Animal husbandry – Antivermin treating or cleaning – Means engaging animal directly; e.g. – daubing or rubbing means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-13
2001-11-27
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Animal husbandry
Antivermin treating or cleaning
Means engaging animal directly; e.g., daubing or rubbing means
C119S651000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321688
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning at least one teat of an animal, comprising at least one rotatable cleaning means applicable to said at least one teat.
The invention also relates to a method of cleaning at least one teat of an animal.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One essential step in the milking process for dairy animals, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, buffaloes and the like, is to effectively clean the teats of the animal to be milked before the actual milking can start. If the teats are not properly clean then the milk is likely to become contaminated by dirt on the teats and will not be fit for human consumption. If milk from one animal, whose milk happens to be contaminated, is collected in a large receptacle together with milk from other animals, large quantities of milk may have to be discarded. Furthermore the whole milking system will have to be thoroughly cleaned before a new animal can be milked. Consequently, failure to clean the teats properly will be both costly and time-consuming. Therefore the cleaning is an essential operation which should take place before the actual milking can be performed.
To obtain proper cleaning is especially difficult if an automatic milking system is used, since there is no checking performed by a person as is the case during manual cleaning. It is particularly important that the tips of the teats are cleaned as any contamination present here will naturally be picked up by the flow of milk and carried into the milk reservoir.
One of the most frequent ways of cleaning teats and udders is using one or several brushes or similar equipment which perform cleaning by means of friction, which is the result of moving the brushes against the teats/udder. This may be performed as a dry cleaning or as wet cleaning process. In the case of dry cleaning no liquid is added, and in wet cleaning a liquid, such as water and a detergent, is added, which is considered to improve the cleaning process.
FR-A-2 559 351 shows a teat-cleaning device comprising a hand unit which contains two horizontal parallel cylindrical brushes which are separated by a gap which is large enough to permit a teat to pass between the brushes. The brushes counter rotate so that in the gap the bristles of the brushes move downwards and brush contamination downwards towards the tip of the teat. When the teat is withdrawn from the device it is hoped that the tip will be brushed clean but no special provisions are made to brush the tip of the teat.
A device shown in EP-B 0 399 132 comprises a teat-cleaning device comprising a hand unit which also contains two horizontal parallel counter-rotating cylindrical brushes and additionally a tip cleaning third brush mounted below the first two brushes. As the teat is introduced into the hand unit a horizontal guide roller below the first brushes is intended to guide the tip of the teat into contact with the third brush. In order to achieve satisfactory brushing of the tip of a teat with a brush made of bristles it is important that the tips of the bristles come into contact with the area to be cleaned. This causes contaminants to be flicked off the tip of the teat. If, on the contrary, the tip of teat is introduced too far into the third brush such that the tip comes into contact with the bristles near their roots then the bristles tend to bend back which cause contamination to be smeared around the tip instead of being flicked away. As the three brushes are fixed in relation to each other teats which are too short to reach the third roller do not have their tips cleaned and tips which are too long may be subjected to smearing of contaminants or are otherwise inadequately cleaned.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a teat cleaning device which is suitable for cleaning teats of different lengths and a method using said device.
This object is achieved by means of an apparatus for cleaning teats having supporting means such as a housing or tubular frame which contain a cleaning means such as a first rotating brush which is preferably but not necessarily fixed relative the supporting means and a second rotating cleaning means such as a rotating sponge and/or brush which is movable with respect to the supporting means. This second cleaning means is movable between a lower teat receiving position and an upper teat cleaning position. The second cleaning means is moved between the lower and upper position preferably by means of the reactive force that it exerts on a teat which has been brought into contact with it. In other words when the supporting means is moved, for example, upwards so that a teat is brought into contact with the surface or bristles of the second cleaning means then a frictional reactive force occurs between the teat and the surface and/or bristles. This force is small to begin with and the surface or bristles of the second cleaning means can clean the tip of the teat without smearing contamination over the surface of the teat. In this way a reliable and complete cleaning of the teat tip is obtained. As more of the weight of the teat acts on the second cleaning means then the frictional forces and other reactive forces increase. When these forces increase sufficiently to overcome the gravitational, frictional and other forces, e.g. spring forces, holding the second cleaning means in the lower position then the rotation of the cleaning means will cause the movable second cleaning means to climb up the teat to the upper position. In order to ensure that the sides of the teat are reliably and completely cleaned the position of the cleaning means and a possible guiding means such as a guide roller are chosen such that the teat is guided along a predetermined path which ensures that the complete side and ends of teats of any length are brought into contact with the cleaning means.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 36391 (1999-11-01), van den Berg et al.
patent: 5383423 (1995-01-01), van der Lely
patent: 5390627 (1995-02-01), van den Berg et al.
patent: 5862776 (1999-01-01), van den Berg
patent: 0309036 (1989-03-01), None
patent: 0399132 (1990-11-01), None
patent: 0572068 (1993-12-01), None
patent: 0726027 (1996-08-01), None
patent: 2559351 (1985-08-01), None
Alfa Laval Agri AB
Jordan Charles T.
Nelson Judith A.
Weingarten, Schurgin Gagnebin & Hayes LLP
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