AU781018B2 - Sheep Handling System - Google Patents

Description

P/00/0011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for service in Australia: Invention Title: Slamp Limited David Elford Freehills Carter Smith Beadle 101 Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia Sheep Handling System Details ofAssociated Provisional Application: PQ4704 filed 17 December 1999 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us SHEEP HANDLING SYSTEM Field of the Invention This invention relates to a handling system for moving animals in an orderly fashion, and more particularly relates to a system for transporting sheep in individual units for the purposes of shearing, crutching or other treatments.

Background of the Invention Sheep handling systems are known from prior art specifications, such as AU B 638847.

This specification describes an animal prompting device in which the animal is prompted by moving an abutment element along a race. The abutment is located behind the animal and engages the animal to move along the race. Once a desired or predetermined position is reached by the prompted animal, the abutment element is returned to a starting position.

The problem with such an arrangement may be that the animals will tend to bunch up in the race making it difficult to separate the animals for treatment.

Summary of the Invention and Object It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved animal transporting system in which animals can be kept separate as they are moved from one station to the next.

20 In one aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for transporting animals to predetermined positions comprising at least two adjacent cells, each cell including a first and second means for engaging an animal, and gate means to contain said animal in said cells, said first and second means operating to transport *ooo individual animals from one cell to the next while keeping the animals separate.

By separating the animals as confined units in individual cells, it is possible S" to reliably move the animals from one cell to the other without the problem of attempting to place a transfer device between the animals when they are bunched up or overlapping each other.

In a preferred form, the adjacent cells are spaced whereby said first and second means and said gate means can be deployed into said space and the animals TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 are separated as confined units in said adjacent cells thereby avoiding bunching and overlapping in the transfer from one cell to the next.

The first engaging means preferably comprises a pushing mechanism for pushing said animal forward, while the second engaging means preferably comprises a pulling mechanism for pulling said animal forward. The pushing and pulling mechanisms are preferably configured to allow one to pass through the other without hindrance. The pushing mechanism is deployed from a retracted position after an animal has entered a first cell, and said pulling mechanism is deployed after said animal has partially entered a second cell, said pulling mechanism being slidable from a rest position in said second cell and deployable in an extended position in said first cell behind said animal. The pushing and pulling mechanisms are preferably included on opposed walls of said cell.

The gate means preferably comprises a gate at the end of each cell which may be deployed or opened in the space between adjacent cells. The gate of the first cell is preferably opened to allow an animal in that cell to be engaged by a pushing means, said gate of the second cell being closed to limit the movement of the animal to be constrained by the second cell.

The system may also include a sensing means to determine a status of said •cells, said sensing means is preferably operable diagonally through substantially a centre of said cells. The sensing means may include optical or other forms of sensing.

The system preferably includes a multiplicity of spaced cells defining a race through which the animals pass from one cell to the next, and may further include means to determine which cells of the multiplicity of cells are occupied by an animal. The system is preferably controlled by a programmable logic control (PLC) means.

-'iEvery second cell is preferably a tipping cell to enable loading of a shearing or crutching cradle or an animal husbandry cradle or device.

For the purposes of animal husbandry or the like, devices for transferring animals, such as sheep, from a transport system as described to a treatment station, have been proposed.

TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 One such prior art device is disclosed in AU B 638847 which describes an animal handler which can be applied to the animal prompting device of AU B 659948. The animal handler comprises a clamping station, where an animal is clamped. The animal is inverted when the clamping means is operative and reinverted to release the animal.

While the above device speeds up the transfer process, it has numerous drawbacks which the present invention attempts to solve.

The animal can become disoriented when it is rotated through 180 degrees.

The clamping jaws are invasive and can cause discomfort to the animal. The device adds complexity to the whole system.

It is therefore an object of another aspect of the invention to provide an improved and less complex system for handling or tipping animals.

In another aspect therefore, the invention provides an apparatus for moving animals to a treatment station, including means for housing an animal, said housing means including a floor for supporting the animal and opposed walls confining the animal, one wall being movable with respect to the other wall to restrain said animal between said walls, means for tipping said housing from a loading position to an unloading position adjacent said treatment station in which the animal is •accessible for removal from the housing.

20 The movable wall is preferably a rigid structure including a pivotable arm for S" pivoting said wall, said pivotable arm preferably being connected to an opposed i wall, through clamp cylinder means to effect said pivoting, said movable wall thereby being pivoted inwards to restrain said animal and pivoted outwards to release the animal. The housing of the apparatus may be tipped to a position past horizontal, said tipping preferably being effected around a pivot on a fixed wall of said housing by means of a tipping cylinder.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a schematic plan view of a sheep transport system embodying the invention; Figure 2 is a more detailed plan view of adjacent cells of the system of Figure 1; TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 Figure 3 is a sequence of plan views similar to Figure 2 illustrating the operation of the system; Figure 4 is a more detailed view of the gate means of Figures 2 and 3; Figure 5 is a more detailed view of the pusher mechanism of Figures 2 and 3; Figure 6 is an end view of a tipping cell of Figures 1 to 3; Figure 7 is a detailed end view of the tipping cell of Figure 6, and Figure 8 is a series of end views showing the clamping action of the tipping cell.

Description of Preferred Embodiment The general layout of the transport system is shown in Figures 1 to 3. A frame 1, supports a non-tip cell 2 and a tipping cell 3. These cells 2 and 3 have support structures 4 and 5 which hold the cells 2, 3 in position with a space 4a between them. Support structure 4 is a rigid stationary structure for non-tip cell 2.

Support structure 5 is also rigid but allows pivoting of tipping cell 3. Each cell 2, 3 includes an adjustable height sheep supporting floor F and side walls 9 and 9a.

Referring to Figures 2, 3 and 5 each cell 2, 3 will be seen to include the pusher mechanism 7 and puller mechanism 8 mounted in opposite sides 9, 9a of the cell, and an exit gate 6 mounted on side 9.

Both the pusher 7 and puller 8 are each mounted to carriages 10 of rodless pneumatic cylinders 11 as shown in Figure 5. The pushers 7 pivot near the leading edges of carriage 10, and have cam followers 12 some 120mm behind, that bear against steel cam plates (flats) 13. This is done so that the load placed on the carriages 10 is generally normal to the axis of the cylinders 11 to make the most effective use of the load capacity of the cylinder carriages. These cams 13 and followers 12 keep the pushers 7 deployed at a nominal 900 for sheep transfer throughout the extension of the cylinder piston and carriage assemblies, as shown in Figure 3.

The pusher 8 on the opposed side wall 9 is mounted to its cylinder carriage via a cantilever 15. The carriage is normally fully extended forward or deployed so that the puller 8 is just inside the confines of its cell, (Figures 2, 3A and 7A).

When the sheep is being transferred into this current cell, the extension of the TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 preceding pusher 7 signals this puller 8 to extend in the direction from which the sheep is coming (Figure 3D). The puller 8 will be initially deployed as it was acting as a rear stop to a sheep that was previously in the cell. As illustrated in Figures and 7, the pusher 7 is configured to allow the puller 8 to pass freely through the pusher 7.

In operation, when a sheep is present in cell 2 and there is no sheep present in cell 3 and it is desired to transfer the sheep from cell 2 to cell 3, then the system first checks that the exit gate 6 to cell 3 is closed and then opens the exit gate 6 of cell 2 so that it is substantially flush with the side 9 of cell 3.

The pusher 7 of cell 2 is mounted in the wall 9 of cell 2, and is deployed from a retracted position to engage behind the sheep S in cell 2 to move it forward.

At the same time the puller 8 in cell 3 is extended backwards to pass the sheep S as it is being moved forward by pusher 7 in cell 2. Puller 8 is deployed after it has been moved backwards into cell 2 and before it moves forwards and is folded back against the side 9a of cell 3 before it moves backwards and into cell 2.

When pusher 7 of cell 2 and puller 8 of cell 3 are both fully extended the puller 8 of cell 3 will be sufficiently behind the pusher 7 of cell 2 (and hence the rear of the sheep S in front of the pusher 7 of cell 2) to be deployed in free space.

This is achieved by a roller xx (Figure 7A) striking the extension of the puller arm 8 so as to cause it to rotate about its pivot yy until it is substantially at right angles to the side 9a and restrained from further rotation by the engagement of a stop resting against the cantilever arm 15. An over center spring (Figure 7A) is used to hold the puller arm 8 either fully deployed or fully folded back against the side 9a as may be required.

When both the pusher of cell 2 and the puller of cell 3 are fully extended to :overlap each other a signal is generated to cause the puller 8 of cell 3 to retract into cell 3 and the pusher 7 of cell 2 to return to its retracted position at the entry end of cell 2. When the pusher 7 of cell 2 nears its fully retracted position the cam followers 12 pass around the leading edge of the cams 13 so that springs 14 i mounted between the pusher 7 arm and the carriage 10 can fold the pusher back flush against the side wall 9 of the cell, (Figures 3 and This is required to allow TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 the preceding cell end gate 6, to fully open for a sheep transfer from one cell to another.

When both the pusher 7 of cell 2 and the puller 8 of cell 3 are fully retracted such that the sheep S is now constrained in cell 3 by the puller arm 8 and the exit gate 6 of cell 3, then a safe space has been created for the exit gate 6 of cell 2 to be closed behind the rear the puller 8 and sheep S in cell 3.

Cell 2 is now indicated as being empty and free to receive a sheep from an upstream source if and when available. Cell 3 is indicated as having a sheep available for tipping to a crutching or shearing cradle or other husbandry requirement or for on feeding to a downstream cell should such be required.

The gates 6 are operable from one side wall 9 of the cells (Figure A pivotable lug 16 is welded to the gate in line with a pivot axis 17 of the gate. Two pivotable arms 18,19 operate the opening and closing of the gate. A pneumatic cylinder 20 pivotably attached to common ends of the two arms cause the arms to pivot and operate the gate. One arm 19 is also pivotable from a fixed pivot 21 on the side carriage 22. Figure 4 also shows the open and closed position of the gate.

In the closed position the cylinder arm 23 is retracted. The fixed pivot arm 19 is pulled towards the cylinder 20 as is the pivotable lug 16. In the extended position of cylinder 20 the links 18 and 19 are substantially in line thus holding the gate 6 in o a locked closed position where any force exerted by the sheep against the gate is carried by the fixed pivot 21 and not the cylinder If desired, the gate structure can be modified so that the gate 6 blocks only one half of the cell, while other half of the cell is blocked by a sliding gate (not shown) operated by the mechanism of Figure 4. This arrangement offers additional e* I security.

The operation of the sheep transfers is carried out by software installed on suitable Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) or other alternative controllers (not shown). This software interrogates sensors (not shown) fitted to the system every few milliseconds and executes commands to operate the various cylinders and mechanisms as required. It is to be noted that the sensors can comprise any suitable sensing devices compatible with the controllers.

TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 8 In operation, the sensors indicate to the PLC whether the downstream cell is empty, that the upstream cell is full and that all the appropriate gates and mechanisms are in an appropriate and safe condition for a transfer to take place.

Once this has been satisfied, the necessary commands are executed to cause transfer of the sheep S to the empty cell as described above.

During operation, there is also a need to maintain sheep present in certain cells at particular times to ensure maximum productivity or throughput of the system. For example, if an operator is about to require a sheep, it is undesirable to permit that sheep to be transferred forward to the next "reserve" cell if it cannot be replaced with another sheep before it will be required by that operator. Hence there is a control input that will retain a sheep in strategic locations to ensure the maximum availability of sheep as required by individual operators and hence provide optimum productivity of the system.

Each operator has a tipping cell 3 in front of their operating station OS (see Figure with an upstream "reserve" cell 2 attached to it (Figure The software can thus prevent a transfer of a sheep in a particular tipping cell 3 to the next or downstream "reserve" cell unless, there is a replacement sheep in its reserve cell and the operator will not require the sheep in this tipping cell.

In a further embodiment, an infeed device (not shown) can be employed, 20 which will separate a sheep from a supply race and feed it into the first cell of the S: transport system such that pairs of cells (or stands consisting of a reserve cell 2 and a tipping cell 3) Figure 1, can be locked together to form installations of any nominal desired number of stations. A communication cable (not shown) connecting the above infeed device to a stand St (Figure and connecting one stand to the next, allows the control system to function in much the same manner as described above.

Referring now to Figures 6 to 8, the tipping cell 3 will now be further described. The tipping cell 3 has the same general structure as the cell 2, but as can *"be seen from Figure 7, the cell 3 has a movable clamping wall 24, whereas in cell 2 30 of the transport system the walls 9, 9a are rigid. The clamping wall 24 is also a rigid structure except it is an shape formed with a pivotable arm 25 to which a TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 pneumatic clamp cylinder 26 is connected. In operation, the movable wall 24 can be swung inwards by the cylinder 26 to gently clamp the sheep to assist in restraining it while the cell 3 is tipped (Figure Operation of the clamp cylinder 26 thus causes the movable wall to pivot at the arm and hence move inwards to restrain a sheep located in the cell 3. The amount of inward movement can be controlled depending on the size of the sheep. For example, for a small sheep, the wall may be swung further inwards than for a larger sheep. (Figure 8).

Once the sheep is restrained, the cell 3 is tipped about a pivot 27 on the fixed wall 9 (Figure 7) by a tipping cylinder 28 (Figure Figure 6 shows the tipping cell 3 pivoted to a nominal 30' past the horizontal, to supply the sheep to the operating station OS. The sheep is released by operation of the clamp cylinder 26 so the operator may obtain the sheep. The cell is then returned to its normal position ready to receive the next sheep. The operation station OS may include a manipulator or cradle for crutching, shearing or the like.

Since modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention may be readily effected by persons skilled in the art, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiment described, by way of example, hereinabove.

TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000

Claims (14)

1. A system for transporting animals to predetermined positions comprising at least two adjacent cells, each cell including a first and second means for engaging an animal, and gate means to contain said animal in said cells, said first and second means operating to transport individual animals from one cell to the next while keeping the animals separate.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjacent cells are separated by a space whereby said first and second means and said gate means can be deployed into said space and the animals are separated as confined units in said adjacent cells thereby avoiding bunching and overlapping in the transfer from one cell to the next.

3. The system of claim 1 or 2, wherein said first engaging means comprises a pushing mechanism for pushing said animal forward, while said second engaging means comprises a pulling mechanism for pulling said animal forward.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said pushing and pulling mechanisms are configured to allow one to pass through the other without hindrance. S"

5. The system of claims 3 or 4, wherein said pushing mechanism is deployed from a retracted position after an animal has entered a first cell, and said pulling mechanism is deployed after said animal has partially entered a second cell, said o pulling mechanism being slidable from a rest position in said second cell and deployable in an extended position in said first cell behind said animal. ego°

6. The system of claim 3, 4 or 5 wherein said pushing and pulling mechanisms are included in opposed side walls of said cell. 0 TNB:NB:40410224.CAP 18 December 2000 11

7. The system of any preceding claim, wherein the gate means comprises a gate at the end of each cell which is deployed or opened into a space between adjacent cells.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the gate of the first cell is opened to allow an animal in that cell to be engaged by said pushing mechanism, said gate of the second cell being closed to limit the movement of the animal to be constrained to the second cell. *o .o

9. The system of any preceding claim including a sensing means to determine the occupancy status of said cells, said sensing means being operable diagonally along a line which substantially intersects the centre of isaid cells.

The system of any preceding claim, including a multiplicity of spaced cells defining a race through which individual animals pass from one cell to the next.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein every second cell is a tipping mechanism to enable loading of individual animals onto a shearing or crutching cradle or an animal husbandry cradle or device. 12

12. The system of any preceding claim wherein at least one cell includes a housing means for housing an animal, said housing means including a floor for supporting the animal and opposed walls confining the animal, one wall being movable with respect to the other wall to restrain said animal between said walls, means for tipping said housing from a loading position to an unloading position adjacent said treatment station in which the animal is accessible for removal from the housing.

13. The apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the gate means comprises a pair of gates at each end of the cell which are deployed into the space between adjacent cells to completely block each cell.

14. A system for transporting animals substantially as hereinbefore d .w described with reference to the accompanying drawings. cmrs a spc ewenajcn clst opltl lckec el