Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4685422A/en
Timestamp: 2019-08-24 14:29:12
Document Index: 688509255

Matched Legal Cases: ['application No. 2', 'arts 8', 'arts 8', 'art 4', 'arts 8', 'art 2', 'art 9', 'art.\n11', 'art.\n12', 'art.\n13']

US4685422A - Automatic application of teat cups - Google Patents
Automatic application of teat cups Download PDF
US4685422A
US4685422A US06/772,958 US77295885A US4685422A US 4685422 A US4685422 A US 4685422A US 77295885 A US77295885 A US 77295885A US 4685422 A US4685422 A US 4685422A
US06/772,958
Roelof G. Middel
GASCOIGNE-MELOTTE BV PO BOX 1068 8300 BB EMMELOORD NETHERLANDS A CORP OF
Gascoigne Melotte BV
1984-12-20 Application filed by Gascoigne Melotte BV filed Critical Gascoigne Melotte BV
1985-08-30 Assigned to GASCOIGNE-MELOTTE B.V. P.O. BOX 1068, 8300 BB EMMELOORD THE NETHERLANDS A CORP OF THE reassignment GASCOIGNE-MELOTTE B.V. P.O. BOX 1068, 8300 BB EMMELOORD THE NETHERLANDS A CORP OF THE ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST. Assignors: MIDDEL, ROELOF G., OENEMA, RINKE
1987-08-11 Publication of US4685422A publication Critical patent/US4685422A/en
This invention improves milking units for cattle in order to give better milking results and to facilitate application of the milking unit to the udder of the animal. To this end the teat cups have an upwardly widening upper part, so that the teat cups also engage the lower part of the udder right above and around each teat. Moreover, the teat cups are supported, preferably flexibly, in a common supporting structure so as to by substantially horizontally movable therein, to be easily adjusted to the relative positions of the teats in a particular animal. The teat cups may have operating means to move them to the correct positions under control of means comprising a memory for storing data about such positions for a particular animal and a processor programmed so as to move the cups into the correct positions.
In known milking devices for cows as usual at present, a milking device comprises a claw piece, to which four teat cups are connected, each one by a separate hose. Such devices require hand engagement of each separate cup to connect it to the teats, often in a small space for the personnel and without a good view of the position of the teats. It has been tried to improve this, e.g., as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,714, by supporting the teat cups in adjusted mutual positions to a supporting structure movable upwardly to engage the teats, or, as shown in German published application No. 2.849.227, by providing the teat cups with guiding discs guiding the teats into the cups by sideways movements. It also known to have one cup for all the teats, with a flexible liner inside the cup so shaped as to take up all the teats in preformed depressions.
To this end a device for milking cattle is according to the invention first of all characterized in that the milking unit comprises a number of teat cups supported individually as separate bodies by a supporting structure movable in the device so as to be moved upwardly for engagement with the teats, said teat cups widening upwardly in their upper parts so as to be adapted to engage and surround the teats with their lower narrower parts and to engage and surround the lower part of the udder above each teat during milking.
This makes it easy to apply the cups to the teats by upward movement of the supporting structure, as the teats will be taken up easily by the wide top parts of the cups and be guided therein to the correct position and moreover, the engagement of the lower part of the udder by the wider parts of the cups appears to give a better milking effect.
Preferably, the cups underly a resilient upward pressure by the supporting structure, which appears to improve the milking effect.
The invention allows easy adjustment of the relative positions of the teat cups with respect to the supporting structure to adapt the positions of the cups to a particular animal. A further object of the invention is the further automation of milking, in particular in the engagement of the cups with the udder and teats as adapted to the special form of the cups according to the invention. In this respect the invention also proposes a new method of operating the milking device according to the invention, by programming a processor with the coordinates for the positions of the teat cups in a particular way to be described.
The supporting structure 4 carries plates or tubes 8 and 9 adapted to enter into pushing contact with the cow and intended to act as a reference device. The tube 9 has such a winged shape that the position of the cow in its longitudinal direction is fixed and that the cow is also centered in the box in the transverse direction. These parts 8 and 9 have such shapes and are positioned at such a height thay they push onto those higher backparts of the animal, which are closest to its bones, e.g. its tailbone, to avoid inaccuracies of positioning by too easily compressible muscleparts, which might spoil the accurate positioning.
It may be desired to introduce means not shown to move the whole milking unit 20 horizontally in longitudinal direction of the box with respect to the beams 12 and the parts 8 and 9 giving a reference position with respect to the cow. This may easily be done, e.g. by giving arms 15 telescoping parts with a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder to lengthen or shorten them at will.
The movable part 4 of the supporting structure is, with the milking unit 20 in a low position, moved forwardly by the cylinders 6 until the parts 8 and 9 (the reference device) push against the cow, the tail being moved sideways by tailguide 10. Tube 9 centers the cow in cooperation with the raised part 2 in the center of the box. If this supporting structure connot be moved further by cylinders 6, leakage valves and reduction valves enter in operation so that the cylinders 6 will maintain some pressure on the cow but backward movements thereof will not cause undesired rises in pressure. Together with the supporting structure 4 the milking unit and its supporting parts have moved forwardly and the reference device, maintaining in contact under some pressure with the cow, thus forms a good basis for the use of the coordinates of the teats determined with respect thereto. By the centering of the cow by part 9 the same is true in transverse direction.
The controller comprises a memory containing for each cow specific coordinate values enabling the processor to operate the cylinders 27 and 28 to bring the teatcups in the correct position. At each milking turn, preferably immediately after engaging the milking unit to the animal, the processor is switched to a monitoring status whereby the cylinders are enabled to move freely without being controlled by the processor during a very short period so that the cups may be moved easily by the teats themselves. After reaching in this way the desired position of the cups to be used during milking, the coordinates of this desired position will be derived and stored by the processor in the memory. If desired these coordinates are treated arithmetically, e.g. to determine the average value of those coordinates from several milking operations. Thus during the next milking turn or turns the cups may be positioned initially in agreement with the stored coordinates, which positions are at least approximately correct for the concerning cow, so that the engagement takes place correctly. Thereafter the positions are thus automatically corrected to take account of changes in the teat positios depending on the age of the animal and the stage in the lactation period. In fact this means that the milking unit itself operates as a measuring apparatus for the positions of the teats. For a new animal it is possible to adjust the teatcups by hand before this procedure begins. It would also be possible to have a separate measuring device for measuring the relative positions of the teats and to supply the corresponding coordinates to the memory of the processor.
It is moreover possible to have the cylinders 27 and 28 or other parts of the supporting structure move so as to give a searching movement of the teatcups for more easily taking up the teats, e.g. a linear to and fro movement, a circular movement, a vibrating or spiral movement etc.
1. A device for milking cattle, including a milking unit comprising:
(a) a plurality of teat cups, each of said cups widening upwardly in its upper part, said widening part comprising a substantially rigid casing, adapted to be engaged with an udder during milking, each of said teat cups also including a lower, narrower part adapted to engage and surround a teat during milking;
(b) a supporting structure for said teat cups, said structure including means for individually supporting each of said teat cups as a separate body, and means for moving said teat cups upwardly to a milking position for engagement with the teats; and
(c) means exerting a resilient upward pressure on the teat cups in the milking position, whereby the upper part of each of said teat cups is engaged with an udder and the lower part of each of said teat cups is engaged with a teat.
4. A device according to claim 3, in which the teat cups are supported by slides supported in the supporting structure, the operating means for moving the teat cups into a desired position engaging said slides.
5. A device according to claim 4, said teat cups being supported in said supporting structure by flexible resilient means keeping them in a predetermined position flexibly, i.e. while allowing adaptations of said position to the position of the teats and udder by forces exerted thereby on the cups.
6. A device according to claim 5, in which the teat cups are supported by said resilient means so as to be movable both horizontally and vertically with respect to said supporting structure.
7. A device according to claim 4, in which the supporting structure supports two slides for the same cup, one movable in one substantially horizontal direction and the other moving in a substantially horizontal direction transverse to said first-mentioned direction, one of said slides being supported by the other one so as to move therewith.
8. A device according to claim 3, in which the operating means for moving the teat cups have means for combined mutually opposite movement of two teat cups in about the same transverse plane of the animal with respect to the vertical longitudinal central plane of the animal.
9. A device according to claim 1, including a flexible inner lining in the teat cups defining an inner wall and a space for the pulsating fluid necessary for milking in the rigid outer casing of the cups, said inner lining also extends over said upwardly widening part of the cups.
10. A device according to claim 9, in which the flexible inner lining of the teat cups is more rigid in the said widening part than in its teat engaging part.
11. A device according to claim 9, in which the said lining forms two separate pulsation chambers in the teat cup, one chamber substantially in the widening part and one in the teat engaging part.
12. A device according to claim 11, in which the pulsating means are embodied and connected to said pulsation chambers in such a way, that the pulsations in the chamber in the widening part are earlier in phase than the pulsations in the chamber in the teat engaging part.
13. A device according to claim 12, in which the teat cup at its upper wide end has a flexibly-elastic edge for engagement with the udder, said edge being thicker than the remainder of the cup.
14. A device according to claim 13, in which said thickened edge is formed by a hollow part filled with a fluid.
15. A device according to claim 1, in which each teat cup has means to establish a flow of milk from said cup.
16. A device according to any of the preceding claims, in which each teat cup has a valve near its lower end to interrupt the connection between its interior and the vacuum milk discharge means.
17. A device according to claim 1, in which the milking unit is supported in the device so as to be movable horizontally in its entirety in the longitudinal direction of the animal.
18. A device according to claim 17, in which the milking unit is supported by arms in the supporting structure through a horizontal axis, about which it is freely pivotable.
19. A device according to claim 18, having a fixed frame, means to move supporting means for the milking unit substantially vertically with respect to said frame, and a horizontal pivoting axis in said supporting means, about which supporting arms are pivotable, which carry the milking unit.
20. A device according to claim 17, in which the horizontally movable means have means to contact the animal in the zone of bone parts at its back to limit said horizontal movement by contact under a certain pressure with the animal, said horizontally movable means having means to maintain such a pressure flexibly during milking.
21. A device according to claim 20, in which the horizontally movable means also carry means to engage the sides of the back end of the animal to limit sideways movemetns thereof with respect to the axis of the milking unit in the longitudinal direction of the animal.
22. A device according to claim 21, in which the horizontally movable means also carry a tail guide and a discharge for faeces and urine.
23. A device according to claim 22, in which the device has a floor having a higher part in the centre corresponding to the zone around the central line of the milking unit in the longitudinal direction of the animal and parts lower than said higher part to both sides thereof, making it difficult or impossible for the animal to stand otherwise than with one back leg to each side of said higher part, which comprises pivoting parts movable between the position to form said higher part as a substantially closed floor surface and a more upstanding position inside and close to the hindlegs of the animal.
US06/772,958 1983-12-30 1984-12-20 Automatic application of teat cups Expired - Fee Related US4685422A (en)
US4685422A true US4685422A (en) 1987-08-11
US06/772,958 Expired - Fee Related US4685422A (en) 1983-12-30 1984-12-20 Automatic application of teat cups
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Owner name: GASCOIGNE-MELOTTE B.V. P.O. BOX 1068, 8300 BB EMME
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNORS:MIDDEL, ROELOF G.;OENEMA, RINKE;REEL/FRAME:004472/0854