Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
  • A01K5/00—Feeding devices for stock or game ; Feeding wagons; Feeding stacks
  • A01K5/02—Automatic devices
  • A01K5/0275—Automatic devices with mechanisms for delivery of measured doses

Definitions

• the present invention concerns a dosing facility for dosing one or more additives to a material conveyed in pipes, both in dry and fluid form, e.g. animal feed, pellets, pow- der, different kinds of grain or other materials suited for pipe conveying.
• the invention furthermore concerns a method for dosing an additive for a pipe conveyed material.
• pipe conveyed material is meant either a dry material which is suited for being carried as described below, or a material in wet conditions, i.e. fluid.
• the material is pumped forward in the pipeline system to the individual feed outlets.
• the feed is commonly dosed in dry form and placed in a mixing container by means of a computer controlled dosing facility which is coupled to weigh cells mounted under the mixing container.
• a computer controlled dosing facility which is coupled to weigh cells mounted under the mixing container.
• the additives for some applications, it has also been suitable to add the additives to e.g. the drinking water of the animals. In some cases it is to be safeguarded in the dosing device that the pump pressure on the additive is higher than on the liquid in the pipe system.
• the dry material When dry matter is conveyed in pipeline systems, this often occurs by a screw, a wire or a chain inside the pipe continuously drawing the dry material to the discharge sta- tions.
• the dry material may be blown around in the pipe system by means of compressed air in order to be delivered at predetermined stations.
• the basic feed mix in dry condition is delivered to the facility in a large transport container which immediately may be connected to the pipeline system. It is prior art to add other substances to the dry feed mixture after the dry material has initi- ated transport in the pipe system. Typically, this occurs by adding the desired substances in dry state to the dry material mix.
• dry material with additive is carried in the pipeline system, a certain extent of de-mixing will occur, and this means that the additive, which is typically of lesser particle size than the feed, will end at the bottom
• the general purpose is thus to aim at the expected amount of additive for the amount of material is delivered with the right amount on the site of application, e.g. an automatic dry feeder.
• this is achieved with a facility of the kind mentioned in the introduction, which is peculiar in that one or more dosing stations are arranged in direct communication with a with a conveyor pipeline and that the additive is in fluid form and is supplied directly on the material when this passes a dosing sta- tion in the pipeline.
• the method for dosing one or more additives for a pipe conveyed material according to the invention is peculiar in that the method comprises dosing additives in fluid form.
• dry material is not to be limited only to be understood as feed, but any kind of material, which is suited for this kind of pipe transport as described above, namely by means of screws, chain, wire drawing or pneumatic conveying. It may e.g. be animal feed in pellet form, powder or granulated form, but also chewing gum, coffee, corn, cornflakes or other material in dry, pellet, powder or granulate form are included in the invention. It is a characteristic of the type of material that may be carried in pipe systems that they have a relatively low moisture content, i.e. their consistency is so that they maintain their powder, pellet or granulate form during the transport and do not clot. Furthermore, the grain size and the grain size distribution of the dry material determine how suited the material is for being car- ried in pipe systems.
• the group of additives which are used in connection with the present invention in principle all are substances which may be added in fluid form, but substances from the groups of vitamins, medicine, feed additive, aromatic substances, proteins, oil, pre- heated fat, micro organisms, hormones, etc. are particularly included in the invention.
• pipeline systems systems which are made up of open or closed pipes.
• open pipes i.e. the animals may eat directly from the pipe.
• closed pipes where the feed is delivered in the automatic feeding device, where the animals have access to the feed.
• transport pipeline is therefore to be understood as any kind of open or closed cross-section in which there may be carried feed to be advanced by either screw, wire, pump or compressed air.
• the additive-dosing station is typically arranged at the beginning of the pipeline, i.e. before possible feeding stations.
• the fluid additive may be added to the material in every suited way, but a way particularly preferred is to let the additive run down through the dosing station and drip directly down upon the material as it passes by in the pipeline.
• the additive dosing is started automatically when the advancing of material is activated, i.e. the amount of the additive depends directly on the amount of material being conveyed in the pipeline.
• the additive is applied to the material by the additive being sprayed upon the material as it passes by in the pipeline.
• a spray nozzle in the dosing facility in immediate vicinity of the pipeline.
• the spray nozzle is connected with a pipeline to a pump which again has connection to a reservoir.
• the pump is activated, and pressure is formed in the additive whereby there is induced so high pressure in the spray nozzle in the additive that a mist is formed before the spray nozzle.
• each individual particle in the dry material, or alternatively evenly distributed in the wet material becomes sprayed with some of the additive.
• the dosing facility for dosing additive thus becomes activated simultaneously with the transport system for dry material in the pipes being activated.
• the amount of dry material being carried through each single pipe is largely constant.
• the dosing facility for dosing the fluid additive is also held constant after adjusting, as the dry material will be supplied a constant amount of additive.
• the controlling of the amount of dry material being sent out in the pipe system is made the controlling parameter for the amount of additive to be dosed in the dosing facility.
• This system is particularly advantageous in some types of automatic feed systems for animals. In these systems, typically a batch of feed material is sent off succeeded by an interspace, after which an additional batch is sent off. This is the case for both dry material and for fluid materi- als used, e.g. in wet feed facilities. The different batches may be guided around in the pipe system so that they arrive at different animals. Hereby, several different animals or number of animals may be fed with the same system.
• a pipe system may comprise a number of dosing facilities for dosing different materials. This may also be advantageous in a situation where at dif- ferent times of the day there is to be added different substances to the feed mix.
• a dosing facility typically comprises a reservoir in which the desired additive is provided in fluid condition. From the reservoir, there is a connection to a dosing device which is arranged in direct connection with the pipeline system in such a way that the additive may come into contact with the dry material being carried in the pipeline system.
• a pump between reservoir and dosing facility. This is e.g. the case where the pipeline facility is arranged under the ceiling, and where it is desired that the container with the additive is to be found under the pipeline system itself.
• the pump provides for material being pumped from the reservoir with additive up to the material itself found within the pipeline system.
• the above described method for adding additives to material and the facility for add- ing additives also has the advantage, besides avoiding de-mixing of the additives and material during the transport thereof, that very small amounts of additive may be supplied to the material with great certainty of uniform distribution of additive in the amount of material. This is particularly important with feed where it is intended that all animals, which are to eat of the same feed batch, can receive the same amount of additive, e.g. medicine, with their feed mixture.
• the dry material has a very low moisture content as described above. Experiments have shown that fluid additive may be added up to a moisture percentage in the dry material above 30% without the dry material thereby clotting or becoming impossible to transport in line systems of the above type.
• Fig. 1 shows a first embodiment of the invention
• Fig. 2 shows a second embodiment of the invention in which a pump forms a part
• Fig. 3 shows a third embodiment of the invention
• Fig. 4 shows a fourth embodiment of the invention
• Fig. 5 shows a dosing device suited for freely flowing additive
• Fig. 6 shows a dosing device in the form of a spray nozzle.
• Fig. 1 a facility according to the invention. It comprises a reservoir 1 connected with a pipeline 2 to a dosing device 3, which is directly communicating with a pipeline 4 in which is located a screw, chain or a wire 5 for advancing the material 6.
• the pipeline may e.g. be in the shape of a close tube, but the invention also comprises open pipe systems.
• the dry material may be in powder, pellet or granulate form, or any other form suited for pipe transport in pipe facilities of this kind.
• the material which is to be carried in the pipeline system may also be in fluid form, e.g. as utilised in wet feed facilities.
• the feed 6 in the form of a dry matter mixture are in a known way conveyed in the pipeline 4.
• a screw conveyor, pumps, wire device, or a chain device arranged within the pipeline, which screw, pump, chain or wire draws the material along the pipeline by its movement.
• some kinds of dry material are advanced in the pipeline system by means of compressed air.
• the additive is in fluid form and may e.g. be vitamins, aromatic substances, proteins, oil, pre-heated fat, micro organisms, medicine, feed additive, hormones and the like.
• the only requirement to the additive is that it occurs in fluid form.
• the valve 7 is opened and the additive flows through the pipe connec- tion 2 down to the dosing device 3, and e.g. drips down on the passing dry material.
• the dry material absorbs the fluid additive, and thereby it is ensured that the additive is absorbed in the dry material itself, e.g. the feed mixture.
• additives such as vitamins, medicine or feed additives
• the feed material with additive then continues in the pipeline 4 to a feed station 9, where feed mixture is distributed to the sitess.
• Fig. 2 a corresponding facility comprising a reservoir 1, a pipeline 2, a dosing device 3, and pipeline 4. Besides, there is inserted a pump 10 in the pipeline 2.
• the pump has the purpose of creating pressure in the additive liquid so that it may either be pumped up in a level where the dosing device is situated and therefore it may drip freely down upon the dry material carried in the pipeline, or the pressure becomes sufficiently high that the spray nozzle in the dosing device may form a mist of additive which is sprayed on the dry material amount passing in the pipeline.
• Fig. 3 the facility of Fig. 2 is further elaborated with a central control unit controlling the pump pressure so that the dosing of additive through the dosing device, and i.e. the amount of additive on dry material, is controlled in relation to how much dry material is carried in the pipeline and in relation to how much additive to be supplied to the dry material.
• Fig. 4 is shown a corresponding system with the difference that the dosing device is here activated by a control unit which is again controlled by pulses for how much and how fast the dry material is carried in the pipeline 4.
• a central control unit may be ar- ranged for controlling the supply of the different types of additive for the same dry material amount in the same pipeline.
• Fig. 5 there is shown a detailed drawing of a dosing device in direct communication with a pipeline 4.
• the arrangement is designed so that it is aimed at forming drops of the additive, the drops dripping directly down upon the passing dry material amount in the pipeline 4.
• Fig. 6 where the dosing device is mounted in direct communication with the pipeline 4.
• the dosing device is so designed with the intention that by the design of the nozzle and the pressure from a possible pump there is formed a spray mist in front of the nozzle, whereby there is sprayed down upon the dry material passing under the nozzle in the pipeline 4.
• a dry mix e.g. a feed mixture
• the dosing devices are to be modified in such a way that the liquid pressure in the additive is higher than the liquid pressure in the pipeline. Otherwise, dosing and conveying of material occurs quite analogous with dry material conveying.
• the dosing facility is described in connection with mounting the facility in the pipeline itself.
• the invention may just as well be utilised by mounting in connection with the hopper.
• a hopper is usually arranged as a transition between a silo or another container and the pipeline.

Landscapes

• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• Birds (AREA)
• Animal Husbandry (AREA)
• Biodiversity & Conservation Biology (AREA)
• Apparatuses For Bulk Treatment Of Fruits And Vegetables And Apparatuses For Preparing Feeds (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

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• 2002
  • 2002-04-27 EP EP02732433A patent/EP1385373A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2002-04-27 WO PCT/DK2002/000273 patent/WO2002089565A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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