JPH0362374B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method for supplying a predetermined amount of feed to each livestock animal by means of a quantitative feeding means that delivers a predetermined amount of feed under the control of a signal transmitted when the livestock is in the feeder. This relates to a feed feeding device.

A feed feeding device as described above is already known from published Dutch patent application No. 7609780. However, when this feed feeding device was actually used, some livestock discovered within a short period of time that when the feed trough was tapped, the remaining feed in the metered feeding means would fall out. Ta. If this is done, the amount of feed dispensed will be inaccurate, while the housing of the feeder may be broken by livestock hitting the equipment, and the sound of livestock hitting the equipment may be a nuisance to the surrounding area. It will also have a negative impact.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages.

In a preferred embodiment, the feed supply device of the present invention includes: a housing having an opening into which the livestock enters its neck; a feed input container that holds the feed during use; and fixed-quantity feeding means controlled based on a signal emitted by the livestock putting its head into the neck opening, the fixed-quantity feeding means supplying feed from the feed input container to the fixed-quantity feeding means. a screw conveyor that can be rotated by a motor controlled based on the signal so as to be delivered to the discharge end of the screw conveyor; and a rotating container disposed at the discharge end, the rotary container being connected to the screw conveyor. The end face and the top of the side facing are open, and the container is connected to the screw conveyor so as to rotate together with the screw conveyor, and when the screw conveyor is in a non-rotating state, the rotating container is The screw conveyor, rotating container and motor are integrated into the housing above the opening into which the livestock enters their necks, and the screw conveyor, rotating container and motor are controlled to be always positioned with their open tops facing upward. characterized in that the bottom of the feed input container forms an assembly mounted within the housing, whereby the feed input container and metering means are housed within the housing and are configured to be small and compact. It is something to do.

As an example of a modification of this feed supply device, there is a feed supply container for storing feed, a quantitative supply means disposed below the feed supply container and communicating with the container, and a fixed quantity supply means disposed below the constant supply means. a feeding box, the metering feeding means being configured to take feed from the feeding container and delivering it to an outlet of the means communicating with the feeding box, the feeding box comprising: In a feed supply device provided with an opening through which livestock can pass their heads in order to access the feed supplied therein, the feed device is connected in communication with the outlet of the metering supply means and when the means is activated, the feed is fed. a discontinuous tube assembly consisting of an upper tube for receiving the bait, a lower tube disposed below the upper tube and communicating with the bait box; and is connected to a counterweight, which typically causes the counterweight to swing in a first direction into a first position in close contact with the bottom of the upper tube to receive feed fed into the upper tube. When a predetermined amount of feed is placed, the feed overcomes the effect of the counterweight and swings in a second direction opposite to the first direction, causing the feed to move away from the bottom of the upper tube. a swinging flap plate that moves to the second position and drops the feed placed therein into the lower tube; and a movement of the swinging flap plate when it moves from the bottom closing position to the second position. There is also a device characterized by comprising a switch that is activated by a switch to stop the quantitative supply means. In this variant, the rocking flap plate and the counterweight described above are configured such that the moment changes during their movement. In other words, the flap plate does not start swinging until a fixed amount of feed is completely supplied by the quantitative feeding means and the feed starts to spill out little by little from the flap plate, and once it swings open, the moment is configured to remain open until the last (or substantially the last) feed is completely dispensed. The moment is then increased when the flap plate is closed again. Therefore, even if small amounts of feed residue fall onto the flap plate after it has been closed, they will not cause the flap to open again, since they are too light to open the flap plate.

In the above modification, the aforementioned vertical tube has a funnel-shaped constriction, the action of which allows the feed to be deposited precisely in the center of the flap plate, so that the flap plate is in the same position during each movement. It opens and closes accurately depending on the amount of water that is dropped.

If necessary, a switch connected to the electric circuit of the feed metering means may be incorporated in the swinging flap plate, and the motor of the feed metering means may be stopped by this switch. Furthermore, the counterweight may be made adjustable so that the amount of feed to be dropped at one time can be arbitrarily determined.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a controlled rotating rotating container is used instead of a swinging flap plate. This rotary container is supplied with a fixed amount of feed by the metering means, after which the rotary container is rotated once in order to drop the feed collected therein into the housing of the feed supply device.

The rotating container, as well as the swinging flap plate, is advantageous because its operation is not affected by the behavior of the livestock. This rotating container has a simpler structure than a flap plate and is therefore more preferable.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a screw conveyor is used which supplies a fixed amount of feed;
The rotary container is attached to the discharge end of the screw conveyor so as to rotate together with the screw conveyor. This rotating container is open on the side facing the screw conveyor and on the top. The feed collected in the rotating container is therefore discharged with each revolution of the screw conveyor. This rotating container is
When the screw conveyor is not rotating, it is always positioned with its open top facing upward. This means that even if the livestock hits the housing of the feeder when feed is no longer being supplied, the feed remaining in the metering means will be captured by the rotating container and will not reach the livestock, even if it spills a little. This prevents the feed from falling and therefore inaccurate feeding amounts, and the livestock will learn that hitting the housing is pointless and will eventually stop hitting the housing, allowing the housing of the feeder to It will no longer be destroyed by livestock or the sound of livestock hitting will echo and cause a nuisance to the surrounding area. In this way, a method of quantitative dispensing is available in which the rotating container functions as a weighing unit. That is, for example, if Xg of feed is delivered by one rotation of the screw conveyor and the weight of the feed to be administered is nXg, the feed to be administered is given by n rotations of the screw conveyor.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, in which no flap plate is used with the rotating container, and only the rotating container is used, for example, the funnel-shaped container for introducing the feed into the metering means is at the top of the housing of the feed feeding device; The dosing means and the housing can also be formed in one piece, such that the assembly of the rotary container, screw conveyor and motor is housed within the housing to form a compact feed supply device.

Particularly when handling powdered feed, there is a possibility that the feed may stick to the inner wall of the rotating container and the feed in the container may not be completely released even if the rotating container rotates once.To prevent this situation, A scraping plate may also be provided, especially if the rotating container is of substantially cylindrical design. The inner wall of the rotating container is then automatically cleaned by being scratched by the scraping plate each time it rotates. Note that the quantitative supply means means a means for sending a fixed amount of feed from the feed input container to the housing of the material supply means.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 to 4 show a feed supply device according to a modification of the present invention. The device of this modification has a housing 1 provided with an opening 2 into which the livestock enters its neck, and above the housing 1 is provided a hopper-shaped feed input container 3 with a screw conveyor 4 at the bottom. There is. Screw Yuuko Bear 4
is operated by a motor 5 connected to an electric circuit including a magnetic switch 6 located below the opening 2. The magnetic switch 6 operates in response to a chain or other communication device placed around the animal's neck.

When the screw conveyor 4 is operated, the feed is transferred via the connecting pipe 7 to the pipe 8 which has penetrated into the housing 1 and whose middle part has been removed. A swinging flap plate 9 is provided in the middle of the tube 8.

As shown in detail in FIGS. 2 to 4, the flap plate 9 is attached by means of a fastener 10 to the distal end of the interrupted tube 8 (which is closed at the top). ing. Lower tube 8
A funnel-shaped introduction tube 11 is attached to the tube (see FIG. 1).

The flap plate 9 has a lever 12 which is pivotally supported on the fastener 10 by means of a bolt 13. A disk 14 is fixed to one end of this lever 12 and is capable of closing the tube 8. Lever 12
An adjustable counterweight 15 is swingably suspended from the other end. The distance between the two fulcrums of the lever 12 and the weight of the counterweight 15 are:
The flap plate is set to begin opening when a predetermined amount of feed is supplied onto the disc 14. The opening speed of the flap plate 9 gradually increases until the feed slides off the disc 14 because the distance from the pivot point 13 to the counterweight 15 changes and the moment changes. Once all the feed (or indeed all the feed) has slipped off the flap plate, the flap plate returns to its initial position under the action of the counterweight. The flap plate will not open again until a predetermined amount of feed has been delivered. That is, the last small amount of feed that spills onto the flap plate is too light to move the flap plate.

It goes without saying that the swinging flap plate must be constructed in such a way that it cannot swing further in the opening direction beyond the balance position.
For this purpose, the flap plate is provided with one or more stops. In this embodiment, two adjustable stoppers 16, 17 are installed.

In order to ensure that the flap plate always opens when a certain amount of feed has been fed, a funnel-shaped member 18 is attached to the upper tube 8, so that the fed feed always flows through the disk 14. It is designed to fall in the center of the

As mentioned above, if necessary, the flap plate may be provided with a switch 60 incorporated in the circuit for controlling the motor 5, as shown in FIG.

5 and 6 show a preferred embodiment of the feed supply device of the present invention, and parts that are the same as those in the above-mentioned modification are given the same numbers. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the feed input container 3 is formed integrally with the housing 1 above the opening 2, as shown. Quantitative feeding means is screw conveyor 4
and a motor 5. The shaft of the screw conveyor 4 has an extension 19 to which a rotating container 20 that rotates together with the screw conveyor 4 is attached. The rotating container 20 has a closed end plate 21 and a generally cylindrical side plate 22. Here, screw conveyor 4, rotating container 2
0 and the motor 5 are mounted in the housing 1 at the part of the feed input container 3 to form an assembly. With this configuration, the feed supply device of this embodiment is small and compact as a whole. As shown in FIG. 6, the rotating container 20 has an open end face and a top portion on the side facing the screw conveyor 4. As shown in FIG.

When the screw conveyor 4 rotates, a predetermined amount of feed is conveyed into the rotating container 20. At this time, the rotating container 20 rotates together with the screw conveyor 4, but when the screw conveyor 4 is in a rotational rest state, the rotating container 20 is controlled so that its open top is always at the top. There is.
Therefore, even if the livestock hits the housing of the feed supply device, the feed remaining in the quantitative supply means, even if it spills a little, will be caught by the rotating container 20 and will not fall to the livestock. For this reason,
A predetermined amount of feed is dropped into the housing 1. In this way, the livestock with its head inside the opening 2 can eat a predetermined amount of feed.

If each livestock is equipped with an oscillator that emits a signal indicating the amount of feed to be given to each livestock, the signal transmitted when the livestock arrives at the feed supply device will cause the screw conveyor 4 and rotating container 20 to rotate. You can also control the number. However, in this case, if the livestock comes to the feeder and the animal has already eaten the amount of feed that should be given to the animal, the device is configured so that it does not feed the feeder. There is a need to.

When a fixed bar-shaped scraping plate 23 is attached to remove feed stuck to the rotating container 20 from the rotating container, while the rotating container is rotating,
The side plate 22 of the rotating container moves along the scraping plate 23 and is cleaned by being scratched by the scraping plate.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing a feed supply device according to a modified example of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged side view showing the flap plate of the modified example of FIG. 1 in a closed state, and FIG. Plan view of the flap plate in Fig. 2, No. 4
The figure is a side view showing the flap plate in Fig. 2 in an open state, Fig. 5 is a side view showing a preferred embodiment of the feed feeding device of the present invention, and Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line - - in Fig. 5. , and FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram showing a switch which is operated by opening the flap plate to stop the feed feed screw conveyor. 3... Feed input container, 4... Screw conveyor, 20... Rotating container.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A housing provided with an opening into which a domestic animal puts its head; a feed input container that holds feed during use; a metered feeding means controlled based on a signal emitted by the head of the feeder, the metered feeding means being capable of delivering feed from the feed input container to an output end of the metered feeding means. a screw conveyor that can be rotated by a motor controlled based on the signal, and a rotating container disposed at the discharge end, the rotating container having an end face facing the screw conveyor. and the container is connected to the screw conveyor for rotation with the screw conveyor, and when the screw conveyor is in a non-rotating state, the rotating container always has its open top. The screw conveyor, rotary container, and motor are controlled to be positioned in the top position, and the screw conveyor, rotary container, and motor are located at the bottom of the feed input container integrated within the housing above the opening into which the livestock inserts its neck. , forming an assembly mounted within the housing, whereby the feed input container and the metering means are accommodated within the housing and configured to be small and compact. 2. The rotating container is provided with a scraping means that comes into close contact with the inner surface of the rotating container to scrape and clean the feed on the inner surface when the rotating container rotates. The feed feeding device according to item 1.