| 主权项 |
1. A dryer apparatus for drying pistachio nuts, comprising:
a bulkhead assembly having an inner compartment defined by at least an outer wall and an inner wall, wherein at least a portion of the inner and outer walls are formed of perforated sheet material configured to allow forced air through the walls, wherein the inner compartment has a width extending across the dryer and has at least one passageway extending across said width and vertically passing between an upper infeed assembly and a lower outfeed assembly; the infeed assembly having an infeed chamber with an elongated auger having an auger length and a batch hopper extending along at least a portion of the auger length, said batch hopper having an elongated inner space extending along the width of the inner compartment and which is defined by opposed sidewalls and a bottom wall, said bottom wall of the hopper having a plurality of lower openings, each said lower opening is positioned above the passageway, wherein a gate assembly has a bottom positioned below said plurality of openings and configured to cover each of said plurality of lower openings when the inner hopper space is filled with nuts, said gate assembly being moveable to a position at least partially away from said opening to allow the nuts to fill the inner compartment of the dryer at a substantially equal rate and amount along said width of the inner compartment. |
