Patent ID: 8381680

Claim:
A method of monitoring the supply of re-circulating cleaning liquid to a milking system during a cleaning operation, comprising the steps of: in a milking system comprising i) a milk line ( 2 ), ii) plural milking stations ( 4 A-D), iii) plural milk conduits ( 2 A-D), each milk conduit connecting the milk line to a respective one of the milking stations, iv) a cleaning line ( 1 ), vi) plural cleaning liquid supply conduits ( 3 A-D), each supply conduit connectable to a respective one of the milk conduits at the milking stations and configured to re-circulate the cleaning liquid therethrough during the cleaning operation, vii) plural flow sensors, each flow sensor a) associated with a respective one of said milking stations and b) located in one of the milk conduit and the supply conduit of the associated milking station, viii) plural cleaning liquid regulating elements ( 21 A-D, 23 , 25 , 27 , 22 ) connected to the cleaning line, each of said regulating elements a) associated with a respective one of said milking stations, and b) located in one of the milk conduit and the supply conduit of the associated milking station, and ix) a control unit ( 7 , 17 , 18 ) operatively connected to each flow sensor, supplying the cleaning liquid through the supply conduits to the respective milk conduits of the respective milking stations so that the cleaning liquid flows through the respective milking stations; using the flow sensors while re-circulating the cleaning liquid through the milk line and the cleaning liquid supply conduits during the cleaning operation, measuring a value of the flow of the cleaning liquid through each of the respective milking stations, and having the flow sensors transfer said values of the measured flows to the control unit.