Claims
- 1. An agitating device to be mounted inside a rotating nut hulling tub for increasing the agitation of the nuts to increase the hulling speed, the device comprising:
a bracket capable of being attached to the inside cover of a rotatable nut hulling tub having side wall protrusions for hulling nuts, the bracket having a mounting plate positioned a distance below the cover a sufficient distance to be in contact with a quantity of nuts placed in the tub; a series of tub fingers capable of being attached to the mounting plate so that the fingers hang downwardly into the tub in contact with the quantity of nuts, the tub fingers comprising elongated flexible rods capable of agitating the quantity of nuts as the nuts moving inside the rotatable tub contact the tub fingers so that the tub fingers are capable of assisting in knocking off the nut hulls and assisting in causing the nuts to move against the side wall protrusions at a faster rate than without the tub fingers thereby speeding up the nut hulling process.
- 2. The agitating device of claim 1 wherein the bracket comprises an elongated rectangular U-shaped bracket having two long parallel arms and a perpendicular cross piece, each of the arms having a perpendicular tab having holes at the end of each of the arms for attaching the bracket to the cover of the tub by a screwing means and a series of holes along the cross piece for receiving the series of tub fingers therein.
- 3. The agitating device of claim 2 wherein the tub fingers each comprise a hard rubber rod having an outwardly flared top end larger in diameter than each of the series of holes with a circular groove around the perimeter of the rubber rod adjacent to the end of the rubber rod, a diameter of the rod inside the circular groove being equal to the diameter of each of the series of holes so that each of the rubber rods is capable of being force fit into each of the series of holes so that the top end of each of the tub fingers snap fits into each of the series of holes with each of the grooves engaging the perpendicular cross piece.
- 4. The agitating device of claim 3 wherein each of the brackets has a series of three holes and three tub fingers are attached to each bracket and there are at least four brackets attached to the cover at cardinal points.
CLAIM OF PROVISIONAL APPLICATION RIGHTS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/390,407, filed on Jun. 24, 2002.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60390407 |
Jun 2002 |
US |