Patent ID: 8701510
Filing Date: 2014-04-22
Classification: A01J

Abstract:
1. A milk sampling apparatus for receiving milk from a milking machine and forwarding discrete samples of the milk to respective discharge paths for analysis, comprising: a single chamber that receives and concurrently holds milk for at least two discrete samples, the chamber having a volume greater than an aggregate volume of the two discrete samples, the chamber having a bottom, a top, and sides extending between the bottom and the top, with a total height defined between the bottom and the top, the chamber further comprising a milk inlet opening that connects, downstream, to a flow line leading from an milking machine, wherein the milk inlet opening receives the milk from the milking machine via the flow line; emptying means connected to the chamber and operable to empty milk from the chamber for reducing a milk quantity in the chamber to a predetermined level; and at least two sample outlets connected, via respective first and second discharge paths, to a milk analysis sample point for respectively discharging the two discrete samples from the chamber respectively through the first and second sample discharge paths to the sample point, wherein an inlet of a first of the sample outlets opens at a first height within the chamber so as to discharge a first milk sample from the first height within the chamber via the first discharge path to the sample point, wherein an inlet of a second of the sample outlet opens at a second height within the chamber so as to discharge a second milk sample from the second height within the chamber via the second discharge path to the sample point, the second height being lower than the first height so that the first sample outlet is an uppermost sample outlet and the second sample outlet is a lowermost sample outlet of the chamber, and wherein the inlets of the first and second sample outlets being at different heights within the chamber allow samples of milk of predetermined quantity be discharged from the chamber and to the sample point by selectively opening the first and second sample outlets in turn from the uppermost sample outlet to the lowermost sample outlet.