Claims
- 1. An apparatus for washing balls in a fluid comprising:
- (a) an elongated cylindrical housing suitable for receiving the fluid and having at least one open end, a first ball inlet, and a first ball outlet longitudinally spaced from said first ball inlet;
- (b) a screw conveyor coaxially slidably disposed in said cylindrical housing to convey the balls from said ball inlet to said ball outlet, said screw conveyor being made of a plurality of sections, each section being mateably engagable with its adjacent sections;
- (c) line means for coupling at least one pair of adjacent sections, said line means allowing said adjacent sections to be disengaged and separated from each other a distance sufficient so that one of said adjacent sections may be removed from said housing and tilted with respect to said housing's longitudinal axis while still coupled to the other adjacent sections by said line means.
- 2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said elongated cylindrical housing is transparent.
- 3. The apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:
- a soiled ball hopper located above said elongated cylindrical housing and having a soiled ball outlet; and
- a ramp connecting said soiled ball outlet and said first ball inlet;
- wherein said soiled ball hopper and said cylindrical housing are separated by a distance that is less than the length of said screw conveyor.
- 4. The apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said ramp includes a plurality of parallel elongated bars, said bars being spaced apart a distance less than the diameter of one of the balls, and wherein said ramp further includes a trough positioned below said bars for capturing balls which fall between said bars.
- 5. The apparatus according to claim 3 further comprising a fluid supply having a nozzle connected to the upper end of said housing, and a drain located near the lower end of said housing.
RELATED APPLICATION
This is a division of application Ser. No. 08/184,513 filed Jan. 21, 1994 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,641, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/827,773 entitled Apparatus And Method For Washing Balls, filed Jan. 29, 1992 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,822, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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Divisions (1)
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Date |
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184513 |
Jan 1994 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
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827773 |
Jan 1992 |
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