Patent ID: 8267831

Claim:
An apparatus having an immersible rotatable carousel for wetting a plurality of disks which are supported on at least one disk support mandrel, comprising: a support frame having an immersible section; a central axle fixedly mounted on said support frame; a first mandrel support plate and a second mandrel support plate mounted for rotation in unison on said central axle, said first mandrel support plate having a plurality of circumferentially spaced bearing apertures therein, said second mandrel support plate having a plurality of circumferentially spaced radially extending recesses which are circumferentially aligned with said bearing apertures; a sun gear fixedly mounted to said first mandrel support plate; a rotatable ring gear mounted for selective rotation on said frame; a plurality of disk support mandrels each having a first bearing end received in one of said bearing apertures and a second bearing end received in one of said recesses, said mandrels being supported by said first mandrel support plate and said second mandrel support plate to form a rotatable carousel; and drive means for rotating said sun gear attached to said first mandrel support plate of said rotatable carousel, wherein rotating said sun gear causes said plurality of disk support mandrels to rotate around said central axle, said mandrels each having a mandrel axis that extends generally parallel to said central axle, said plurality of mandrels being capable of selective rotation around their own mandrel axis, wherein each of said mandrels having a mandrel gear affixed thereto and said mandrel gears having teeth in meshing engagement with external teeth on said rotatable ring gear such that said mandrels rotate around their own mandrel axis when said ring gear is prevented from rotating and do not rotate around their own axis when said ring gear selectively rotates.