Animal husbandry – Bed or rest
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-31
2001-08-07
Price, Thomas (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Bed or rest
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269768
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention deals generally with animal beds and more specifically with a preformed farm animal mattress molded into a pad to cover the floor of a stall.
It is well understood that cows prefer to lie down after eating, and modern dairy barns which have concrete floors tend to make it uncomfortable for cows to do so. There have been many approaches to make the cows more comfortable, the simplest of which is to spread loose cushioning material, such as straw, on the floors of the stalls. Such loose material is, however, a significant problem because it is easily displaced by the cow's movements. That leads to the loose material not only being moved from the location where the cow will lie upon it, but also spreading it around the rest of the barn from where it must be collected and disposed of.
Several proposed solutions to this problem have been patented. U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,195 by Young discloses a mattress which resembles the classic air mattress with multiple separate parallel tubes formed from fabric, with the tubes filled with shredded rubber from vehicle tires and with a fabric blanket covering the mattress. The top blanket has one end attached to the stall's brisket board, and the other end attached to the stall's keeper board. U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,917 by Dodson et al describes an animal mattress of very similar structure to that of Young, except the tubes are constructed of double woven fabric and the web between the tubes is single woven.
The problem with such mattresses is that, because they are filled with loose material, any puncture of the mattress leads to loss of the loose material from the mattress, and dispersal of the loose material throughout the barn.
It would be very beneficial to have an animal pad which did not include loose material, and which would still be resilient enough to afford the desirable comfort for cows.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention furnishes an animal mattress which does not include any loose material which might be lost and dispersed. One embodiment of the invention is a one piece molded pad with a smooth top surface and a corrugated bottom surface. The pad is molded from recycled tire rubber chopped into relatively long particle sizes with the particles held together with a polymer bonding agent. The sizes of the spaces between the particles are determined by the size of the particles, and the spaces among the particles determine the resiliency of the entire pad.
A second embodiment of the invention is a pad molded of fine particles which are more tightly packed to give the material greater strength. The higher density of this material makes it less resilient than the material of the long particle pad, but the external configuration of the pad of the second embodiment is constructed to add resiliency and furnish overall characteristics appropriate for use as a mattress for cows.
The fine particle pad has sections with two different thicknesses. The edge sections of the pad are thicker sections formed of compressed particles which essentially form a frame around the rest of the pad. The central portion of the pad, the section surrounded by the edge sections, is not as thick as the edge sections. However, since the top surface of the pad is flat, the smaller thickness results in the center section being suspended above the bottom of the edge sections.
Actually, it is easier to understand the structure when it is viewed upside down. The fine particle pad then appears as a shallow pan with thick sidewalls, and to properly support the animal while controlling the overall resiliency of the pad, the interior of the “pan” includes many pillars which extend from the bottom of the “pan” to the plane determined by the sidewalls.
Each embodiment of the invention thereby furnishes a one piece animal mattress which is simple to install and can provide the resiliency desired for the animal, but neither embodiment will, even if punctured, disperse particulate matter or lose its essential resiliency and thickness.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5226384 (1993-07-01), Jordan
patent: 5265558 (1993-11-01), Schonrock
patent: 5653195 (1997-08-01), Young
patent: 5724917 (1998-03-01), Dodson et al.
Journal of Waste Recycling (IBIC) Funding innovative uses for scrap tires v40 n3, p61-63, p. 3.
Fruitman Martin
Price Thomas
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