Teat cleaning brush

Details Teat cleaning brush Teat cleaning brush

2000-06-05

2002-02-05

Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)

Animal husbandry

Milkers

C119S664000, C119S014180, C119S608000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06343566

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus according to the preamble of claim 1 for cleaning the teats of animal.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A problem when milking dairy animals is how to ensure that the teats of the animal are clean before milking commences. As manual teat cleaning is labour-intensive, inefficient and time consuming various machines for cleaning teats have been proposed.
The German patent DE 127 384 describes a device with a plurality of elongated brushes mounted vertically on a holder. The brushes can rotate about their vertical central axis and have horizontally projecting bristles which can brush the surface of any teats introduced vertically down between the brushes. As the teat advances downwards the bristles are pushed down and away from the tip of the teat. A problem with this device is that when the teat is fed down between the brushes it its downward movement is resisted by the bristles and the teat is axially compressed. This causes skin folds or increases the depth of the skin folds already present and lead to inadequate cleaning of the teat.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to overcome the problems of the prior art teat cleaning devices. These problems are overcome by a teat cleaning device having the features mentioned in the characterising portion of claim 1.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the present invention the vertically mounted rotatable brushes are provided with a cleaning surface which is arranged in a spiral or helical shape.
By a suitable choice of the direction of the spiral surface and the direction of rotation of the cleaning brushes, as the teat is introduced into the device the rotating brushes can be made to grip the teat and drag it downwards. This stretches the skin of the teat thereby reducing or eliminating the skin folds and allowing the cleaning surface to clean substantially the whole of the surface of the teat.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4293584 (1981-10-01), Clayton
patent: 5211132 (1993-05-01), Farina et al.
patent: 5235937 (1993-08-01), Farina et al.
patent: 5383423 (1995-01-01), van der Lely
patent: 5673650 (1997-10-01), Mottram et al.
patent: 6155204 (2000-12-01), van der Lely et al.
patent: 1 27 384 (1977-09-01), None
patent: 0 476 771 (1992-03-01), None
patent: 2 559 351 (1984-02-01), None
patent: 1402305 (1988-06-01), None

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Teat cleaning brush does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Teat cleaning brush, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Teat cleaning brush will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2984777