a machine for harvesting bollies. It is used after the cotton has been harvested from opened bolls by a standard cotton harvester. The cotton is separated from the bollies by a cotton gin. Industrial production of cotton strippers in the USSR began in 1955. They were formerly manufactured on farms or by enterprises of local industry.
The working parts of a cotton stripper—paired, slanted rotating grooved rollers—tear the bollies from the cotton plants, which pass between the rollers. The cotton heap, combed by the rollers, is moved by a screw conveyor (auger) and a vertical slat conveyor to the receiving chamber of the concentrator, which consists of a hulling drum and separator, with three cutting drums and cleaning brushes, and a removable brush cylinder. The waste products fall to the ground along a slanted board. After cleaning or hulling (depending on the setting of the cotton stripper), the concentrated heap is fed into a bin by an auger and air current from a ventilator. When the machine is not set to concentrate and hull, the heap goes directly to the bin. The productivity of the SKO-4 machine is up to 1.5 hectares per hour (ha/hr); that of the SKO-2, up to 0.9 ha/hr. The operating widths are 2.4 and 1.8 m, respectively. The working parts of a cotton stripper are driven by a power takeoff shaft from a tractor engine.
A. KH. KHAMIDOV