Farmers Review Africa Sept/Oct 2019 Farmers Review Africa September - October 2019 dig | Page 25

In 1794 Eli Whitney revolutionised this process by patenting the first machine to gin cotton in the South in America. In 1796 Henry Ogden Holmes, a blacksmith patented an improved version using metal gin saws. With this the cotton gin was born. As the need for cotton increased worldwide, and specially in America, throughout the 1800’s and up to now refinements in the ginning machines and cleaning equipment, conveying and packaging, was driven to allow the cotton and textile industry to expand. Although the processing of cotton has been mechanised, the output capacity of cotton gins seldom exceeded 10 bales of 500lb/hour per gin. But since the mid 1960’s we saw big developments and now gins could produce 20 -30bales/h. This steadily grown to the new modern gins that can produce up to 120bales/hr. However, most cotton gins found in Africa dates back to the 1940 -1960’s, but they are still operational. And most of them were old model gins that had been relocated, but we do start see upgrades and new modern gins get installed in many areas. KEK The KEK Company was formed close to 70 years ago by two German brothers, Karl and Egon Keller, just after WW2, when they saw the need to produce high quality Gin Saws and also wear parts for the oil mill industry. Since the late 1950’s Egon Keller travelled throughout Africa extensively visiting Cotton Gins marketing their products. Up to date we still visit our client’s word wide, monitoring the performance of the wear parts for all types of cotton gins even dating back to the 1940’s, also assisting with technical issues and assisting in supply and maintenance of all types of ginning equipment as a leader in this field. SCREW PRESS Cotton Ginning For cold pressed vegetable oil High quality for a continuous 24-hour operation Pure quality, hard to beat KEK-P0500 Gin Saws / Gin Ribs Anton-Küppers-Weg 17 | Germany - 42855 Remscheid | [phone] | [email protected] September - October 2019 | 23