Animal husbandry – Railroad car or other livestock long distance carrying vehicle – Poultry transporter
Reexamination Certificate
2003-12-03
2004-11-16
Carone, Michael J. (Department: 3644)
Animal husbandry
Railroad car or other livestock long distance carrying vehicle
Poultry transporter
Reexamination Certificate
active
06817316
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to trailers for the transport of live poultry hatchlings, for example chicken or turkey chicks. More particularly, the invention relates to a high capacity trailer for transporting live poultry hatchlings with a transverse flow of air therethrough that is similar at all positions along the length of the trailer.
BACKGROUND
In poultry husbandry, hatchlings are transported from hatcheries to barns where the hatchlings are raised to adulthood. The hatchlings are first placed in containers that are typically rectangular with a height approximately equal to the height of a hatchling and are sized to accommodate a plurality of hatchlings in each container. The containers are normally stacked on top of one another and are perforated on all four sides to allow the passage of air through the container. The containers are then loaded on to vehicles for transport.
Each vehicle has a cargo space that is ventilated in order to maintain controlled environmental conditions. The cargo space has a flow of air therethrough that includes a certain amount of fresh air and that may be conditioned to a desired temperature and/or humidity. The flow of air is directed through the hatchling containers to ensure that life-sustaining conditions are maintained therein.
In the past, the vehicles have primarily been trucks having an extended frame with a cargo body attached thereto. One such truck, designed and sold by the owners of the present invention, includes a central passage through the truck body that permits a flow of air along the length of the truck and side ducts along each side wall of the truck body. The side walls are perforated to permit air to enter the side ducts, thereby creating a transverse and horizontal flow of air through the hatchling containers. This design is particularly effective for transporting small numbers of hatchlings, as life sustaining conditions may be maintained for the hatchlings in all of the stacked containers, irregardless of the height position of a container within a stack. However, upon scale-up of this truck body design to a high capacity trailer for accommodating large numbers of hatchlings, significant problems arise in uniformly distributing the transverse and horizontal flow of air so that a similar transverse flow of air is provided at all positions along the length of the trailer. This in turn causes a disparity in environmental conditions from one end of the trailer to the other, which leads to unacceptably high mortality of hatchlings during transport.
Various types of trailers have been designed for transporting large numbers of poultry hatchlings. Most of these trailers have floor ducts that are used to provide a vertical air flow upwardly through the stacked containers, which is then collected in a space adjacent the ceiling of the trailer and is subsequently exhausted from and/or re-circulated within the trailer. The upward air flow is undesirable in that the hatchlings in the poultry containers at the top of a stack are subjected to a flow of air containing impurities derived from the excretions of the hatchlings below. Also, the air delivered to the hatchlings at the top of a stack has a higher temperature than the air delivered to the bottom of the stack. This undesirable vertical air flow leads to unacceptably high mortality of hatchlings. In addition, transverse partitions are typically provided between adjacent stacks along the length of the trailer to aid in distribution of the air flow. These partitions take up space, decreasing the number of containers that may be loaded on to a trailer. The partitions also make loading and un-loading the trailer more difficult and time consuming, which causes an increase in chick mortality since environmental conditions are not controlled during the loading and un-loading process.
An example of a prior art trailer is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,544, filed Oct. 24, 2001 by Rocky L. Smith and issued Jun. 24, 2003. The trailer has floor ducts connected to the air inlet for delivering air along the length of the trailer. The floor ducts are tapered so that their cross-section decreases towards the rear of trailer to aid in distributing the air along the length of the trailer. Each floor duct has a top with holes therethrough to create an undesirable vertical air flow through the hatchling containers.
An example of a prior art truck is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,837, filed Nov. 12, 1982, by Ralph C. Luebke and issued Jun. 19, 1984. The truck has floor ducts that are connected to vertical ducts spaced apart along the length and width of the trailer. Each vertical duct is adjacent a stack of hatchling containers and the vertical ducts each have sides with holes therethrough to distribute air along the height of the stack. The spacing between the holes decreases with increasing height along the vertical duct. A truck is disclosed for transporting small numbers of chicks, not a trailer, and the truck has the aforementioned undesirable vertical flow of air through the hatching containers.
An example of another prior art truck is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 1,520,504, filed Jun. 15, 1922, by Frank X. Mudd and issued Dec. 23, 1924. A central passage is provided along the length of the truck for creating a transverse flow of air through hatching containers when the truck is in motion. The air is introduced through vents in the front of the truck and exhausted to the outside through vents in the side of the truck. A truck is disclosed for transporting small numbers of chicks, not a trailer, and no side ducts are disclosed.
However, the need still exists for a large capacity hatchling transport trailer having a transverse flow of air that is well distributed along the length of the trailer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a trailer for transporting live poultry hatchlings comprising: a cargo space comprising a front, a rear, a floor, a ceiling, and two side walls, the cargo space for containing a plurality of perforated hatchling containers stacked to create a central passage along a length of the trailer; a blower means at the front of the trailer for blowing air along the length of the trailer through the central passage; a side duct along each side wall, each side duct permitting a flow of air along the length of the trailer through a cross-sectional area of the side duct; and, each side wall having apertures therein spaced apart along the length of the trailer for admitting air into the side duct from the central passage, thereby creating a transverse flow of air through the hatchling containers, the transverse flow of air being similar at all positions along the length of the trailer.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for transporting live poultry hatchlings in a trailer comprising: providing a plurality of perforated containers for housing the hatchlings; stacking the plurality of containers within a cargo space of the trailer and forming an open central passage along a length of the trailer with the stacked containers; introducing air into the central passage and collecting the air in a side duct on each side of the trailer, thereby creating a transverse flow of air through the stacked containers; and, distributing the air so that a similar transverse flow of air is provided at all points along the length of the trailer.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for ventilating a cargo space of a trailer for transporting live poultry hatchlings, the method comprising the steps of: admitting a flow of air into the cargo space, the cargo space having a first end, a second end, a ceiling, a floor, and two side walls; directing the flow of air from the first end to the second end of the cargo space through a passage in the cargo space; splitting the flow of air into a plurality of transverse air flows that flow through hatching containers in the cargo space, the plurality of transverse air flows being similar at all positions along t
Anissimoff & Associates
Brunet Robert A. H.
Carone Michael J.
Hayes Bret
Koenig Hans
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