 to 5 lakhs and utilize about 4 electric motors of total 10 hp. Such simplified blow room will be most appropriate to run in the farm by 10 KW solar power plant. Such blow room will clean cotton, removes all dirts and will make blankets of pure cotton roughly 38" wide 1" thick and wrapped and wound in 18" dia of cylinder. Processing capacity will be about 800 kg in 6 solar hours. Such a cotton in the form of blanket cylinders can be transported from one farm to another farm by three wheeler rickshaw where further process of carding will be done.
(3) CARDING MACHINE
Present carding machines available in the market can be directly run by solar power in the farms. It works on 3 hp motor. Carding machine converts cotton blankets in to long rope after passing through thousands of needle pokes arranged on revolving drum to further remove dirt if any and to make cotton fibers loose and parallel to some extent. Such long ropes are filled in cylindrical card cans roughly 1 mt height and half mt dia. About 100 such card cans are required with one carding machine. Second hand carding machine costs Rs 3 to 4 lakhs and occupies 25 ft x 10 ft area. It processes about 100kg in 6 solar hours.
(4) DRAWING MACHINE
This machine costs only Rs 1.5 lakhs and occupies 10ft x 25 ft area. This machine is driven by 5hp + 2 hp electric motors.The function of this machine is to draw cotton rope almost 8 times longer. But 8 ropes are drawn together at a time. So length and diameter of rope remains the same. But fibres of cotton become parallel to length which is required for spinning of cotton. In fact 2 lines of 8 ropes are drawn in the machine. So 16 ropes at a time. So 16 card cans are being emptied at a time, but on delivery side, other 16 card cans are filled up again after drawing. Processing capacity of this machine is 350kg in 6 solar hours.
(5) SPEED FRAME OR INTER MACHINE
This machine occupies 60 ft x 8 ft area and it is driven by 7.5 hp electric motor. Initial partial spinning is done on this machine from thick rope to thin say 5mm dia string like ropes and it is wound on big bobbins say 4" dia x 15 " long. So all card cans are emptied now. Capacity of machine is 120kg in 6 solar hours. Product wound on big bobbins is called roving or puni in Hindi
(6) RING FRAME
This is final spinning machine converting roving in to yarn. It costs about Rs 3 lakhs. But 10 hp and 3 hp motors can drive this machine.It is out of capacity of our solar power plants in the farms. So it is essential to make it smaller. It is 60 ft long having 440 spindles. Its 60 ft length is really connected 5 times 12 ft each with 88 spindles. So remove one part of 88 spindles. So length will be 48 ft with 352 spindles.Then it will be driven by 7.5 hp motor + 2 hp motor. Then it will be driven by solar power plant of 10 kw capacity. The yarn produced on this machine on small bobbins goes for cone winding machine. This modified ring frame will produce 16 kg of yarn in 6 solar hours.
(7) CONE WINDING MACHINE
Spinning on ring frame is done on small bobbins.It is not possible to sell such small bobbins. So cone winding machine has been developed. It occupies 60 ft x 8 ft area and it is driven by 3hp+3hp+1hp motors. 120 cones of about 1.5 kg are wound in this machine at a time. With 4 persons working on this, output will be about 170kg in 6 solar hours. This is salable commodity in the international market. There are huge markets doing speculation on these cotton cones throughout the world. These cones go to weaving of cloths.
HOW TO EQUALIZE PRODUCTION CAPACITY?
We have observed that there is wide variation in production capacity of each machine. So let us calculate how many machines are required to get 1000 kg of yarn per day.
(1) Cotton ginning machine capacity 480kg daily x 3 machines
(2) Blow room processing 800kg. x 2 machines
(3) Carding machine 100kg.x 10 machines
(4) Draw frame 350kg x 3 machines
(5) Speed frame 120kg.x 8 machines
(6) Ring frame 16kg x 63 machines
(7) Cone winding machine 170 kg x 6 machines
Totally 95 machines.
Each farmer having 10 KW solar power plant at his farm will install only one particular machine of textile spinning mill. So 95 machines will be installed at different 95 solar power plants in 95 different farms, preferably of same village or nearby village. For any machine, preceding machine's final product will become raw material and and its final product will go as raw material to succeeding machine. i.e. say for (4) draw frame,raw material will be the final product of (3) carding machine. Draw frame's final product will go to (5) speed frame. Final salable product will be at cone winding machine. So there will be transport from one farm to another farm. But collectively entire cluster of 95 machines in 95 farms will work as one spinning mill. It is equivalent to spinning mill of 4000 spindles. But centralized spinning mills work round the clock for all 12 months, while this cluster can work only for 6 hours a day and also roughly 200 days when solar power plants are not fully occupied with water pumping activity. Due to this limitation, many more machines are involved.
We can safely assume that textile spinning activity will work for 200 days in a year. So 1000kg yarn per day x 200 days = 200000kg of yarn. Ginning to yarn will add value of Rs 100 per kg of yarn. So total income of a cluster of 95 machines will be 2 crores, which will be distributed among 95 machines more or less equal but with some difference with capital investment etc as per norms prevailing in textile industry. So each solar plant owner will get Rs 2 lakhs and about 10 lakhs will go for transport, administration, marketing, accounting, maintenance etc. It should be noted that with each machine one worker will be required. So wages of workers will be 200 days x Rs 250 per day = Rs 50000/-. So in every village, 100 people will get employment with income of Rs50000/- in 200 days. So total income of wages to 100 workers will be Rs 50000 per worker x 100 workers = 5000000/- i.e.50 lakhs. These workers will be landless people who work in the farm and suffer starvation if no work or no rain in the farm.
We have seen that such cluster of 95 machines scattered in different 95 farms of same village will process 1000kg per day x 200 days = 2 lakh kg. Now to process entire production of India i.e 500 crores of kg of cotton, only 25000 such clusters will be required, each cluster with 95 textile machines and 95 solar power plants of 10 kw each.
By processing 600 crores of kg of lint cotton in to yarn, total rural economic benefit will reach to 600 crores kg x Rs100 per kg = Rs 60000 crores. This is actual amount reaching to villages which will be automatically distributed in villages.
Please note that in this scheme, all existing spinning machinery is assumed at present second hand rates. It is extremely cheaper. Please note that in this scheme, entire processing of cotton Kapas to yarn is processed in farms by solar power. No power is to be used from grid lines. Please note that in this scheme, weaving is not considered. In fact weaving by solar becomes still easier as power loom hardly requires one hp motor.
This is real way to provide jobs and employment to vast majority of people. This is the real way of rural development and real way of peace and happiness.