Grain cleaner

• US 4,877,039 A
• Filed: 08/26/1988
• Issued: 10/31/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1988
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Curtis T. Stokkeland, Dean S. Somerville
• Original Assignee: Curtis T. Stokkeland, Dean S. Somerville
• Inventors: Somerville, Dean S., Stokkeland, Curtis T.
• Primary Examiner(s): BUIZ, MIKADO RYAN
• Application Number:
  US07/237,510
• Time in Patent Office: 431 Days
• Field of Search: 130/23, 130/27 Z, 130/DIG. 4
• US Class Current: 460/97
• CPC Class Codes: B07B 1/24 with fixed or moving interior agitators

Abstract

The invention comprises a grain cleaning apparatus having a frame with a plurality of augers mounted beside one another in parallel relation. Screens surround the augers except at the ends of the augers to allow grain to enter and leave at the ends of the augers. A boxlike frame encloses the rearward ends of the augers with an open top to allow grain to be cleaned to be dumped into the open rear ends of the augers. A motor is provided with drive member to rotate the augers simultaneously whereby the augers will auger the grain from the box along the augers within the screens to the forward end of the frame, a chute is provided at the forward end for the grain to leave the frame after traveling along the augers. The mesh of the screens is smaller than the grain so as to retain the grain within the screens as it travels along. The mesh allows foreign particles and chaff smaller than the size of the openings to pass through the openings and drop downward from the screens. A bin is provided beneath the screened augers to collect the smaller particles and another auger is provided in the bin to auger the particles out of the bin.

Claims

1. A grain cleaning device comprising a frame, a plurality of augers mounted to said frame beside one another in parallel relation, cylindrical screens surrounding the augers with the ends of the augers being open and free of the screens to allow access to the ends of the augers, a motor means to rotate the augers simultaneously, a box-like structure at the rearward ends of the augers to guide grain into the open rearward ends of the augers, said screens having mesh openings of a size slightly smaller than the size of the grain being cleaned, whereby grain may be dumped into the box-like structure at the rearward ends of the augers and will be augered simultaneously by all the augers along the augers and retained within the screens to the forward ends of the augers and out the forward ends of the screens and augers, while foreign and other non-grain particles of a size smaller than the size of the mesh openings will be allowed to pass through the mesh openings in the screens and gravitate downward from the screened augers, to thereby clean the grain, a bin beneath the screened augers to collect said particles, a chute at the forward end of the augers whereby the grain may travel down the chute at the forward end of the augers to the exterior of the frame.

2. A grain cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein a bin auger is mounted in the bin beneath the screened augers with said motor means also powering said bin augers, a second chute at the forward end of the bin auger whereby the bin auger may auger particles collected in the bin toward where they may gravitate out said second chute of said frame.

3. A grain cleaning device according to claim 2, wherein lugs are mounted to said augers and project outwardly therefrom said augers to agitate the grain being augered to facilitate the separation of foreign material from the grain and its passage through the screens.