Development

1
Development Commercialization of Cotton
Stripper Machine success story of incubating
grassroots innovations
2
Genesis of Innovation
In the dry cotton growing tracts of Gujarat and
other parts of the coutry, there are some
varieties of cotton (Kalyan V 797, G-13 etc.)
where the lint is tightly attached to the inner
side of the shell. This lint has to be stripped
from the shell before ginning. This is a
laborious process, manually carried out usually
by women and children labour.
Shri Mansukhbhai Patel, Studied up to 7th
standard, An Electrician in Textile mill by
profession farmer from Gujarat solved the
problem. He was scouted by a student of Gram
Vidhyapith in the year 1997.
3
INNOVATION
As an answer to this problem, Mansukhbhai
developed a machine which mechanically strip the
cotton lint from the shell in a faster
efficient manner and leave it ready for ginning.

• It totally replaces the manual method of
  separating cotton from the harvested cotton
  shells.
• Social relevance - reduces drudgery of women and
  child labour
• Wider commercial application

4
Selection criteria

• A unique solution to a tedious, manual process
• Social relevance-reduces drudgery of women and
  child
• labour
• Increasing efficiency Quality of output by
  eliminating
• staple cutting
• Wider socio-commercial application

Performance Features
Model Capacity Price (1 40 INR)
Jombo Model 15 HP (10 Kw / hr) 1500 Kg/ hr INR. 4,41,000/- (USD 11025/-)
Mini Jambo model 12 HP ( 8 KW / hr) 800 kg/ hr INR. 2,51, 000/- (USD -6275/-)
5
Comparison with conventional methods
Traditional Process Cotton Stripper Machine
Manual Separation of cotton from shell A completely mechanized process
Extremely cumbersome and tiresome process Extremely easy to handle, efficient and effective
Cotton is wasted in case of un-seasonal rains due to deterioration Faster processing saves cotton from deterioration in case of un-seasonal rains
Inferior quality of cotton output Superior quality of cotton output
Gets lower price in the market due to poor quality output Fetches higher price in the market due to better quality
Children and women are the labors, who are engaged in this cumbersome and low value task Requires only 2 labors at any point of time to handle the operation
A labour can process 20 kgs of cotton in a day Can operate 800 Kgs of Cotton in an hour
Results in much higher running cost Cover all its cost within a single season
6
Product Development - 1991 2000
First few prototypes developed by innovator
himself. He mobilized financial support by his
own from friends and family. GIAN mobilized
technical support from National Design Institute
Indian Institute of Technology and financial
support from TePP Scheme of DSIR, Government of
India . Innovator has developed seven different
models in eight years to reach to a level of
commercial product.
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First Conceptual model ( 1991 )
8
First Prototype( 1992)
The machine required just three workers and
processed 100-160 Kg of cotton per hour.
Innovator exhibited this model among the
villagers. Mansukhbhai himself was not satisfied
with this model, still the design was largely
appreciated by those witnessing the exhibition.
First Demonstration in village
Roller with fillet
Spike Roller
9
Shortcomings identified in 1st prototype

• Along with cotton, small pebbles were also
  infused in the system through hopper which caused
  system failure and shorten the life wire meshing
• Lifetime of the wire meshing (which was about
  4000 kg) on the wheel was very less due to the
  scrubbing by the wooden scrubber. By the end of
  the exhibition, which lasted for 3 days the wire
  meshing was completely straightened out.
• Cotton dust reduced the life time of bearings
  used.
• Quality of cotton was not that good. As the balls
  was crushed it broke the seed in to fine
  particles which stuck with the cotton and was
  impossible to separate.

10
Concept model 2 ( 1993)
11
Prototype 2
A fiend who was manager in local cooperative
financed innovator Rs 150,000/- ( USD 3750/-) as
a loan and innovator further worked for a year on
removing the shortcomings of his first model. He
completed his next model before the start of next
season.
New components Introduced

• Net
• Aluminum conveyor
• Added super cleaner
• rollers
• Wheels

12
Shortcomings identified in Model 2

• The crushed shell particles still stuck to the
  cotton result into wastage of cotton and it also
  reduced its quality.
• Problem of motor failure persisted.
• Shells were falling under the machine and manual
  labour was required to collect the shells from
  bottom of the machine. This was very risky, as
  huge rollers were rotating at quite a high speed
  just above his head.
• In this model the life time of wire mesh was
  increased to 20,000 Kg. It was a commercially
  viable model. In fact around 15 models were sold.
  Unfortunately though problems developed in the
  machines and they were returned back. Innovator
  returned the money of the buyers. He suffered
  grave financial losses.

13
Concept Model 3 ( 1994)
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Spiked shaft introduced in model in model -3
Two shaft were used in this model. All around the
radius of the shaft spikes are protruding out.
With the help of the spiked shaft, the balls was
opened up to access the cotton instead of
crushing it. This increased the quality of cotton
to a great extent. In addition to breaking up
balls shells this shaft also transported the
seeds from the feeding roller to the super
cleaning rollers. The super cleaners were used to
transport the balls to the wire meshed roller.
This does the primitive cleaning of the balls.
This model was developed during off season and
it was not introduced to the market. A modified
version of this model was developed for the
season in the month of October, 1995.
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Concept Model 4 ( 1995)
In this model 4, two large rollers of different
RPM with wire mesh were used . Introduction of
these two wire meshed wheels , the life of these
wheel were further increased upto about 30,000 kg
of processing. Innovator used to provide these
machines to cotton processing plants on rent and
run them under his own supervision and
observation. This way he was able to accurately
monitor the performance of machines.
16
Feedback of Prof. Munsi (1997), IDC, IIT Mumbai

1. Drum Alignment The three rolls supported by the
   two the sheet plate on the two ends of the rolls
   at an angle, there are chances of misalignment of
   the two sheet plate from the base point from
   where they are supported to the structure.
2. Hopper - The hopper get the clog up at the
   bottom an therefore to eliminate the problem a
   spiked shaft parallel to the drum was suggested
   to be incorporated.
3. Waste - A provision was made to collect the
   cotton shell from the bottom and to dispose it on
   the other side, so that the crushed shell do not
   effect the quality of the cotton and also the
   risk associated with the manual picking of the
   shell is eliminated.

17
Concept model Prototype 5 ( 1998 )
As shown fig, one more brushing wheel and one
more small roller with fillet was used
corresponding to the second large roller with
wire meshing introduced in model 4. Around 15
machines of this model were sold. The performance
of these machines was much better than previous
machines. Still there were some shortcomings in
the model.
18
Concept Model 6 (2000) Mr. Alexander, a
German student from National Institute of Design
has provided inputs and TePP (DSIR) provided
financial support
A very detailed and comprehensive market and
feasibility study was carried out for the
machine. The study also included development of
Project Management plan for the innovator for his
anticipated shift into commercial production.
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Photograph of model 6 (2000)
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Advantages of Model 6

• Efficiency of the machine has increased due to
  addition
• of the new roller as recycling of the shells is
  avoided.
• The suction mechanism has also solved one major
• problem of recurring expense of lycryl mesh.
• Introduction of worm wheels has eliminated the
• problem of collection of shells drop on one
  side of the
• machine, where they could be easily collected.
• Suction mechanism has also eliminated labor
  requirement for pouring the cotton into the
  hopper without any additional cost (It has
  replaced hopper, shaft and spiked shafts).

21
Model 7 Final Commercial Model named as
Millennium Model (2001)
The machine contains two 5HP motors one of which
rotates the Blower and the spike shaft and other
rotates three big rollers. There is also another
2HP motor, which is used to run smaller brush
rollers. In this model , innovator has offered
full guarantee for one season to the customers.
This confidence has been gained over a decade of
indigenous RD on the prototype.
22
Stage wise development.
23
Commercial model ready for dispatch
24
IPR Protection India patent awarded on Feb 6 ,
2006 ,No 198755 US patent Awarded on April 8,
2003. US 6, 543, 091B2
Eight people have copied this innovation
infringed the patent but none of them succeed in
business. Innovator has continuously improved the
technology and beat the market by winning
confident of the customers.
25
Business Development

• Innovator himself become Entrepreneur
  Established Chetak
• Agro Industries ( October 2000
• Initial venture fund has been provided by SRISTI
  (Oct 2001)
• GIAN has arranged working capital through
  commercial banks
• Market research business plan prepared by GIAN
  ( 2000)
• About 400 machines have been sold in last five
  years.
• Today he is a owner of one big and small five
  companies. Total turnover of group companies is
  around 500,000 USD (2 crore INR)
• Pioneer in setting up Innovators fund for
  innovators of western region of India and made
  open offer to the other innovators to use his
  workshops free of charge. Today his industries is
  like a regional incubator for local innovators.

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Establishment of commercial venture Chetak Agro
industries
27
Recognition Reward
1st Award by National Innovation Foundation Award
in the year Feb 2002 Best Technology Award for
the year 2003 by National Research Development
Corporation, Govt. of India in the year June
2004. Honored by SRISTI including him in the
Governing body
Recognition by Community
28
1997 - From Scrap to .
2007 - Solid Ampire.
THANKS