Animal husbandry – Milkers
Patent
1994-09-01
1996-02-20
Price, Thomas
Animal husbandry
Milkers
119 1418, A01J 500
Patent
active
054920906
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a valve for the reverse-flow flushing of teat cups in milking machinery. It includes a housing with an interior that accommodates a moving part in the form of a rotating disk. The housing has three connections. The first connection connects with the teat cups, the second with the milk line, and the third with a reverse-flow flush line. When the valve is set for milking, the first connection communicates through it with the second connection, and the third connection is blocked. When the valve is set for reverse-flow flushing, the first connection communicates through it with the third connection, and the second connection is blocked.
A valve of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,677. Such a valve must prevent reverse-flow flush from leaking into the teat cups or the milk line when the valve is set for milking and is loose. This requisite is ensured in the known valve in that the housing is open to the atmosphere, allowing flush to escape when the valve leaks. It is on the other hand impossible to prevent milk from accumulating on the surface of the valve. Such an accumulation will promote the propagation of germs to the detriment of the product. It is accordingly impossible to maintain satisfactory hygiene very long without occasionally taking the equipment apart and rinsing it manually.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is a valve that can be maintained hygienic for a long time without manual intervention.
This object is attained in accordance with the present invention in that, while the valve is set for rinsing, the moving part assumes a position wherein the first and second connections communicate with the interior of the housing, the third connection is blocked, and a channel between the interior and the atmosphere is also blocked.
Since the housing is sealed off from the atmosphere and the first and second connections communicate with the interior of the housing when the valve is set for rinsing, both the moving part and the interior will be saturated with rinse suctioned in through the first connection due to a vacuum at the second connection. The moving part and the interior will accordingly be maintained unexceptionably hygienic for a long time.
One advantageous embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the housing is in two halves, in that the channel between the interior and the atmosphere is accommodated between them, in that the two halves of the housing leave the channel unblocked while the valve is set for either milking or reverse-flow flushing, in that the connections into the interior can be positioned tight against flat surfaces on the moving part in the form of a rotating disk, in that the first connection communicates through channels in the disk with the second connection when the valve is set for milking and with the third connection when the valve is set for reverse-flow flushing, in that each flat surface has a depression that the first and second connections open into as long as the valve is set for rinsing, and in that the depressions allow one half of the housing to move toward the other while the valve is in that setting into a position that blocks off the channel between the interior and the atmosphere. This embodiment is particularly cost-effective.
The two halves of the housing in another advantageous embodiment are held together by a spring that forces them together while the valve is set for rinsing.
The moving part of the valve is actuated in a practical way by a piston-and-cylinder mechanism. This mechanism advances and retracts a rack that engages a pinion mounted on a journal that projects out of the moving part and the housing.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be specified with reference to the drawing, wherein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 illustrates the valve set for milking.
FIG. 2 illustrates the valve set for reverse-flow flushing.
FIG. 3 is the valve set for rinsing.
FIG. 4 is a section along the line IV--IV in FIG. 3.
FIG. 5
REFERENCES:
patent: 1854307 (1932-04-01), Hapgood
Price Thomas
Westfalia Separator AG
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