AU626914B2

AU626914B2 - Improvements in animal crushes

Info

Publication number: AU626914B2
Application number: AU41566/89A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Barry Zwynenberg
Original assignee: HANS WELDING WORKS Pty Ltd
Current assignee: HANS WELDING WORKS Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1988-09-20
Filing date: 1989-09-20
Publication date: 1992-08-13
Anticipated expiration: 2009-09-20
Also published as: AU4156689A

Description

ii 626914 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1952 0o Name of Applicant fe* o* Address of Applicant Actual Inventor(s) Address for Service HANS WELDING WORKS PTY LTD 330 Warwick Road, Yamato, Queensland, 4305, Australia GRANT ADAMS COMPANY, Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, Level 9 NATIONAL MUTUAL CENTRE 144 Edward Street, BRISBANE. QUEENSLAND. 4000

AUSTRALIA.

69 0

S

*0 0 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR THE INVENTION ENTITLED: "IMPROVEMENTS IN ANIMAL CRUSHES" The following statement is a full description of the invention including the best method of performing it known to the applicant.

1 j! m THIS INVENTION relates to head bails and cattle crushes, and, in particular, to a locking mechanism for use therein. Head bails and cattle crushes exist to enable handling of live animals wherein the beast is restrained by side bars or side panels closed against its flanks.

The mechanism by which the side bars or side panels are i operated is manual, with a lever mechanism to give the operator a mechanical advantage against the strength and weight of the beast to be restrained. However, even the mechanical advantage of the usual lever mechanisms can prove to be inadequate.

With the existing bail doors, their head "engaging elements are generally carried on horizontal 15 rails and have not proved to be satisfactory.

It is one object of the invention to provide a locking mechanism for use in a head bail or cattle crush whereby gains made in closing the bail or crush upon a Ai beast therein are not lost should the beast lunge within the bail or crush.

In a further development the invention provides improvements in animal crushes for, but not limited to, walk-through cattle crushes.

At present, it is not possible to handle both (i cattle and calves, e.g. for animal husbandry purposes, in a single crush. This has required drafting the calves from the fully grown cattle and then handling them separately in calf cradles and cattle crushes respectively. I It is a further object of the present invention to provide a calf cradle within a cattle crush A so that the calves need not be separated from the cattle for handling.

Other preferred objects of the present 2 11 1 -l In a first aspect the present invention resides in a bail door assembly for a cattle crush, including: a pair of bails each mounted for generally vertical movement on a pair of parallel links to effect a change in spacing of the bails; an operating linkage interconnecting the bails and arranged to pull the bails vertically and towards each other as the operating linkage is actioned; a handle operable by an operator; and a conir-cting linkage connecting the handle to the operating linkage to move the latter in unison with the handle; S the operating linkage including a lever arm connected to the connecting linkage to transmit action at the handle to the bails; :the point at which the lever arm engages the connecting linkage being selectively adjustable to set the degree of closure of the bails at an .overshot locked 20 position of the connecting linkage.

In another aspect the present invention S resides in a cattle crush incorporating the above bail door of the type having an entry gate at one end, bail door at the other end, and at least one side gate or 25 door, wherein: a calf crush assembly is hingedly mounted along one side on a swinging arm hingedly mounted on a post on one side of the cattle crush, so arranged that the swinging arm can move the calf cradle from a first position within the cattle crush to a second position to one side of the cattle crush to enable the cattle crush to receive cattle.

To enable the invention to be fully I! understood, preferred embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 3 cc-6 'I FIGS. 1-3 are respective front, sie and rear views of the cattle crush; FIG. 4 is a schematic showing a bail door in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 5 shows a restraint that may be incorporated into a cattle crush in accordance with the present invention.

S**

e .fr 1 rli In FIGS. 1 to 3 the cattle crush 10 has a rectangular front frame 11 surrounding the bail door assembly 12. Parallel top and bottom rails 13, 14 connect the front frame 11 to the rear frame 15 which is provided by a sliding entry door 16 supporting from horizontal tracks 17.

Side doors or gates 18 and secondary access doors 19 are provided along each side of the crush, the side door on the opposite side of the crush being hinged from the vertical post 20 and lockable to the central post 21 on the other (or right hand side) of the crush.

S. A calf cradle, not shown, has a floor and a pair of hingedly mounted side gates which can be adjustably clamped about the calf.

15 A swinging arm, not shown, is hingedly mounted about a vertical axis on the central post 21 on the RHS of the crush and the adjacent side gate of the calf cradle is hingedly mounted, about a horizontal axis, along the swinging arm.

In use, when a calf is to be handled, the Se.. swinging arm is moved to position the calf cradle within the crush, the cradle is swung upright and the side doors 18 are both closed.

S. When the calf enters the cradle, the side gates are closed to clamp onto the calf. One or both of the side doors 18 can then be opened to provide access to the calf.

e*0 Depending on the operation to be performed on the calf, e.g. ear tagging or castration, the cradle may be tipped over to its horizontal position, still partially within the crush, or the swinging arm may be moved to position the cradle outside the crush before the cradle is swung over.

If the next beast to be handled is a calf, the cradle is returned to its original position to receive the calf. However, if the next beast is fully grown 4 i' *in j^ 1 1 S. r T 1 1 1 0O S S See.

5@ S S 6*OS

S.

5 S Se. S

S

0000e@

S

0

OSSS

S S S. S

SS

S. S

S@

*65O S S S. S

S

0Og* S. S S S

SS

e.g. a steer, the cradle is swung to its position outside the crush and the side doors are both closed.

The beast will then be restrained by the bail doors.

It will be readily apparent to the skilled addressee that this arranguient allows both cattle and calves to be handled by passing through a sing~le crush without the need for drafting.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the ,'ail door assembly 12 has a pair of bail doors 30, with inner posts 31, mounted on parallel links 32, 33,.

A pair of inclined links 34 interconnect the bail doors 30 to a vertically movable operating link which when raised, moves the bail doors 30 towards each other.

An arm 36 is hinged on the top of the crush, intermediate the length of the arm, and one end is adjustably connected to the operating link A pair of handle links 37 are connected at one end to a handle 38 hingedly mounted on the crush and at 20 the other end at selective positions along the arm 36 by a transverse pin 39 received in vertical grooves 40 in the upper face of the arm 36 (see in greater detail in FIG. 4).

In FIG. 1, the bail doors 30 are shown in the 25 closed position, the handle 38 being pulled down to lift the operating linkage 35 via the arm 36 and the handle links 37. The selective positioning of the pin 39 in the grooves 40 gives a coarse adjustment of the closing of the bail doors 30 while the adjustment of the 30 connection between the arm 36 and the operating link provides the fine adjustment for such closing.

A rear operating handle 41, adjacent the central post 21 on the LHS of the crush, operates a shaft 42 which has a finger, not shown, which engages a transverse pin or block on the handle links to push it down to enable the rear handle 41 to close the bail doors 30. A chain, also not shown, extends from the finger to the handle 38 to lift the latter, and open the bail doors 30, when the rear handle 41 is raised. This arrangement enables remote opening and closing of the bail doors As the bail doors 30 swing upwardly as they close, they tend to lift the animal's head and so there is less likelihood of the doors closing with the animals head down as with conventional bail doors. The operating system for the bail doors is simple and can be easily adjusted to provide the desired spacing between the bail doors 30 to ensure correct restraint of the animal.

In FIG 4 an end elevation of a head bail 110 is shown with movable side bars 111 and 112 pivotally mounted to a support frame comprising uprights 113 and S.in 114, on linkage arms 115 to 118. The side bars 111 and 112 are moved, generally vertically by the main linkage arm 119 which connects the lever mechanism 120 with the side bars 111 and 112 via subsidiary linkage arms 121 and 122. An adjustable link 123 is interposed between the subsidiary linkage arms 121 and 122 and the main linknge arm 119 whereby movement of the pivot to any of the holes along adjustable link 123 sets the distance see& :t 25 between the side bars 111 and 112 at their locked position. As described below, operation of the lever mechanism 120 raises the side bars 111 and 112 against their mounting links 115 to 118 to move the side bars together. Reversal drops them to open them.

30 The lever mechanism 120 comprises a draw link 125 interconnected to a lever arm 126 with hand grip 127 e* thereon. The drawlink 125 and lever arm 126 are pivotally interconnected at 128 below pivot 129 at which elver arm 126 is supported upon upright 114. Action of lever arm 126 towards upright 114 pulls drawlink 125 downwards to an over shot position when pressure upwards ii 1 _Y i r: i II L~ be Cr a

COB

a.

*O

gee...

C

Si 0 on draw link 125 pulls lever arm 126 against upright 114 because pivot 128 has passed beneath the lever arm pivot 129.

The draw link 125 is connected to the main linkage arm 119 at 130 below pivot 131 whereat the main linkage arm 119 is supported on a bracket 132 above cross bar 133 which interconnects the uprights 113 and 114. Drawing draw link 125 down by operation of lever arm 126 pulls the lower end of main linkage arm 119 downwardly to raise the upper end and the side bars 111 and 112. The draw link 125 is interconnected with the main linkage arm 119 with an engagement pin 134 in a selected slot of a row of slots 35 which allow adjustment of the interconnection with the pin 134 captured beneath rail 136. By this means the spread of bails 111 and 112 may be set at a desired width when lever arm 125 is overshot to its stable position.

The above described mechanism is suitable for capturing a beast, but in the process, the beast may 20 resist with a force that opposes the operator at the lever arm which is considerable. In order that whatever progress that has been made to lock the beast is not lost, a locking mechanism 137 is added.

The locking mechanism 137 has a ratchet arm 138 pivotally connected to the main linkage arm 119.

The ratchet arm 138 is caught by pawl 139 on upright 114. Thus, as lever arm 126 is operated to close side bars 111 and 112, pawl 139 prevents backward movement of lever arm 126 to resist forces generated by the beast.

The operator may proceed with lunges on lever arm 126 without fear that the beast might react successfully against him. A release arm 140 is connected to ratchet arm 138 whereby, the mechanism may be unlocked by a force applied to release arm 140 to unlock pawl 139.

The above described mechanism is applied to a head bail. It will be clear to those in the art that 7 'u I

'U

i' the principles might equally be applied to cattle crushes. It will also be clear to those skilled in the art that mechanical substitutes may be made for each of the above elements which substitutes still enable the basic concepts to be operated within the spirit of the invention.

In FIG. 6 is shown a swinging arm 51 which may drop down behind the rump of an animal and held there by restraints 52 to keep a beast at the forward end 56 within a crush frame 50 whilst a bail mechanism operates at the forward end. The swinging arm 51 is provided on an axle 53 that spans top members 54 and 55. The axle S* may be held in place by any suitable means.

The above described embodiment discloses the 15 basic elements of the invention, a locking mechanism, S• whereby movement of the lever to its locked position cannot be lost through resistance of the beast.

Various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiment described without departing form the scope of the present invention.

0 0 0*

L'

Claims

2. A bail door assembly as claimed in Claim 1 wherein: the operating linkage is provided with a locking mechanism incorporating a ratchet mechanism whereby the bail door may be closed progressively.
3. A cattle crush incorporating a bail door as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein: the crush is provided with a swinging arm pivotally mounted at a point above the crush with a cross piece able to be swung down behind the rump of an animal in the crush.
4. A cattle crush incorporating a bail door as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3 of the type having: an entry gate at one end; the bail door at the other end; and C 9 (#CZZ> div at least one side gate or door wherein: a calf cradle assembly is hingedly mounted along one side on a swinging arm hingedly mounted on a post on one side of the cattle crush so arranged that the swinging arm can move the calf cradle from a first position within the cattle crush to a second position to one side and free of the cattle crush to enable the cattle crush to receive cattle. I A bail door assembly as claimed in Claim 2 wherein: the rachet mechanism includes toothed arm pivotally connected to the lever arm, teeth on the toothed arm being engaged with a pawl mounted to a .ii*.i framing member of the bail door assembly.
6. A bail door assembly as claimed in Claim wherein: the toothed arm is provided with a release arm projected thereof by which the toothed arm may be lifted off the pawl. 20 7. A bail door assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1, 2, 5 and 6 wherein: the connecting linkage includes a lever arm with one end pivotally mounted to a framing member of the bail door assembly and having the handle attached to 25 its other end, the connecting linkage also including a draw link pivotally connected at one end to the lever arm of the connecting linkage at a point between the handle and that lever arm's pivot, the draw linkage being operatively connected at its other end to the lever arm of the operating linkage at said selectively adjustable point.
8. A bail door assembly as claimed in Claim 7 wherein: the draw link engages the lever arm of the operating linkage at said selectively adjustable point I Ni a i'i i ~li i :i with a pin captured in a selected slot of a row of slots along a length of the lever arm of the operating system.
9. A bail door assembly as claimed in Claim 8 wherein: the pin is captured beneath a rail extended over the slots, spaced from the lever arm of the operating linkage, and attached at each end to the lever arm of the operating linkage. A bail door assembly for a cattle crush substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings.
11. A cattle crush substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this eighth day of May 1992. HANS WELDING WORKS PTY. LTD., by its Patent Attorneys, GRANT ADAMS COMPANY. q 000* 0* 0* SO S S S. S OS S 1' i, Lk A1