DK179201B9

DK179201B9 - FEED MACHINE

Info

Publication number: DK179201B9
Application number: DKPA201670774A
Authority: DK
Inventors: Bjarne Kongsgaard
Original assignee: Ikadan System As
Priority date: 2016-09-29
Filing date: 2016-09-29
Publication date: 2018-04-03
Also published as: WO2018059634A1; DK201670774A1; DK179201B1

Abstract

An automatic dry feeder (1) for feeding farm animals is disclosed, which automatic dry feeder comprises a mounting plate (2), at least two shell parts (3, 4) arranged to be releasably mounted opposite each other on the two sides of the mounting plate for forming a storage container through which the mounting plate passes, a lid part (5) arranged to be releasably mounted at the top of the storage container, a feeding trough (6) arranged to be placed under the storage container, and a dispensing mechanism (7) arranged to release, when activated, a predefined amount of forage from the storage container into the feeding trough, an activator (8) of which dispensing mechanism is arranged to be releasably mounted at the bottom of the storage container.

Description

(19) DANMARK (10)

(12)

PATENTSKRIFT

Om tryk publiceret 2018-04-03

Patent- og

Varemærkestyrelsen (51) Int.CI.: A 01 K 5/02 (2006.01) A 01 K 39/012 (2006.01) (21) Ansøgningsnummer: PA 2016 70774 (22) Indleveringsdato: 2016-09-29 (24) Løbedag: 2016-09-29 (41) Aim. tilgængelig: 2018-01-29 (45) Patentets meddelelse bkg. den: 2018-01-29 (73) Patenthaver: Ikadan System A/S, Højris Alle 89, 7430 Ikast, Danmark (72) Opfinder: Bjarne Kongsgaard, Ægirsvej 28, 8600 Silkeborg, Danmark (74) Fuldmægtig: PATENDER ApS, Birk Centerpark 40, 7400 Herning, Danmark (54) Benævnelse: FODERAUTOMAT (56) Fremdragne publikationer:

WO 00/40077 A2 US 4318364 A1 DK 176708 B1 DK 176187 B1 DE 4134785 A1 (57) Sammendrag:

Fortsættes ...

An automatic dry feeder

The present invention relates to an automatic dry feeder for feeding farm animals, in particular pigs.

Background of the invention

Automatic dry feeders known in the art typically comprise a storage container for the forage and some kind of dispensing mechanism, which can be activated by the farm animal causing a predefined amount of forage to be released from the storage container into a feeding trough.

Often, the storage container is either conical or tubular in shape and take up relatively much room, which complicates and raises the costs related to transporting as well as storing the automatic dry feeders. Due to the fact that pigs are produced in many countries across most of the world, such automatic dry feeders are often exported across large distances, which can cause significant costs to the producer and/or the consumer, inter alia due to the above-mentioned factors.

Brief description of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic dry feeder, which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the solutions known in the art.

The present invention relates to an automatic dry feeder for feeding farm animals, which automatic dry feeder comprises a mounting plate, at least two shell parts arranged to be releasably mounted opposite each other on the two sides of the mounting plate for forming a storage container through which the mounting plate passes, a lid part arranged to be releasably mounted at the top of the storage container, a feeding trough arranged to be placed under the storage container, and a dispensing mechanism arranged to release, when activated, a predefined amount of forage from the storage container into the feeding trough, an activator of which dispensing mechanism is arranged to be releasably mounted at the bottom of the storage container.

An automatic dry feeder configured like this is advantageous compared to other automatic dry feeders known in the art because it consists of a modular construction, which can be taken apart and packed to take up much less space than automatic dry feeders with common tubular or conical storage containers as known in the art. This enables for the saving of a significant part of the costs otherwise related to transportation and/or storage of the automatic dry feeders.

Furthermore, the mounting plate passing through the storage container reduces the risk of bridging of the forage within the storage container.

In an embodiment of the invention, the mounting plate further comprises one or more cavities through which water or one or more water hoses can be led to one or more water valves, which are arranged near the bottom of the mounting plate for releasing, when activated, water to one or more separate drinking troughs arranged next to or integrated within the feeding trough.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shell parts are mounted directly to the mounting plate, for instance by clicking and/or bolting the parts together.

Mounting the shell parts directly onto the mounting plate means that no fittings are needed, which is the case in automatic dry feeders known in the art. This means that the number of parts and the weight of the automatic dry feeder are reduced, which facilitate the transportation and assembly of the automatic dry feeder.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shell parts are designed so that any crosssection made through a shell part is essentially U-shaped.

Producing the shell parts with U-shaped cross-sections means that they can be stacked inside each other so that the disassembled automatic dry feeder can be packed to take up much less space than other automatic dry feeders known in the art.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shell parts are designed so that a lower part of the storage container formed by the shell parts is essentially conical in shape and an upper part of the storage container is essentially tubular in shape.

In an embodiment of the invention, at least two shell parts are mounted on each side of the mounting plate, at least the two lowermost shell parts mounted opposite one another together form a conical bottom part of the storage container, whereas any other pair of shell parts mounted opposite each other above the lowermost shell parts may form either conical or tubular parts of the storage container.

For reducing the production costs, it is advantageous if the same conical bottom parts can be used for basically tubular storage containers as for basically conical storage containers.

In an embodiment of the invention, the part of the mounting plate passing through the storage container is provided with one or more through-going holes for allowing forage to pass between the two halves of the storage container defined by the mounting plate.

In an embodiment of the invention, one or more of the parts constituting the automatic dry feeder is made from a plastic material and/or from stainless steel.

Such materials are durable and stable and at the same time cleaning-friendly.

In an embodiment of the invention, the automatic dry feeder further comprises an adjustment mechanism for adjusting the predefined amount of forage, which is released from the storage container into the feeding trough when the dispensing mechanism is activated.

In an embodiment of the invention, the internal parts of the dispensing mechanism are mounted within and/or directly onto the mounting plate.

Mounting the internal parts within or directly onto the mounting plate means that no fittings are needed, which is the case in automatic dry feeders known in the art. This means that the number of parts and the weight of the automatic dry feeder are reduced, which facilitate the transportation and assembly of the automatic dry feeder.

The drawings

In the following, a few exemplary embodiments of the invention, are described in further detail with reference to the drawings, of which

Fig. la illustrates schematically a front view of an automatic dry feeder according to an embodiment of the invention,

Fig. lb illustrates schematically a side view of the automatic dry feeder shown in Fig. la,

Fig. lc illustrates schematically a top view of the automatic dry feeder shown in Figs, la and lb,

Fig. 2 illustrates schematically two automatic dry feeders according to a first and a second embodiment of the invention, respectively,

Fig. 3a illustrates schematically a mounting plate for an automatic dry feeder according to the first embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 2,

Fig

3b

Fig

Fig illustrates schematically a mounting plate for an automatic dry feeder according to the second embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 2, illustrates schematically the automatic dry feeder according to the first embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 2 with an open hatch, and illustrates schematically the automatic dry feeder according to the first embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 2 without one of the shell parts.

Detailed description of the invention

Figs, la, lb and lc illustrate schematically a front view, a side view and a top view of an automatic dry feeder 1 according to an embodiment of the invention.

The figures illustrate how a first shell part 3 and a second shell part 4 are mounted opposite each other on the two sides of a mounting plate 2, respectively. A lid part 5 is mounted on top of the storage container formed by the first 3 and second 4 shell part, and a feeding trough 6 is placed under the storage container.

A dispensing mechanism 7 (not shown in these figures) is arranged within the storage container for releasing a predefined amount of forage from the storage container into the feeding trough 6, when the dispensing mechanism 7 is activated. This is done by means of an activator 8, which is arranged at the bottom of the storage container just above the feeding trough 6. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the activator 8 for the dispensing mechanism 7 is designed as a sixwinged wheel, which is arranged to cause the dispensing mechanism 7 to release the forage from the storage container when the activator 8 is rotated, for instance by a push from the snout of a pig.

An adjustment mechanism 12 for adjusting the predefined amount of forage release from the storage container by the dispensing mechanism 7 when the activator 8 is rotated, is arranged in the first shell part 3, ensuring an easy operation of the adjustment mechanism 12 and a quick overview of the actual position of the adjustment mechanism 12.

The dispensing mechanism 7 itself is well-known within the art and will not be discussed in further detail here.

The mounting plate 2 of the illustrated embodiment of the invention is provided with two through-going cavities 9, through which water or water hoses (not shown) can be led to two water valves 10 (not shown in these figures) at the bottom of the mounting plate 2. When activated, these water valves release water into two drinking troughs 11, which are arranged at the two ends of the feeding trough 6, respectively. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the two drinking troughs 11 are integrated within the feeding trough 6. In other embodiments, however, the number of drinking troughs 11 may be different and they may not be integrated within the feeding trough

6.

The illustrated lid part 5 comprises a hatch, which can be opened, for instance for cleaning the storage container, and two forage inlets 13 through which forage can be entered into the storage container automatically through at suitable piping system (not shown).

Fig. 2 illustrates schematically two different embodiments of automatic dry feeders 1 according the invention.

In the first of the two embodiments (to the left in the figure), the storage container is essentially conical in shape. In the other embodiment, the lower part of the storage container is conical, whereas the upper part is tubular and made from an at least partly transparent material allowing a view to the dispensing mechanism 7 arranged therein.

As can be seen in the figure, the lower part of the storage container is substantially identical in the two embodiments. In some embodiments of the invention, each half of the storage container may consist of more than one shell part 3, 4. In such embodiments, identical lowermost shell parts may be used in different embodiments as illustrated, for instance, in Fig. 2. In this case, only the upper shell parts 3, 4 define, whether the storage container is essentially conical or essentially tubular in shape.

Fig. 2 also illustrates possible positions for the water valves 10 mentioned above.

Figs. 3a and 3b illustrate schematically mounting plated for the two automatic dry feeders 1 shown in Fig. 2, respectively.

It is clear how the different shapes of the storage containers in the two embodiments are reflected in the shape of the “tracks” in the mounting plates 2 formed by a number of slits into which protrusions of the shell parts 3, 4 can be clicked for mounting the shell parts 3, 4 to the mounting plate 2.

Fig. 4 illustrates schematically the automatic dry feeder 1 according to the first embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 2 with an open hatch, and Fig. 5 illustrates schematically the same automatic dry feeder 1, from which the first shell part 3 has been removed.

The view into the storage container in Fig. 5 reveals how, in the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the internal parts of the dispensing mechanism 7 is mounted partly within the mounting plate 2, partly directly onto it. This means that a number of fittings, which would otherwise be necessary (as is the case in automatic dry feeders known in the art) are saved and the part number and weight of the automatic dry feeder 1 is further reduced.

List of reference numbers

1. Automatic dry feeder

2. Mounting plate

3. First shell part

4. Second shell part

5. Lid part

6. Feeding trough

7. Dispensing mechanism

8. Activator for dispensing mechanism

9. Cavity for water or water hose

10. Water Valve

11. Drinking trough

12. Adjustment mechanism for dispensing mechanism

13. Forage inlet

Foderautomat

Claims

claims

A livestock feeding apparatus (1), the feed apparatus comprising a mounting plate (2), at least two shell parts (3, 4) arranged to be releasably mounted opposite each other on the two sides of the mounting plate to form a storage container, through which mounting plate passes, a lid part (5) arranged to be detachably mounted at the top of the storage container, a feeding trough (6) arranged to be placed under the storage container, and a dispensing mechanism (7) arranged for when activated, to release a predefined amount of feed from the storage container in the feeding trough, an activator (8) of which dispensing mechanism is arranged to be releasably mounted at the bottom of the storage container.

The feeding apparatus of claim 1, wherein the mounting plate further comprises one or more cavities (9) through which water or one or more water hoses can be fed to one or more water valves (10) disposed near the bottom of the mounting plate when they ( n) activated, releasing water to one or more separate drinking troughs (11) located adjacent to or integrated in the feeding trough.

The feeding machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the shell parts are mounted directly on the mounting plate, for example by clicking and / or bolting the parts together.

The feed dispenser according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the shell portions are formed such that any cross-section through a shell portion is substantially Unformed.

The feeding apparatus of claim 4, wherein the shell portions are formed such that a lower portion of the storage container formed by the shell portions is substantially conical in shape and an upper portion of the storage container is substantially tubular.

The feed dispenser according to claim 5, wherein at least two shell parts are mounted on each side of the mounting plate and at least the two lower shell parts mounted opposite each other together form a tapered bottom portion of the storage container, while any other pair of shell parts which mounted opposite each other over the lower shell portions may form either tapered or tubular portions of the storage container.

A feed dispenser according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the portion of the mounting plate passing through the storage container is provided with one or more through holes to allow feed to pass between the two halves of the storage container defined by the mounting plate. .

The feed dispenser according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein one or more of the parts constituting the feed dispenser are made of a plastic material and / or stainless steel.

The feed dispenser according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising an adjustment mechanism (12) for adjusting the predefined amount of feed released from the storage container in the feeding trough when the dispensing mechanism is activated.

Feeder according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the inner parts of the dispensing mechanism are mounted inside and / or directly on the mounting plate.

island

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