AU672114B2 - Kennel/cattery with automatic feeders - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 2w a Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: KENNEL CATTERY..... WITH UTOMATIC FEEDERS The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:-

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1/1 KENNEL/CATTERY WITH AUTOMATIC FEEDERS This invention relates to the kennel/cattery with automatic feedings of both meat and particulate or dry pet food.

For rearing pets, meat feeding, particulate food feeding, watering and kennel or cattery are the basic requirements and have to be done by the owner. Furthermore, there are two important factors in dispensing pet foods: one is that the ration should be controlled, and the other is that the balance of foods should be maintained.

There have been many proposals for feeding pets with dry food dispensers. All these have disadvantages, such as no simple adjustment to change the ration of dry food for the user's many different feeding requirements, no automatic meat food feeder to balance the food when feeding pets, and no feeding result checker to find out the problem that pets refuse to eat.

In an effort to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art or at least provide a commercial alternative to the prior art, it is proposed to provide a housing for pets which includes automatic feeders which release food only when required and warn an owner if the released food is not being consumed by the pet.

S"According to a first aspect, the present invention provides a housing for pets comprising extendable pet accommodation area, an automatic meat feeder having a meat storage cabinet and a first o dispensing means for slicing and delivering meat stored in said cabinet to said accommodation area, and an automatic particulate food feeder having a particulate food storage container for storing a quantity of particulate food, and a second dispensing means for delivering a predetermined quantity of particulate food 30 to said pet accommodation area.

Preferably, the automatic meat feeder includes a generally downwardly directed food delivery passage wherein meat released from said meat storage cabinet falls towards the accommodation area by force of gravity.

It is also preferred that a pair of electronically operated retention means are positioned in the food delivery passage to selectively release a o i; 1M.aO 2 portion of the meat to the accommodation area, A knife may be provided in the food delivery passage to slice the meat as it falls pass the knife, Preferably, the particulate food feeder includes a hopper communicating with a vibrating feeder pan mounted underneath said hopper to agitate and dispense particulate food from the hopper. The particulate food feeder may also include a vessel mounted on a weigh beam and a sensor means arranged to weigh the quantity of particulate food in said vessel and cause delivery of the food in said vessel to the pet accommodation area once a predetermined quantity of food has been received in the vessel.

A glass feed bowl may also be included in the pet accommodation area to receive the particulate food. An optical sensor means may be provided to determine the amount of particulate food in the feed bowl, this optical sensor means being operatively associated with said automatic particulate food feeder to cause delivery of particulate food to said feed box.

These optical sensors not only avoid food overflow in the feed bowl but also can indicate whether a pet refuses to eat its food.

The automatic meat feeder and automnatic particulate food feeder may include quite a large container to store enough food for a continuous supply of up to one month. This would enable an owner to be relieved from regular feeding chores or to be assisted for limited periods of absence, without having to worry about providing food for their pet.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the p~et's **:accommodation area is provided in the main body. It includes a sliding front wall made of clear perspex with a gate or flap on it. The remaining sides may be decorated by timber. It is suited for dogs from toy size to nediumn size, or for any size cats.

In still another em-bodiment of the invention, the pet's accommodation area is extendable by means of an extension kennel attachable to the main body. Such a configuration is suited for large size dogs. The front wall may be omitted to allow for a large dog's gate and pathway.

This kennel may include a microprocessor, which can test the electric signal from the sensors, and can control the operation of actuators based on user's requirements for dispensing the meat, for shaking, weighing -1

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and tipping the particulate food, and for optically testing the particulate food in the glass feed bowl, etc.

The body of the kennel/cattery with automatic feeders may be made by any suitable material such as metal, wood or plastic.

To assist with understanding the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which show one example of the invention.

In the Drawings Figure 1 is a front view of the kennel/cattery with automatic feeders; Figure 2 is a front sectional view of a preferred meat food feeder; Figure 3 is a front sectional view of a preferred dry food feeder; Figure 4 is a perspective view of the kennel/cattery with automatic feeders, which shows the sliding front wall partially opened, the meat storage cabinet partially opened, the particulate food storage container opened on the top of the window, and the extension kennel connected to the main body.

Referring to Figures 1, 2 and 4, it can be seen that the meat feeder is put into effect as follows: it includes a storage cabinet 1 for storing the meat packed in plastic rolls; a front door 2 for opening the storage cabinet 1; an oblique interlayer 3 in the storage cabinet 1 for storing the food or for leading the food to roll down by the force of gravity; two solenoids 4, 5 for blocking or releasing the food in the oblique 25 interlay 3; a meat food pipe 6 for leading the falling food to be sliced; a knife 7 for slicing the falling food; and a metal slope 8 for pushing the food out.

When the food is stored in the oblique interlay 3, the first one will 30 meet with the solenoid 4 and then will be blocked by it. If the signal of pulling in is given to the solenoid 4, the first food will roll down and then will be blocked by the solenoid 5. Meanwhile, the other foods will also fall down, following the first one in the oblique interlayer 3 because of gravity, and they will all be blocked by the first one. After a while, the signal of pushing out may be given to solenoid 4 to block the second food, thus the first food is ready for dispensing. When the signal of pulling in is given to 4 the solenoid 5, the first food will be released to fall into the pipe 6. Falling through the pipe 6, the food will be sliced by the knife 7 fixed in the pipe, and then it will be pushed out by the metal slope 8. With the method stated above, all the food on the oblique interlayer 3 may be dispensed out one by one.

Referring to Figures 3 and 4, it can be seen that the particulate food feeder is put into effect as follows: There is a window 9 on the roof 10 for putting the particulate food into a particulate food storage hopper 11. The storage hopper 11 is shaped as a square cone with a narrow port 12 pointing down for concentrating the food stored to the middle of the port 12 because of gravity. There is a small feeder pan 13 standing on four springs 14 for receiving the particulate food from the port 12, A vibrator 16 shakes the feeder pan 13 such that the particulate food falls down into a vessel 15. The vessel 15 is mounted on an axle 17 and located on one side of a weigh beam 18, with a poise or weight 18 screwed to an adjustable bar 20 located on the other side. On the side of the poise 19, there is a micro-switch sensor 21 connected to two electric wires. When the particulate food in the weighing vessel 15 is heavier than the poise 19, it will sink down and cause the other side to go up and touch the micro-switch sensor 21, thus the micro-switch will be turned on.

Otherwise, the micro-switch is off. Under the weighing vessel 15, there is an elevator 22 which can raise one side of the weighing vessel 15 to tip the food into a particulate food pipe 23. Through this pipe 23, the food will be poured into a glass feed bowl 24 which is set in position with a pair of optical testers comprising an emitting globe 25 and an optical sensor 26.

Supposing that the feeding quantity of food at one time is W grams and the poise 19 screwed constantly to the position on the lever scale 18 is T grams which is less than or equal to W grams, then the particulate food feeder will 3 shake, weigh and tip the food N times step by step (N In each step, the amount of the food tipped into the glass feed bowl 24 may be tested by the emitting globe 25 and the optical sensor 26. If the food in the glass feed bowl 24 is full enough to impede the light from the emitting globe 25, then the optical sensor 26 can not receive the light signal to transfer it to the S"electric signal. By testing the electric signal with a micro-processor 33, the food staying in the feed bowl 24 can be found out on time. Therefore, if the 0 I food staying in the feed bowl 24 is overtime, the supplying of food will be halted, or the alarm that the pet refuses to eat may be given on programmed.

Figures 1 to 3 show the pet's accommodation area 27 in the main body 32. There is a sliding front wall 28 made of clear perspex to be fitted in a groove frame 29, which makes it easy for the owner to clean inside of the room 27 and to view the room 27 from the out-side. Also, the front wall 28 makes it easy for the pet to view both sides. On the front wall 27, there is a gate or flap 30 which allows the pet to enter or exit the living room.

The pet's living room provided in the main body is suited for dogs from toy size to medium size, or for any size cats.

Figure 4 shows the extendible pet's accommodation area to be connected with an extension kennel 31 behind the main body 32, and shows the front wall 28 that can be removed. It is suited for larger size dogs.

The housing with automatic feeders is an automatic device. It has a microprocessor 33 which is programmable based on the user's requirements.

The microprocessor 33 is used to test the electrical signal from all the sensors, such as the micro-switch 21 and the optical sensor 26, and it is used to control the operation of all the actuators, such as the solenoids 4 and the vibrator 16, the elevator 22, and the emitting globe It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

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Claims (9)

1. A housing for pets comprising an extendable pet accommodation area, an automatic meat feeder having a meat storage cabinet and a first dispensing means for slicing and delivering meat stored in said cabinet to said accommodation area, and an automatic particulate food feeder having a particulate food storage container for storing a quantity of particulate food, and a second dispensing means for delivering a predetermined quantity of particulate food to said pet accommodation area.

2. A housing for pets as claimed in claim 1 wherein said first dispensing means includes a generally downwardly directed food delivery passage wherein meat released from said meat storage cabinet falls towards the accommodation area by force of gravity.

3. A housing for pets as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said first dispensing means includes a pair of electronically operated retention means positioned in said food delivery passage to selectively release a portion of said meat to said accommodation area.

4. A housing for pets as claimed in any one of the previous claims 20 wherein said first dispensing means includes a knife fixed in said food delivery passage to slice said meat as it falls past said knife.

5. A housing for pets as claimed in any one of the previous claims wherein the particulate food feeder includes a hopper communicating with a 25 •vibrating feeder pan mounted underneath said hopper to agitate and dispense particulate food from said hopper.

6. A housing for pets as claimed in any one of the previous claims wherein said particulate food feeder includes a vessel mounted on a weigh beam and a sensor means arranged to weigh the quantity of particulate food in said vessel and cause delivery of the food in said vessel to the pet accommodation area once a predetermined quantity of food has been received in said vessel.

7. A housing for pets as claimed in any one of the previous claims wherein said particulate food feeder further includes a glass feed bowl in the pet accommodation area, and an optical sensor means to determine the amount of particulate food in the feed bowl, said optical sensor means being IN IBIIUI I III operatively associated with said automatic particulate food feeder to cause delivery of particulate food to said feed bowl.

8. A housing as claimed in any one of the previous claims wherein the pet accommodation area is extendable by means of an extension kennel attachable to the main accommodation area.

9. A housing for pets as claimed in any one of the previous claims wherein the pet accommodatiion area includes a sliding front perspex wall with a flap or gate therethrough, A housing for pets substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this 29th day of July 1996 JIAN PING LIU Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: F.B. RICE CO. e o o ;i I-