Patent ID: 8286586

Claim:
A milk liner for a milk liner assembly of an animal milking system, the milk liner comprising: a resilient flexible elongated longitudinally extending sleeve forming a teat receiving cavity for receiving a teat of an animal's udder and defining a longitudinally extending central axis, a teat engaging flange extending circumferentially around and radially inwardly from the longitudinally extending sleeve, and forming with the longitudinally extending sleeve the teat receiving cavity, the teat engaging flange defining a teat accommodating opening therethrough for accommodating a teat into the teat receiving cavity, and a strengthening ring located on and extending circumferentially around the longitudinally extending sleeve adjacent the teat engaging flange with the teat engaging flange extending radially inwardly from the strengthening ring and from the longitudinally extending sleeve, the strengthening ring being integrally formed with the longitudinally extending sleeve and the teat engaging flange and being dimensioned to prevent radial inward contraction of the teat engaging flange onto a teat extending through the teat accommodating opening thereof and to permit axial deflection of the teat engaging flange inwardly and outwardly relative to the teat receiving cavity, the strengthening ring extending in a general direction parallel to the central axis from the end of the longitudinally extending sleeve adjacent the teat engaging flange and terminating in an abutment surface spaced apart radially outwardly from the portion of the teat engaging flange which deflects axially, so that the abutment surface undergoes minimal axial movement as the teat engaging flange deflects axially, the abutment surface being axially spaced apart from the teat engaging flange for abutting the udder of the animal, so that the strengthening ring forms a spacing means to space the teat engaging flange from the udder with the teat engaging flange spaced apart from a cricoid fold on the axial end of the cricoid fold opposite to the end thereof adjacent the udder, when the abutment surface engages the udder.