EP2003957A2 - Support de plateforme rotative et mecanisme d'alignement - Google Patents

Support de plateforme rotative et mecanisme d'alignement

Info

Publication number
EP2003957A2
EP2003957A2 EP07747707A EP07747707A EP2003957A2 EP 2003957 A2 EP2003957 A2 EP 2003957A2 EP 07747707 A EP07747707 A EP 07747707A EP 07747707 A EP07747707 A EP 07747707A EP 2003957 A2 EP2003957 A2 EP 2003957A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
support
platform
stations
track
lateral
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP07747707A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
John Chapman
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
DeLaval Holding AB
Original Assignee
DeLaval Holding AB
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by DeLaval Holding AB filed Critical DeLaval Holding AB
Publication of EP2003957A2 publication Critical patent/EP2003957A2/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

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
    • A01K1/00—Housing animals; Equipment therefor
    • A01K1/12—Milking stations
    • A01K1/126—Carousels

Definitions

  • the present invention relates generally to a support and alignment means for rotatable platforms, and in particular rotary milking platforms.
  • Rotary milking platforms also known as rotary milking parlours or turntables
  • a circular disc or annular platform typically with an annulus width of 1 1 /4 - 3 metres and provided with 40 - 60 milking stalls, although platforms with over 100 milking stalls have been produced.
  • each cow After being drafted into an individual stall on the rotating platform, each cow is fitted with milking cups and remains on the platform being milked for one (possibly two) rotations before exiting the milking stall.
  • the entry and exit positions of the platform are located adjacently through a portion known as the 'bridge' provided with appropriate drafting facilities and associated ingress and egress stock fencing.
  • milking platforms are supported by a series of horizontal axis rollers placed on pedestals located in an annular support ring underneath the platform.
  • the support rollers typically act on the lower surface of an 'I-beam' support track (or 'track web') attached to the platform underside.
  • Each pedestal is also provided with a side location roller with a vertical rotation axis orthogonal to the support roller. The side roller acts on the outer surface of the vertical centre-section of the I-beam support track to ensure the rotation of the platform remains centred.
  • each pedestal is required to be manufactured with an overly-robust construction for that required to simply support the vertical loads of the platform, in order to accommodate any horizontal forces on the side rollers.
  • the platform rotation may be displaced by an object (e.g. a cows leg) falling between the platform and the bridge or the failure of one of the milking cups, support or side rollers, or the like.
  • the plurality of side rollers being employed in typical systems together with the alignment tolerances introduced during manufacturing and installation of the platform may thus result in one or more side rollers being positioned either out of contact with the annular support beam (and thus susceptible to seizing through lack of use) or be subjected to elevated side forces and consequently vulnerable to early failure. This lateral overloading can cause damage to track webs.
  • a support system for a rotary platform provided with an annular support track attached to a lower surface and/or peripheral edge of the platform, said support system including:
  • said support stations including:
  • lateral support station rollers collectively provide a centering force to maintain the position of the platform periphery within defined limits during platform rotation.
  • the primary support stations may be produced to withstand the vertical force of the platform weight plus a full complement of cattle and associated milking equipment, stalls, and so forth without additional strengthening to accommodate lateral loads.
  • the lateral support stations may be optimised for their role both by a construction configured to control the lateral movement of the platform and also by reducing the total number of stations used to the minimum necessary to effect such control.
  • said support system employs at least 3, preferably 3 - 5 lateral support stations to control the lateral movement of the platform.
  • the minimum number of stations necessary to locate and control rotation of a circular platform is three (preferably substantially equidistantly spaced) stations.
  • one or two additional stations may be employed to prevent catastrophic damage to the platform and/or support system in the event of a failure of one of the lateral support stations.
  • the present invention provides a support system for a rotary platform provided with an annular support track attached to a lower surface and/or peripheral edge of the platform, said support system including:
  • At least one location roller rotatable about a substantially vertical axis to resiliency engage in use with at least one substantially vertical portion of the support track such that the lateral support station rollers collectively provide a centering force to maintain the position of the platform periphery within defined limits during platform rotation.
  • the present invention further provides a support system for a rotary platform provided with an annular support track attached to a lower surface and/or peripheral edge of the platform, said support system including:
  • a plurality of at least partially resilient lateral support stations spatially disposed below the platform to engage radially with the support track, said support stations including: - at least two substantially opposed location rollers rotatable about substantially vertical axes to resiliently engage in use with opposing substantially vertical portions of the support track to maintain the position of the support track platform periphery within defined limits during platform rotation. --.
  • said location rollers are formed from a resilient material.
  • a resilient material includes any appropriate material or structure capable of absorbing a force or shock and retain its shape and/or position without permanent deformation or rupture.
  • said location rollers are resiliently attached to the lateral support station.
  • the resilient attachment may be configured in a variety of arrangements.
  • the roller axles may be resiliently attached to a rigid ground engaging portion of the support station.
  • the rollers may be rigidly attached to a mounting coupling, which is in turn resiliently attached to a rigid ground engaging portion of the support station.
  • the resilience may be provided by springs, buffers, elastomeric materials, rubbers and the like.
  • the resilience of said resilient lateral support stations is at least partially provided by the configuration and/or material of the support station.
  • the resilient engagement of the location rollers with the support track may be provided by inherent properties of the rollers themselves, or the type of mounting of the rollers, or even a combination of same.
  • Resiliency biasing the rollers into contact with the support track enables even a single roller to remain in contact with the support track through a greater range of lateral movement than the non-resilient prior art configurations.
  • two (or more) rollers biased into resilient contact with opposing sides of the support track even higher levels of corrective force are available to resist fluctuation in the platform's lateral position and to restore the orbit of the track about the correct axis.
  • rollers rigidly attached to a mounting coupling which is resiliently attached to a rigid ground engaging portion of the support station provides capacity for a greater degree of lateral movement and greater flexibility in the type of bias applied by the resilient mounting, albeit at the expense of greater constructional complexity. It will be readily appreciated that a wide variety of mounting couplings are possible which may provide the same functionality, and, as such, fall within the scope of the invention.
  • the rollers are substantially cylindrical, though frusto-conical rollers, ball rollers, or the like may also be employed.
  • Conventional milking platforms are rotated by a drive unit which acts on the annular support ring via a pair of contra-rotating driven wheels engaging opposing vertical sides of the support track.
  • drive units may also be employed as lateral support stations, either
  • a drive unit as a lateral support station enables the total number of support stations to be further reduced with a further saving in system costs.
  • the support stations are formed from galvanised box-section steelwork in the form of substantially upright pedestals with lower ground securing means (e.g. bolts) with brackets at an upper distal portion to mount the rollers.
  • lower ground securing means e.g. bolts
  • brackets at an upper distal portion to mount the rollers.
  • numerous alternative structures may be employed, the construction of which is not germane to the inventive aspects of the invention and are thus not discussed further.
  • lateral support stations are located proximate to either side of the bridge portion.
  • the present invention may reside in several forms in addition to a support system for a rotary platform, namely a complete rotary platform equipped with a support system substantially as described herein and also a method of operating such a platform to maintain rotational alignment within desired limits.
  • the present invention provides a rotary platform provided with an annular support track attached to a lower surface and/or peripheral edge of the platform, said platform including a support system including:
  • said support stations including:
  • lateral support station rollers collectively provide a centering force to maintain the position of the platform periphery within defined limits during platform rotation.
  • the present invention provides a rotary platform provided with an annular support track attached to a lower surface and/or peripheral edge of the platform, said platform including a support system including:
  • a plurality of at least partially resilient lateral support stations spatially disposed below the platform to engage radially with the support track, said support stations including: - at least one location roller rotatable about a substantially vertical axis to resiliently engage in use with at least one substantially vertical portion of the support track such that the lateral support station rollers collectively provide a centering force to maintain the position of the platform periphery within defined limits during platform rotation.
  • the present invention further provides a rotary platform provided with an annular support track attached to a lower surface and/or peripheral edge of the platform, said platform including a support system including:
  • said support stations including:
  • At least two substantially opposed location rollers rotatable about substantially vertical axes to resiliently engage in use with opposing substantially vertical portions of the support track to maintain the position of the support track platform periphery within defined limits during platform rotation.
  • the present invention provides a method of platform alignment for a milking platform substantially as hereinbefore described, said method including the steps:
  • the present invention thus provides in its different aspects a means of reducing the manufacturing and installation costs of new rotary milking platforms and the like and also providing the capacity for retro-fitting to existing installations during routine preventative or corrective maintenance of existing support stations.
  • Figure 1 shows a plan view of a rotary milking platform and associated stock animals
  • Figure 2 shows a perspective view of a prior art platform support station incorporating a primary horizontally-mounted roller and a vertically-mounted lateral side location roller;
  • Figure 3 shows an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention in the form of a lateral support station with twin opposed resilient vertically-mounted location rollers;
  • Figure 4. shows a front side elevation of the preferred embodiment depicted in figure 3;
  • FIG. 5 an isometric view of a further preferred embodiment of the present invention in the form of a lateral support station with a resilient mounting coupling for twin opposed vertically-mounted location rollers engaged with a platform support track;
  • Figure 6. shows an exploded view of the lateral support station of figure 6
  • Figure 7 shows an isometric view of a rotatable platform drive unit adapted as a lateral support station in accordance with a yet further embodiment of the present invention.
  • Rotary milking platforms are well know and as shown in figure 1, typically comprise a circular steel or concrete disc-shaped platform (1) onto which cattle (2) enter and exit via adjacent passageways (3, 4).
  • the cattle (2) are coupled to milking cups at a station (5) shortly after entering the platform (1) and milked for the duration of a full platform revolution until the milking cups are removed at a further station (6) immediately prior to the platform exit (4).
  • the platform (1) is rotatably supported on its underside by a support system composed of plurality of support stations (7) generally composed of a ground engaging pedestal structure (8) provided at its distal upper end with bracketing (9) and (10) to mount a horizontally-mounted primary support roller (11) and a vertically-mounted lateral location roller (12) respectively.
  • a support system composed of plurality of support stations (7) generally composed of a ground engaging pedestal structure (8) provided at its distal upper end with bracketing (9) and (10) to mount a horizontally-mounted primary support roller (11) and a vertically-mounted lateral location roller (12) respectively.
  • the upper surface of the support roller (11) receives the lower surface of an annular I-beam support track (not shown in figure 2) to bear a portion of the platform (1) weight.
  • an annular I-beam support track (not shown in figure 2) to bear a portion of the platform (1) weight.
  • 10-20 such support stations (7) are employed beneath a typical platform (1 ) sharing the platform weight between the 10-20 corresponding support rollers (11 ).
  • the side location roller (12) engages with an outer vertical portion of the support track (not shown) to maintain the platform within a defined rotational path.
  • the use of 10-20 side location roller is excessive for typical installations, resulting in unnecessary support system costs.
  • the combination of both the support roller (11 ) and the side location roller (12) on the same support station forced the construction of a pedestal structure sufficiently robust to withstand any anticipated side loads exerted by the platform (1 ) due to eccentric fluctuations in the platform (1 ) rotation.
  • Figures 3 and 4 show a first preferred embodiment of an individual lateral support station (13) formed with ground engaging base portion (14) and securing means (bolts 15), an upstanding elongate centre section (16), with confronting C-shaped mounting brackets (17) at an upper distal end.
  • the brackets (17) mount a pair or vertically-mounted opposed resilient rollers (18).
  • Figure 4 shows the rollers (18) engaged on opposing sides (19) of the platform (1) support track (19).
  • the resilient material forming at least the outer contact surface of the rollers (18) enables both rollers to be positioned to apply a continual biasing force to maintain the support track (20) in a desired equilibrium position between the rollers (18). Any displacement of the support track (20) from this equilibrium position results in an increased reactive biasing force from the compressed roller to restore the support track (20) to the correct position.
  • the platform support system of the present invention typically incorporates a further one or two lateral support stations (13).
  • a complimentary embodiment may be configured utilising the characteristics of a resilient roller (18) in a combination support station as shown in figure 2. Whilst such configurations possess certain performance shortcomings, it nevertheless provide an improvement over the prior art.
  • Figures 5 and 6 show illustrations of a further embodiment of the present invention in which the support track (20) is again engaged on both opposing vertical sides (19) by a pair of confronting rollers (21) which may optionally (but not necessarily ) be formed from a resilient material.
  • the lateral support station (13) also includes a ground engaging base portion (14) and an upstanding elongate centre section (16) as per the preceding embodiment.
  • rollers (21.) and associated mounting brackets (22) are attached to a mounting coupling (23) resiliently attached to the base/centre section (14, 16) and which biases the mounting coupling (23) to a predetermined position correlating to the desired lateral location of the platform (1 ).
  • FIG 6 shows the individual componentry of the lateral support station (13) shown in figure 5 in an exploded view.
  • the mounting coupling (23) is formed in part from a substantially cuboid upper housing (24) to which the rollers (21 ) and mounting brackets (22) are rigidly fixed.
  • the upper housing (24) envelops and is slideably mounted on the remaindered of the mounting coupling (23) in the form of a substantially cuboid lower housing (25) which is rigidly attached to the centre section (16).
  • lateral movement of the support track (19) causes the upper housing (24) to move relative to the lower housing (25) sleeved inside the upper housing (24).
  • This relative movement causes corresponding compression of spring damper units (26) attached to an anchor block (27) attached to the upper housing (24) and located inside the lower housing (25).
  • the compression of the spring dampers (26) causes a reactionary force in the opposing direction to the lateral displacement of the support track (19) to realigned the support track (19) position within the desired limits.
  • Figure 7 shows a drive unit 28 used to supply motive rotational power to the platform.
  • the unit (28) is secured to the ground by a support framework (29) and typically comprises an electrical three phase drive, acting on the support track (19)
  • the drive unit (28) may be functionally employed as a lateral support station. This may be implemented either by rigidly-mounting the drive unit (28) to the ground and using resilient drive wheels (29) or alternatively, the drive wheels (29) may be resiliently attached to a mounting coupling (not show) which is in turn rigidly attached to the ground by appropriate means.
  • the drive unit (28) may be used to further reduce the number of lateral support stations required to effectively control the lateral position of the turn platform (1), thereby reducing overall costs.

Landscapes

  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Environmental Sciences (AREA)
  • Zoology (AREA)
  • Animal Husbandry (AREA)
  • Biodiversity & Conservation Biology (AREA)
  • Housing For Livestock And Birds (AREA)
  • Machine Tool Units (AREA)

Abstract

Système de support de plateforme rotative (1) muni d'une piste (19) de support annulaire fixée à une surface inférieure et/ou un bord périphérique de la plateforme, ledit système de support comprenant une pluralités de stations (7) de support spatialement disposées sous la plateforme pour venir en prise avec la piste (20) de support, lesdites stations (7) de support comprenant : des stations individuelles de support primaire équipées d'au moins un rouleau (11) de support, rotatif autour d'un axe sensiblement horizontal pour venir en prise, en fonctionnement, avec une surface inférieure de la piste de support, pour permettre une rotation horizontale de la plateforme (1) et supporter le poids de la plateforme, des stations (13) individuelles de support latéral équipées d'au moins un rouleau (12) de placement, rotatif autour d'un axe sensiblement vertical pour venir en prise, en fonctionnement, avec au moins une partie sensiblement verticale de la piste de support, afin que les rouleaux de la station (13) de support latéral produisent collectivement une force de centrage pour maintenir la position de la périphérie de la plateforme (1) dans des limites définies, au cours de la rotation de la plateforme.
EP07747707A 2006-04-12 2007-04-12 Support de plateforme rotative et mecanisme d'alignement Withdrawn EP2003957A2 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
NZ54656506A NZ546565A (en) 2006-04-12 2006-04-12 Rotary milking platform support and alignment mechanism
PCT/NZ2007/000079 WO2007117162A2 (fr) 2006-04-12 2007-04-12 Support de plateforme rotative et mecanisme d'alignement

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP2003957A2 true EP2003957A2 (fr) 2008-12-24

Family

ID=38445979

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP07747707A Withdrawn EP2003957A2 (fr) 2006-04-12 2007-04-12 Support de plateforme rotative et mecanisme d'alignement

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP2003957A2 (fr)
NZ (1) NZ546565A (fr)
WO (1) WO2007117162A2 (fr)

Families Citing this family (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
NZ546565A (en) 2006-04-12 2008-02-29 Delaval Holding Ab Rotary milking platform support and alignment mechanism
US9357749B2 (en) * 2010-01-29 2016-06-07 Gea Houle Inc. Rotary milking station, kit for assembling the same, and methods of assembling and operating associated thereto
US9574607B2 (en) * 2012-11-07 2017-02-21 Delaval Holding Ab Roller of a support arrangement for a rotary milking platform
US20160309679A1 (en) * 2015-04-23 2016-10-27 Waikato Milking Systems Lp Milking platform
US11700834B2 (en) 2017-09-12 2023-07-18 Dairymaster Support element and a method for supporting an elongated beam, and a rotary platform
CA3150100A1 (fr) * 2019-10-02 2021-04-08 Delaval Holding Ab Systeme et procede pour commander un agencement de salle de traite rotatif, programme informatique et support de donnees non volatile

Family Cites Families (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB1175588A (en) * 1967-08-01 1969-12-23 Gascoignes Res & Dev Ltd Improvements in Milking Installations
US3835814A (en) * 1972-07-14 1974-09-17 Circle Milking Inc Rotating milking platform
DE4101530A1 (de) * 1991-01-19 1992-07-23 Reinhold Pilzecker Fa Melkkarussell
DE10212676C1 (de) * 2002-03-22 2003-06-12 Westfalia Landtechnik Gmbh Verfahren zum Betreiben einer Karussell-Melkanlage sowie Karussell-Melkanlage
NZ546565A (en) 2006-04-12 2008-02-29 Delaval Holding Ab Rotary milking platform support and alignment mechanism

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of WO2007117162A2 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
NZ546565A (en) 2008-02-29
WO2007117162A3 (fr) 2007-11-22
WO2007117162A2 (fr) 2007-10-18

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