Mechanical feeder having a hemispherical hopper

摘要

A feeder for controllably discharging a flowable substance and having a hemispherically shaped hopper for holding a flowable substance, a rotatable agitator for sweeping the hopper and agitating the substance, a trough for receiving the substance from the hopper, a rotatable feed screw for removing the substance from the hopper and controllably discharging the substance from the feeder, and a driving mechanism for driving the feed screw and agitator. The agitator is horizontally driven along an axis which is parallel to axis of the feed screw and is removable from the feeder.