JPH065454U - Automatic feeding device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Objective] To provide a highly reliable automatic feeding device capable of automating a feeding operation, which is important for breeding and managing animals such as dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs, for a long period of time. [Structure] A feeding distributor is installed under the feeding hopper.
The feeding distributor shall measure the feeding by means of a rotor having radial blades, and feed it downward from one side part of the rotor which rotates upward and feed it from a feeding opening whose opening degree can be adjusted. , The food shall be dropped on the other side that rotates downward and discharged toward the mouth.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an automatic feed system for animal feed, and more particularly to an automatic feed system for feeding and managing laboratory animals such as dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Feeding work plays an important role in raising and managing experimental animals such as dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs. However, the feeding work was very time-consuming because it was necessary to supply a fixed amount of food for each breeding animal and for each breeding purpose on a regular basis. In addition, today's social demand for shorter working hours makes it more and more difficult to secure a human labor force, especially during the consecutive holidays. Therefore, it is strongly desired to develop an automatic feeding device that can perform feeding work for a long period of time without human labor.

Conventionally, as an automatic feeding device of this type, a pre-measured bait is stored in a bait accommodating portion in which the inside of a cylinder is radially divided, and a bottom plate having an opening is located on the lower surface of the cylinder to form a cylinder and a bottom plate. It is known that the bait is dropped and supplied from the above-mentioned opening by relatively rotating and (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 52-34295).

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, in the conventional automatic feeding device as described above, since it mechanically has a stock of only a few meals, it can be used only for a relatively short period of automatic feeding, and for example, a large feeding is required. It was not suitable for fully automatic feeding during a period of several days or more, such as during consecutive holidays. Furthermore, depending on the shape and type of food, there is a drawback that feeding problems easily occur due to biting of the food, and it is a fatal problem that the system that keeps the life of the animal is unreliable for long-term autonomous driving. was there.

In view of such problems, the present invention has an automatic feeding ability for a relatively long period of time, has high reliability without occurrence of feeding trouble, and further, has a kind of bait, a particle size, It is an object of the present invention to provide a further improved automatic feeding device having general versatility capable of coping with changes in the feeding material etc. to some extent.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 This invention improves the quantitative distribution mechanism of feed for the above purpose.

That is, the automatic feeding device according to the present invention is provided with a distributor (B) connected to a feeding hopper (A) that stocks food, and the distributor (B) is provided from the hopper (A). A rotor (2) having a plurality of radial blades (2a) on its peripheral surface is rotatably driven around a horizontal axis (3) in a box-shaped main body (1) into which the bait of the above is gravity-fed. (2) A food supply port (4) with an adjustable opening degree for supplying the food (10) from the hopper (A) is provided at the upper position on the one side that rotates upward, and on the other side that rotates downward. A feed outlet (5) is provided in the feed, and the feed is supplied to the feed measuring unit (20) between the adjacent blades (2a) (2a) of the rotor by rotating the rotor (2) at a predetermined angle according to a control command. The food that has flowed in from the mouth (4) is discharged to the food dropping port (5). Those characterized by comprising configured to.

In a preferred embodiment, the feed supply port (4) is located on one side of the rotor (2) and has a lower portion in contact with a side circumferential surface of the rotor, and a feed guide plate (6). It is located above 2) and is formed between them by a feed amount adjusting plate (7) which is adjustable in height and adjustable in length and is inclined downward toward the feed supply port (4). Be done.

Further, it is preferable that the supply amount adjusting plate (7) has a blocking prevention plate (7c) made of an elastic plate whose tip is bent downward, attached to the tip.

Furthermore, the rotor (2) is made of an elastic material, and the lower part is elastically contacted with the peripheral side surface of the rotor (2) at a side position on the downward rotating side of the rotor (2) to prevent spillage. It is preferable that the plate (8) is provided.

[0011]

[Action]

 In the present invention, the feed stocked in the feed hopper (A) is supplied from the feed supply port (4) to the rotor (2) in an appropriate amount adjusted by its opening degree. This rotor is equipped with radial blades (2a), the space between adjacent blades is the bait metering section (20), and the bait is fed to this part of the rotor and separated by the blades. The amount of food (10), which is one unit of feeding, is measured in one section.

Although the rotor (2) is rotated by the control command, the feed feed port (4) is located on the side where the rotor rotates upward, so that the feed is provided between the blades (2a) of the rotor and the guide plate (6). Does not bite. When the weighing section (20) supplied with food rotates to a position where it falls due to the action of gravity of the downward rotating portion of the rotor, one unit amount of food is fed from the food outlet (5) to the feeder (9). ) Is supplied to. The operation of weighing the bait in this way and feeding it to the feeder is repeated, but the rotation amount of the rotor is detected by the sensor (13), so the required amount of bait is fed to the feeder (9). When the rotation has been completed, the control command can be issued to stop the rotation of the rotor and the feeding work can be completed. In this way, the feed supply amount can be easily controlled by rotating the rotor.

In addition, by installing a spill-prevention plate (8) on the peripheral side of the rotor up to the bait outlet (5), the final weighing of one feeding operation can be performed in a plurality of feeding operations. It is possible to prevent food from being fed to the feeder halfway through and to prevent it from being carried over next time, and to obtain even more accurate weighing.

Further, by constructing the rotor (2) with an elastic material, it is possible to further prevent rotation failure of the rotor due to biting, and to improve reliability.

Here, the size of the rotor (2) can be configured as an efficient dedicated machine by configuring one unit of food in one weighing section for one meal of a breeding animal. It is also possible to make one unit small so that the device can be finely adjusted.

[0016]

【Example】

 An embodiment of this invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 to 3 show details of a distributor (B) portion which is a main part of an automatic feeding device according to the present invention.

The distributor (B) is provided in series with the discharge port of the feeding hopper (A) for stocking a required amount of food. In FIG. 1, the distributor (B) has a triple structure and is shown as an example of a structure in which these are connected to a single feeding hopper (A).

The distributor (B) has a rectangular box-shaped main body (1) provided continuously to the discharge port of the hopper (A). The box-shaped main body (1) is equipped with a rotor (2) which is rotationally driven by a horizontal shaft (3). The rotor (2) is made of a hard or semi-hard rubber-like elastic material, and is provided with six radial blades (2a) at intervals of 60 degrees on the peripheral surface and adjacent blades (2a). ) (2a) is used as the feed metering section (20). It should be noted that both ends of the rotor (2) in the axial direction are installed in close proximity to the facing inner surfaces of the box-shaped body (1) so as to prevent the food (10) from spilling from between them. Has been made.

The rotor (2) is driven to rotate in a counterclockwise direction indicated by an arrow in FIG. Thus, a feed supply port (4) from the hopper (A) is provided at an upper position on the right side of the drawing, which rotates upward, and is provided at a lower position on the other side of the drawing, which rotates downward, on the left side of the drawing. Is provided with a bait outlet (5).

The feed supply port (4) is formed between the feed guide plate (6) and the feed amount adjusting plate (7). The food guide plate (6) has an upper end fixed to the inner surface of the box-shaped main body (1) with a screw or the like, and an intermediate part inclined slightly obliquely toward the rotor (2) and extends downward. The lower part is formed in an arcuate portion (6a) along the outer peripheral surface of the rotor (2), and the arcuate portion (6a) is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the rotor, that is, the tip of the radial blades (2a) (2a), It is elastically abutted over the peripheral side surface area of about 1/4 of the circumference.

On the other hand, the supply amount adjusting plate (7) is for adjusting the opening degree of the food supply port (4) to adjust the falling supply amount of the food (10) to the rotor (2). 2) The food supply port (4) is formed by inclining downward from the inner surface side toward the food supply port (4) and leaving a predetermined gap between the tip and the guide plate (6). Has become. As shown in detail in FIG. 3, the adjusting plate (7) includes a base plate (7a) attached to the box-shaped main body (1) through a long hole (11) by a screw (12) so as to be adjustable for vertical displacement. On the lower surface of the front end portion of the base plate (7a), which is mounted on the lower surface of the front end portion of the base plate (7a) and is adjustable through the long hole (13) with a screw (14) to adjust the forward / backward displacement. The tip portion made of an elastic material such as a rubber plate and fixed by an adhesive is composed of a blocking prevention plate (7c) bent downward in a substantially L shape. Thus, by changing the height position by the substrate (7a) and changing the effective length by the advancing / retreating plate (7b), the substantial opening degree of the feed supply port (4) facing the rotor (2). It is possible to adjust the amount of the feed (10) dropped into the feed measuring unit (20) of the rotor (2) by changing the above. The anti-blocking plate (7c) smoothly guides the feed to the rotor (2) from the feed supply port (4), and due to the nature of the feed, the feed does not become a lump and lose the fluidity. It plays a role in preventing the occurrence of a phenomenon and clogging of the supply port (4).

A spill prevention plate (8) is provided at a lateral position on the left side of the rotor (2) that rotates downward. The spill prevention plate (8) is made of a strip plate corresponding to the width of the rotor, and the upper end in the longitudinal direction is fixed to the inner surface of the box-shaped body (1) with a screw or the like, and the lower part from the middle portion in the longitudinal direction. Is bent in a direction away from the main body and hangs down, and is elastically contacted with the tips of the blades (2a) of the rotor (2) at a position near the lower end.

The central horizontal axis (3) of the rotor (2) is located substantially at the center of the feed distributor (B), and the rotation control cam plate (C) is provided in the rotation control unit (C) located in front of the feed distributor. 15) is attached and is further connected to the motor (16). The sensor (7) for detecting the rotation amount detects the rotation amount of the rotation control cam plate (15).

In the above-mentioned mechanism, the feed put in the feed hopper (A) is fed from the feed feed port (4) by the feed amount adjusting plate (7) and the guide plate (6) without causing the feed jam, and the rotor ( It is supplied to the measuring section (20) of 2). During the feeding operation, the motor (16) drives the rotor (2) to rotate a predetermined angle counterclockwise according to a control command. By this rotation, the food (10) is dropped from the food measuring unit (20) facing downward toward the outlet (5) and supplied to the feeder (9) attached to the animal cage.

By the way, when the rotor (2) is rotated, the food (10) falling from the food supply port (4) toward the rotor (2) is elastically acted by the blocking prevention plate (7c). It is prevented from causing blocking and smoothly flows down to the rotor (2). Then, a predetermined amount of food is filled in the food measuring unit (20) immediately below, but the food (10) flowing into the measuring unit (20) that is not yet sufficiently upward is located below the guide plate (6). The arcuate portion (6a) of the rotor contacts the tips of the blades (2a) and closes the space between them, so that the rotor is prevented from spilling downward. Therefore, the lower blade (2a) of the weighing section (20) also rotates while acting to scoop up the inflowing food, and rarely moves between the arcuate portion (6a) and the food (10a). ) May occur, but even if this biting occurs, the rotation resistance is absorbed by the elastic force of the guide plate (6) and the rotor (2) itself, and the rotation of the rotor (2) is stopped. Does not cause resistance.

On the other hand, on the discharge side of the bait (10) in the rotor (2), the measuring part (20) containing the bait (10) has a lower blade (2a) from the spill prevention plate (8). The prevention plate (8) prevents the food (10) from flowing down until it separates and faces downward. Therefore, the food is sequentially discharged from the predetermined measuring units (20) that are sequentially opened downward. Even if the food bites between the blade (2a) and the spill prevention plate (8), the elasticity of the rotor (2) and the elasticity of the spill prevention plate (8) cause the rotor ( It is possible to prevent the occurrence of a rotation resistance enough to stop the rotation of 2).

Here, the measurement results of the feeding amount test of the automatic feeding device according to the present invention using the feeding device in which one weighing unit is adjusted to 20 g will be shown. First, assuming a case for dogs, the feeding amount was set to 260 g, 100 consecutive automatic feedings were performed, and the feeding amount of each time was measured. The maximum feeding amount was 275 g and the minimum feeding amount was 258 g. As a result, a stable feed amount measurement result was obtained with an average feed amount of 266 g, which was very small. Next, assuming a case for rabbits and guinea pigs, setting the feeding amount to 100 g and measuring it in the same manner, the maximum feeding amount was 107 g, the minimum feeding amount was 96 g, and the average feeding amount was 10 0.7 g. Very good results were obtained. Adjusting the feeding amount with such precision by humans is very time-consuming, and is more reliable in terms of stable feeding amount compared to manual adjustment.

Next, a specific application example of the above feeding device is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

In this application example, a breeding shelf (24) made of a metal frame is provided with breeding cages (25) for animal breeding, each having three rows vertically and multiple rows horizontally. The feeding device (9) on the front of the cage is applied to the automatic feeding for the feeding equipment provided.

As shown in FIG. 4, two rows of rails (19) are laid on the upper surface of the breeding shelf (24), and a single feeding hopper (A) is provided with a food distributor (B). A mobile trolley (21) equipped with a feeding device configured by arranging three in parallel is movably mounted.

According to the control command, the moving carriage (21) controls the moving sensor (22) by the moving motor (26) by detecting the moving detecting plate (23) arranged at the upper part of the cage row. It is supposed to be able to move to the cage (25) row of will. Then, connect the upper end to the food outlet (5) to the lower end of each distributor (B), and make the length corresponding to the height of the feeder (9) attached to each cage (25). A fixed chute (27) is attached, and a movable chute (28) facing the feeder (9) is swingably attached to each lower end portion thereof. The movable chute (28) has a spring attached to the fixed chute (27) so that the movable chute (27) is retracted forward, and most of it is stored in the plane of the fixed chute (27) when the carriage (21) is moved. Therefore, it is possible to reliably feed the food to the feeder (9) without hindering the movement and being pulled out onto the feeder (9) by the cam structure near the cage row. .

These control commands for movement and feeding are input from the main operation panel (29) and stored in memory, so that long-term automatic operation can be easily executed. In addition, in the above-mentioned triple-type automatic feeding device, for example, 18 cages can be automatically fed for about 10 days, the noise level of the entire device is very low, and the adverse effect of noise on animals is improved. It was profitable.

[0034]

【effect】

 The automatic feeding device according to the present invention has a structure in which the food storage unit and the weighing unit are separated, that is, the structure in which the food is sequentially supplied from the feeding hopper which is the food storage unit to the distributor having the rotor which is the weighing unit. This allows the feeding hopper to have a large amount of food stock. In addition, since the weighing part of the rotor rotates upward on the side where the food is supplied, there is no risk of problems such as the food getting caught in the contact area between the rotor and the food guide plate, and the equipment stops. It is extremely high and can safely perform unmanned automatic feeding over a long period of time.

Further, since the food is measured by the distributor each time the food is fed, it is not necessary to perform the work of measuring the food in the work of supplementing the food to the hopper. That is, the setting of the feed supply amount can be easily input as a control command converted into the rotation amount of the rotor. For this reason, it is possible to finely adjust the amount of feed to be supplied with high accuracy, reduce human error in measuring the amount of feed to be fed depending on the animal to be raised, and also lead to significant labor saving.

Further, since the feed supply port is provided with a feed supply adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting the opening degree, it can be used for feeding a wide variety of feeds by adjusting it according to changes in the shape and size of the feed. In addition, by adjusting one unit of feed metering by the feed supply adjustment mechanism, a larger unit can be used for more effective feeding, and a smaller unit can be used for fine adjustment of the feed amount. And has high versatility.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a food distributor portion in an automatic feeding device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a main part of a distributor.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing an example of an automatic feeding system to which the automatic feeding device of the present invention is applied.

5 is a front view of the automatic feeding system of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A ... Feeding hopper B ... Distributor 1 ... Box-shaped main body 2 ... Rotor 2a ... Radial blades 3 ... Horizontal shaft 4 ... Feed supply port 5 ... Feed drop port 6 ... Feed guide plate 7 ... Feed amount adjusting plate 8 ... Spill prevention plate

Claims (5)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A feeding hopper (A) for stocking feed
A plurality of radial blades are provided on the peripheral surface of the box-shaped main body (1) into which the food from the hopper (A) gravity flows in. A rotor (2) having (2a) is rotatably driven around a horizontal axis (3), and the feed (10) from the hopper (A) is provided at an upper position on one side of the rotor (2) which rotates upward. ) Is provided with a feed opening (4) whose opening degree can be adjusted, and a feed drop opening (5) is provided below the other side that rotates downward, and a predetermined angle of the rotor (2) according to a control command is provided. By rotation, it is configured to discharge the food that has flowed into the food metering portion (20) between the adjacent blades (2a) (2a) of the rotor from the food supply port (4) to the food drop port (5). An automatic feeding device, characterized in that 2. The feed supply port (4) is located on one side of the rotor (2), and the lower part of the feed guide plate (6) is in contact with the peripheral surface of the rotor, and the upper part of the rotor (2). Located in
The automatic feeding device according to claim 1, which is formed between a feed amount adjusting plate (7) whose height position is adjustable and whose length is adjustable and which is inclined downward toward the feed supply port (4). . 3. The automatic feeding device according to claim 2, wherein the supply amount adjusting plate (7) has a blocking prevention plate (7c) made of an elastic plate whose tip is bent downward at the tip. 4. A spill-prevention plate (8), whose lower part is elastically contacted with the peripheral side surface of the rotor (2), is provided at a lateral position on the side of the rotor (2) which rotates downward. The automatic feeding device according to any one of 1. 5. The automatic feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the rotor (2) is made of an elastic material.