Winston S Burbank

US Patent:

20060154578, Jul 13, 2006

Filed:

Mar 9, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/078883

Inventors:

Tyler Smith - Independence OR, US
Jamie Wright - Eugene OR, US
Winston Burbank - Fairbanks AK, US

International Classification:

B24C 3/00
B24C 1/00
B24B 1/00
B24B 47/02

US Classification:

451075000, 451038000, 451050000, 451339000

Abstract:

A baseball is desirably blasted with an abrasive material to attain a sufficient level of de-slicking. Baseballs are desirably delivered one at a time to a support and rotated while being sprayed with abrasive material from plural directions. Used abrasive material may be collected and recycled for reuse. Baseballs in a hopper are delivered one at a time in one embodiment to a support by selectively aligning an opening in a rotatable hopper element with an opening in a second element to permit the passage of a baseball through the second element and to the support at an appropriate time. Desirably, baseballs are ejected from the support following de-slicking, such as using an ejection lever or wand that is actuated by a timing rod to eject the baseball from the support ahead of the delivery of the next baseball to the support.