EP0525300B1 - Udder knife - Google Patents

Abstract

There is specified an udder knife having a basic body (2), a knife edge (5) and a knife (9) with adjustable pivoting angle. The udder knife is characterised in that the knife (9) is designed as an angular knife having a cutting leg (8) and an actuation leg (10) and in that a spring (14) which presses the angular knife (9) into its resting position is provided. The udder knife has the advantage that it permits a change of the incision depth in a very simple manner, especially during the cutting process. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a teat knife according to the first part of claim 1. Such a knife is known as a "Danish double knife".

The problem of milkability or hard milkability often arises in dairy cows. The cause of this is, for example, scarring of the teat canal line resulting from injuries.

There are various methods and devices for treating such disorders. In addition to stretching the streak canal, surgical treatment is indicated, especially in cases of severe scarring. One to four longitudinal cuts are made in the streak canal, from top to bottom. If the location of the scarring in the streak canal is clearly established, the incision should be made through the scarring in the streak canal.

In addition to the simple stretching of the streak canal, there is also the possibility of removing large areas of the scar tissue using special devices. However, mucous membrane is removed from the streak canal, which is necessary as protection against external infections. Therefore, the aforementioned making longitudinal cuts is more advantageous because the mucous membrane is preserved. Longitudinal cuts also have a good tendency to heal.

Because of the cut from top to bottom, the teat knife has to be designed in such a way that it can be inserted into the teat canal with a protected cutting blade and only swung out of the knife sheath there. The well-known "Danish double knife" works according to this principle. This is handled in such a way that the pivoting angle of the cutting blade and so that the depth of cut is set using a screw mechanism. The cutting blade is then swung back again and the knife is inserted into the streak canal. There, the cutting blade is swiveled out to the previously set swivel angle so that the cutting process can be carried out.

However, this known knife has the disadvantage that the depth of cut can no longer be changed during the cutting. The depth of cut inevitably remains essentially constant over the entire length of the cut.

In addition, it is sometimes desirable to replace only the cutting part of the teat knife or to completely separate it from the knife sheath for cleaning purposes. This is not provided in known teat knives.

The invention is based on the object of specifying a teat knife which, when used, makes it possible to change the depth of cut in a very simple manner, in particular during the cutting process. In addition, the teat knife should be designed so that the cutting part is easily removable, for. B. in the case of renewing a blunt cutting edge or thorough cleaning of the teat knife.

This object is achieved by a teat knife of the type mentioned at the outset, which is characterized in that the knife is designed as a protractor with a cutting leg and an actuating leg, and in that a spring which presses the protractor into its rest position is provided.

For the first time, the teat knife according to the invention enables controlled cutting in the teat canal. The depth of cut can be changed at any time by applying different pressure the actuating leg of the protractor of the teat knife is changed and thus individually adapted to the treatment of the scarring to be cut. This avoids unnecessarily large depths of cut as well as unnecessary cutting lengths. If necessary, several short cuts can be made in succession even in one cutting direction. Since the start and end of the cutting process and the depth of cut are controlled by means of a lever effect by means of a corresponding finger pressure on the actuating leg of the protractor, the cuts in the line canal can be made very deliberately without injuring him at the base.

The teat knife according to the invention is preferably equipped with a variable stop device which limits the pivoting angle of the protractor. This limits the depth of cut to a maximum size and prevents accidental cuts being made too deeply. This gives the user of the teat knife a high level of safety when handling and ensures extensive protection of the animal to be treated.

It has proven to be advantageous if the stop device consists of a cylinder which can be rotated axially in the base body and which has stop slots of different lengths. With this configuration, the maximum depth of cut that is expedient for the individual case can be selected from a plurality of predetermined depths of cut.

It is expedient if the teat knife has a locking device, with the aid of which the stop device can be locked in different positions within its range of rotation according to the position of the stop slots. This makes it easy to find and fix the desired level of maximum depth of cut.

The actuating leg of the protractor preferably has a graduation that correlates with the pivoting angle of the protractor. This embodiment makes it possible to read the depth of cut at any time and to change it if necessary.

According to a preferred embodiment, the teat knife is designed so that the protractor can be easily removed. This is achieved in that the knife pivot axis is formed on one side of the protractor and the knife sheath on the associated side of the knife slot at the height of the knife pivot axis has a radial cutout corresponding to the dimensions of the knife pivot axis for inserting the protractor into the knife sheath and locking means for holding the inserted one Protractor in its rest and working position. Since the locking means are designed so that the lock can be released again, the protractor can be easily removed from the knife sheath at any time. Renewing the protractor and / or cleaning it and the knife sheath are therefore easily possible.

In a special embodiment, the locking means consists on the one hand of the helical spring and on the other hand of an axial recess, which extends from the radial recess essentially in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the knife sheath, and a locking shoulder. This configuration is advantageous because it can be implemented in practice in a simple manner. Due to the pressure of the coil spring on the protractor, its swivel axis is held securely in the corresponding recess and is also prevented from accidentally falling out of the knife sheath by the locking shoulder.

It is particularly preferred if the locking shoulder is formed in that an essentially radial locking recess for receiving the knife pivot axis is provided at the associated end of the axial recess substantially in the direction of pressure of the helical spring. This allows the knife swivel axis to be easily hooked into the radial locking recess to lock it.

In the teat knife, the knife pivot axis can be formed on only one side or on both sides of the protractor. In the latter case, the knife sheath has the aforementioned cutouts on both sides.

The invention is explained below by means of two exemplary embodiments schematically illustrated in the drawing.

Fig. 1

einen Axialschnitt einer ersten Ausführungsform des Zitzenmessers;

Fig. 2

eine Seitenansicht einer zweiten Ausführungsform des Zitzenmessers;

Fig. 3

eine Seitenansicht eines aus dem Zitzenmesser gemäß Fig. 2 entnommenen Winkelmessers;

Fig. 4

eine vergrößerte und um 90° nach links gedrehte Ansicht des Winkelmessers gemäß Fig. 3;

Fig. 5

eine Seitenansicht des Oberabschnitts des Zitzenmessers gemäß Fig. 2 ohne das Winkelmesser;

Fig. 6

eine Seitenansicht des Oberabschnitts des Zitzenmessers gemäß Fig. 5, jedoch um 90° nach links gedreht; und

Fig. 7

eine Schnittansicht entsprechend der Linie AA in Fig. 6.

Show it

Fig. 1

an axial section of a first embodiment of the teat knife;

Fig. 2

a side view of a second embodiment of the teat knife;

Fig. 3

a side view of a protractor taken from the teat knife according to FIG. 2;

Fig. 4

an enlarged and rotated 90 ° to the left view of the protractor according to FIG. 3;

Fig. 5

a side view of the upper portion of the teat knife according to Figure 2 without the protractor.

Fig. 6

a side view of the upper portion of the teat knife according to Figure 5, but rotated 90 ° to the left. and

Fig. 7

6 shows a sectional view along the line AA in FIG. 6.

1 shows an axial section of a first embodiment of a teat knife 1. This has a cylindrical base body 2, which is designed as a solid cylinder in its upper section 3 and as a hollow cylinder in its lower section 4. The upper end 3 carries an axially arranged knife sheath 5. The length of the base body 2 corresponds approximately to the width of a human hand and its diameter is approximately 10 to 15 mm, so that it can be handled comfortably and safely. The knife sheath 5 protrudes from the base body 2 with a length of about 25 mm and has a diameter of about 2 to 3 mm, with which it corresponds to the internal volume of a teat canal of an average dairy cow. The radial cross section of the knife sheath 5 is oval or circular in its outer circumference with two flattened circumferential sections lying opposite one another. The front end 6 of the knife sheath 5 is tapered towards the end, so as not to injure the streak canal to be treated when the teat knife 1 is inserted.

The knife sheath 5 has on its narrow side an axial knife slot 7 which continues downward over a substantial length section of the base body 2.

In the rest position of the teat knife 1, a cutting leg 8 of an angle knife 9 is arranged in the knife slot 7 of the knife sheath 5. The protractor 9 consists of this cutting leg 8 and an actuating leg 10, both of which are connected to one another on a knife pivot axis 11. The free end of the operating leg 10 is provided with a small pressure plate 12. The protractor 9 is pivotally mounted in the knife slot 7 by means of the knife pivot axis 11. The cutting leg 8 carries a cutting edge 13 which is directed towards the outside of the knife sheath 5.

The protractor 9 is preferably mounted in the knife pivot axis 11 by means of a screw, so that the protractor 9 can be replaced by loosening the screw.

In order to keep the protractor 9 normally in the rest position, which is shown in the figure and in which the cutting leg 8 is pivoted completely into the knife sheath 5, there is a helical spring 14 in the upper section 3 of the base body 2, where it is designed as a solid cylinder For this purpose, the base body 2 there has a spring bore 15 running obliquely downwards from outside, the axis of which lies in the plane of the knife slot 7. In the top view of the knife slot 7, the spring 14 is arranged behind the actuating leg 10 of the protractor 9 and acts on it with a compressive force in the direction of the rest position of the teat knife 1 shown in the figure.

For the protractor 9, a stop device 16, which is essentially cylindrical, is rotatably arranged in the hollow cylindrical subsection 4 of the base body 2. The stop device 16 protrudes with a short axial section from the base body 2 below and carries a knurled wheel 17 there, on which the stop device 16 can be gripped and rotated in the base body 2.

Starting from the knurled wheel 17, the axial length of the stop device 16 in the interior of the base body 2 extends beyond its longitudinal center. At the same time, the Knife slot 7 in the base body 2 down along an essential length section of the stop device 16. In the rest position of the teat knife 1, the actuating leg 10 is located just above an upper edge 18 of the stop device 16. This upper edge 18 therefore acts in this position as a stop for the actuating leg 10, whereby pivoting of the cutting leg 8 of the protractor 9 is prevented.

Starting from its upper edge 18, the stop device 16 is on its cylinder circumference with several, for. B. provided with three different lengths of radial stop slots 19, the longitudinal direction of which runs parallel to the cylinder axis of the stop device 16. The width of the stop slots 19 corresponds approximately to the width of the knife slot 7 in the base body 2. The stop slots 19 can each be brought into register with the knife slot 7 by rotating the stop device 16 accordingly. If there is no such cover, the actuating leg 10 of the protractor 9 cannot be pressed further into the knife slot 7 from the rest position, as mentioned above. If, however, one of the stop slots 19 of the stop device 16 coincides with the knife slot 7 of the base body 2, it is possible for the actuating leg 10 to be pushed into this stop slot 19 and thus for the cutting leg 8 of the protractor 9 to be pivoted out. The maximum pivoting angle that can be achieved depends on the pivoting depth of the actuating arm 10 into the respective stop slot 19. This pivoting depth is determined by the position of the lower slot end 20 of the stop slot 19. This bottom slot end 20 acts as a stop for the actuating leg 10.

Alternatively, instead of the stop slots 19 or in addition thereto, the upper edge 18 of the cylindrical stop device 16 can be designed as a stop curve, the depth of cut then being infinitely adjustable.

In order to be able to preset or read the extent of the pivoting out of the cutting leg 8 of the protractor 9 from the knife sheath 5, the actuating leg 10 is provided with a graduation 21 which correlates with the pivoting angle of the cutting leg 8 and therefore with the depth of cut to be formed. The reading on the graduation 21 takes place at the point where the actuating leg 10 enters the base body 2.

To make it easier to find the positions of the stop device 16, in which one of the stop slots 19 corresponds to the knife slot 7 of the base body 2, the base body 2 has a locking device. This includes several, e.g. three radial locking bores 22 in the base body 2. The stop device 16 is provided with a blind bore 23 at the same axial height. A detent spring 24 is arranged in this, which presses a detent ball 25 against the respectively set detent bore 22. The diameter of the locking bore 22 is smaller than that of the locking ball 25.

2 to 7, a second embodiment of the teat knife 1 is shown. In its functional parts, it corresponds to the structure of the aforementioned first embodiment, except for the connection between the knife sheath 5 and the protractor 9. Therefore, only this connection is explained below.

Fig. 2 shows a side view of the teat knife 1, in which the cutting leg 8 of the protractor 9 to the outside is pivoted. The knife pivot axis 11 is anchored in the lower region of the knife sheath 5, as will be described in more detail below.

According to FIGS. 3 and 4, the protractor 9 has a knife pivot axis 11 only on the left-hand side when looking at the cutting edge 13.

5, which shows the same side view as FIG. 2, but only the upper section 3 of the teat knife 1 in enlarged form, the protractor 9 is removed from the knife sheath 5. The knife sheath 5 has a radial recess 26 on the corresponding side on which the protractor 9 to be used carries the knife pivot axis 11. This corresponds to the dimensions of the knife pivot axis 11 and permits the insertion of the protractor 9 into the knife sheath 5. As can be seen from FIG. 6, the recess 26 is thus only in the axial slot 7 of the knife sheath 5 on the left side of the knife sheath 5.

In order to anchor the protractor 9 in the sheath 5, locking means are provided. These consist on the one hand of the helical spring 14 which, according to FIG. 1, presses the protractor 9 used essentially radially outwards, and on the other hand from an axial recess 27 which, according to FIG. 5, continues from the radial end 26 of the inner end 28 thereof extends upwards in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the knife sheath 5 and ends over a locking shoulder 29.

The locking shoulder 29 is formed in that at the associated end 30 of the axial recess 27 essentially in the pressure direction of the (only shown in Fig. 1) coil spring 14 an essentially radial locking recess 31 for receiving the Knife pivot axis 11 is provided. Thus, at the transition between the axial recess 27 and the radial locking recess 31, the locking shoulder 29. When the protractor 9 is in the knife sheath 5 in the rest or in the cutting position, the knife pivot axis 11 is the radial force by the compressive force of the coil spring 14 Locking recess 31 pressed, which then acts as a bearing for the knife pivot axis 11.

From Fig. 7 it can be seen that the radial recess 26 extends over a larger peripheral portion α of the sheath 5, which is shown in Fig. 7 for simplicity with a circular cross-section. The radial recess 26 directly adjoins the knife slot 7 and together with this results in a total recess which extends over a circumferential section α of the knife sheath 5 of more than 90 degrees.

A likewise possible embodiment, which is not shown in the drawing, essentially corresponds to the embodiment according to FIGS. 2 to 7. The difference lies in the fact that the knife pivot axis is formed on both sides of the protractor 9 and accordingly, when looking at the knife slot 7, the knife sheath 5 has corresponding recesses 26, 27, 31 on both sides of the knife slot 7.

Various materials come into consideration as material for the teat knife 1, for example metals and plastics. The protractor 9 is preferably made of metal.

The use of the teat knife 1 is explained below with reference to the first embodiment according to FIG. 1. First, by turning the knurled wheel 17 to the desired locking position, the stop device 16 is positioned such that by means of the corresponding Ahschlschlitzes 19 the maximum swivel angle of the cutting leg 8 of the protractor 9 and thus its maximum depth of cut is determined. This depth of cut can be checked by means of the graduation 21. Then, in the rest position of the teat knife 1, the knife sheath 5 is inserted into the teat canal of the teat to be treated. The cutting leg 8 is pivoted out of the knife sheath 5 by pressure on the actuating leg 10. The desired cut is made by pulling the teat knife 1 out of the line duct. The depth of cut can be changed as desired up to the preselected maximum value by different pressure on the actuating leg 10. It is also possible, with the hand holding the teat, to carry out the cut only in a desired section of the line channel or to strengthen the cut, if necessary, by applying counterpressure to the line channel.

The second embodiment of the teat knife 1 explained in FIGS. 2 to 7 is used in the same way. However, this further embodiment offers the additional advantage that the protractor 9 can be easily removed completely from the sheath 5. For this purpose, a radial pressure in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the knife sheath 5 is exerted on the protractor 9 at the level of the knife pivot axis 11 against the pressure of the helical spring 14. As a result, the knife pivot axis 11 moves from the radial locking recess 31 into the axial recess 27 and can then be pulled down past the locking shoulder 29 into the axial recess 26. From there, the knife pivot axis 11 and thus the protractor 9 slide easily out of the knife sheath 5. Replacing the protractor 9 with a replacement knife or cleaning the protractor 9 and the knife slot 7 are thus possible without problems. To insert the protractor 9 into the knife sheath 5, the procedure is reversed. The protractor 9 will with the knife pivot axis 11 through the radial recess 26 inwards, then upwards in the axial recess 27 and again moved a short distance outwards via the locking shoulder 29. Due to the compressive force of the helical spring 14, the protractor 9 is then in its rest or cutting position.

Claims (9)

1. Udder knife with a base member (2), a blade sheath (5) which can be introduced into the udder and a knife (9) with an adjustable swingout angle, wherein the knife in its rest position is swung into the knife sheath, characterised in that the knife is constructed as an angled knife (9) with a cutting leg (8) and an actuation leg (10) and that a spring (14) is provided pressing the angled knife (9) into its rest position.
2. Udder knife according to Claim 1, characterised in that a variable stop device (16) is provided to limit the outswing angle of the angled knife (9).
3. Udder knife according to Claim 2, characterised in that the stop device (16) consists of an axially rotatable cylinder with stop slots (19) of different lengths in the base member (2).
4. Udder knife according to Claim 2 or 3, characterised in that it has a holding device (22, 23, 24, 25) with the aid of which the stop device (16) can be stopped within its range of rotation in variouS positions corresponding to the position of the stop slots (19).
5. Udder knife according to one of the preceding Claims, characterised in that the actuation leg (8) of the angled knife (9) carries a measuring scale which correlates with the swingout angle of the angled blade (9).
6. Udder knife according to one of the preceding Claims, characterised in that for easier removability of the angled knife (9), the swivelling axle of the knife (11) is constructed on one side of the angled knife (9) and the knife sheath (5) on the respective side of the knife slot (7) at the level of the knife swivel axle (11) has a radial cutout (26) corresponding to the measurements of the knife swivel axle (11) for seating the angled knife (9) in the knife sheath (5) as well as locking means for maintaining the seated angled knife (9) in its rest and working position.
7. Udder knife according to Claim 6, characterised in that the locking means consists on the one hand of the helical spring (14) and on the other of an axial recess (27) which extends from the radial recess (26) essentially in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the knife sheath (5) and of a locking shoulder (29).
8. Udder knife according to Claim 7, characterised in that the locking shoulder (29) is constructed in such a fashion that at the respective end (30) of the axial recess (27) essentially in the direction of pressing of the helical spring (14) there is provided an essentially radial locking recess (31) for receipt of the knife swivel axle (11).
9. Udder knife according to one of Claims 6 to 8, characterised in that the knife swivel axle (11) is constructed on both sides of the angled knife (9) and correspondingly the knife sheath (5) has recesses (26, 27, 31) on both sides of the knife slot (7).

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