Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01J—MANUFACTURE OF DAIRY PRODUCTS
  • A01J5/00—Milking machines or devices
  • A01J5/017—Automatic attaching or detaching of clusters
  • A01J5/0175—Attaching of clusters

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a mechanical device for the positioning and the hooking, in an entirely automatic manner, of the nipple-graspers of milk cows in an automated milking station or the like.
• the so called robot-slaved automated milking has allowed and still allows to improve the environment work conditions, to reduce the personnel assigned to said work, and therefore also the production costs, besides involving optimum health conditions in the milking facility. It is also known that within an automated milking apparatus, the component on which the functionality and reliability of the whole apparatus mainly depend is constituted by the automated attachment device of the nipple-graspers to the nipples of the milk cow.
• said known automated devices require of users-farmers a preparation that the same have not, to provide quickly to the repairs of the unavoidable troubles and/or breakdowns that may occur to said devices;
• another drawback of the present high-technological-contents devices lies in that they are not appreciated by farmers who are accustomed to employ structurally simpler devices.
• object of this invention is especially that of realizing a milking device automated attachment slave to a robot of a known type, that can provide a radical structural and functional simplification compared to the known devices, involving a remarkable reduction in the overall size, with ensuing limitation of the risk of damaging the same device as a consequence of blows and kicks by the animal.
• Another object of the invention is to realize an automated device that, while utilizing a conventional milking unit, is very effective and reliable in the practice and also able, because of its structural simplicity, to allow the direct intervention by the operator, if any breakdowns and/or functional anomalies should occur.
• said collector is provided in its inside with a device intended for registering the physical-chemical parameters of milk for the purpose of controlling the physiological-health state of the animals.
• said supporting element connected to the robot is substantially constituted of an arm or bar in whose inside channels are provided for the passage and the translation of both the positioning cables of nipple-graspers, and the suspension cable of the collector, through said robot-slaved actuators .
• said actuators are constituted by electric, magnetic or fluid-dynamic devices, and are preferably located at a position far from the attachment unit.
• Figure 1 shows a perspective view of the mechanical device for the positioning and automatic attachment of the nipple-graspers in an automated milking station, realized according to the invention and illustrated in resting position
• Figure 2 shows the same device of Figure 1, illustrated in front view and rotated by 90° with respect to the one of Figure 1;
• Figure 3 shows a perspective view of the device of Figure 1 in the starting step of stable positioning of a nipple-grasper along the vertical of a nipple, i.e. in a position ready for the attachment;
• Figure 4 shows, from a downwards view, the same device of Figure 3, while
• Figure 5 shows a schematic side view of the device shown in Figures 3 and 4, wherein the more significant structural details of the device are stressed.
• the mechanical device for the automatic attachment of the nipple- graspers to the nipples of a milk cow in an automated milking station substantially utilizes the main components of a conventional milking unit; said mechanical device is so structured as to carry out the functions of support, positioning and automatic attachment of the nipple-graspers to the nipples in a simple and stable manner, independently on the movements which the animal may make.
• the mechanical device for the positioning and automatic attachment of the nipple- graspers utilizes an automated milking station provided with sensing means of a known type, suitable to identify the position of the individual nipples, and to send the signals emitted to a programmed robot, so as to position the nipple-graspers along the vertical of the nipples, as well as four connected nipple- graspers of a known type, through the related short milk and vacuum tube, to a collector provided with a discharge tube and a valve for closing the vacuum system.
• an automated milking station provided with sensing means of a known type, suitable to identify the position of the individual nipples, and to send the signals emitted to a programmed robot, so as to position the nipple-graspers along the vertical of the nipples, as well as four connected nipple- graspers of a known type, through the related short milk and vacuum tube, to a collector provided with a discharge tube and a valve for
• the mechanical device subject matter of the invention is substantially constituted of four usual nipple-graspers, each of which is constituted of a rigid body 1-2-3-4, provided with a flexible sheath la, 2a, 3a, 4a, and which are connected in the lower part with a collecting body 5 through the short milk and vacuum tubes, indicated by 6 and 7 respectively for each nipple-grasper .
• Collector 5 is so mounted as to hang, through a flexible cable 8, from a substantially horizontal supporting arm 9 , connected to a suitably programmed robot (as will be clarified later on) , and not shown in the figures; in this way, collector 5 is free to oscillate in all directions and therefore to follow the movement of the cow's mamma, and, if necessary, to adjust to mammas having a particular configuration.
• a suitably programmed robot as will be clarified later on
• collector 5 is free to oscillate in all directions and therefore to follow the movement of the cow's mamma, and, if necessary, to adjust to mammas having a particular configuration.
• At the free end of the supporting arm 9 four substantially semicircular seats or niches are obtained, indicated by 10-lOa-lOb-lOc; they are so sized that each of them may house at a well-defined and stable position the nipple grasper facing it.
• Said seats are in practice means for positioning the nipple-grasper during the step of attachment of the nipple-graspers to the related nipple; to this aim, each nipple-grasper is connected in the median position to a flexible cable; said cables indicated as a whole by 11-lla-llb-llc in the various figures - are extended in the inside of channels obtained in the supporting block 9 , and then anchored to actuators (not shown) of electric, magnetic or fluid-dynamics type.
• each nipple-grasper may be caused to return in the inside of the respective seat during the attachment step and may freely shift to the rest step, as shown in Figure 1, as far as the length of the respective cable allows it.
• the device also provides, between collector 5 and each nipple-grasper, for the positioning of an automatic valve of a known type, suitable to open the connection between the vacuum system and the nipple-grasper only after the insertion of the nipple in the mouth of the sheath (la, 2a, etc.); said automatic valves operate, in fact, autonomously only following the tight-occlusion of the sheath mouth created by the nipple.
• collector 5 presents in its inside a control and registration device of the physical- chemical parameters of milk, in order to check the physiological-health state of cows.
• the mechanical device of automatic attachment allows to realize an attachment procedure that concerns, in sequence, the individual nipple- graspers, according to the following operating steps.
• the milking unit or milking head constituted of four nipple-graspers 1 to 4 , connected in the lower part to the hanging collector 5 and, in the median part, to the traction cables 11 to lie, is positioned under the mamma, with the four nipple-graspers in resting position, far from the seats of the supporting arm 9 and supported by the respective flexible cables that tie them to the supporting arm; in Figures 1-2 there is represented the relative positions of the nipple-graspers in their rest condition.
• the first nipple-grasper for instance, nipple-grasper 1 of Figure 1 is caused to return to the attachment position (i.e.
• FIGS. 3 and 4 show the attachment position of the first nipple-grasper.
• the positioning of the first nipple-grasper along the vertical of the respective nipple carried out by the robot based on the signals emitted by said sensing means, followed by the lifting, in the vertical direction, and upon control by the robot, of the whole milking unit, until the nipple inserts into the mouth of the sheath of the first nipple taker; at the same time as the insertion, there occurs also the opening of said automatic valve (interposed between the nipple and the collector) , allowing in this way the stable attachment between the nipple and the nipple- grasper.
• the robot Upon release of the first nipple-grasper from the supporting arm, the robot causes the second nipple- grasper to return to the attachment position in its seat through the traction of the respective cable, positioning then the nipple-grasper along the vertical of the second nipple, and lifting the milking unit until the second nipple is inserted in the mouth of the sheath of the second nipple- grasper, with the simultaneous opening of the respective automatic valve, lastly releasing the cable that restrains said nipple-grasper, to allow the latter to shift away from support 9.
• the attachment of the two remaining nipple-graspers takes place according to the same positioning, attachment and release steps which are those of the two first nipple-graspers.
• the milking unit remains handing thanks to the action of the vacuum on the mamma and can oscillate freely following the movements of the animal thanks to the flexible cable 8 between the supporting arm 9 and collector 5.
• the vacuum action is interrupted by activating a valve located downstream of collector 5.
• a device is connected that is suitable to register the physical-chemical parameters of milk for the purposes of the control of the physiological-health state of the animal.
• the milking unit may be realized without using collector 5, but simply uniting the four nipple- graspers in one only hanging bundle 9, suitable to allow the separate evacuation of milk from each nipple-grasper.

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• 1999
  • 1999-05-26 IT IT1999MI001161 patent/IT1312326B1/it active
• 2000
  • 2000-05-18 WO PCT/EP2000/004511 patent/WO2000072664A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-05-18 AU AU50683/00A patent/AU5068300A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-05-18 EP EP00935066A patent/EP1180928A1/en not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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