WO2001028315A1

WO2001028315A1 - Teat treating device

Info

Publication number: WO2001028315A1
Application number: PCT/SE2000/002039
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jan Eriksson
Original assignee: Delaval Holding Ab
Priority date: 1999-10-20
Filing date: 2000-10-20
Publication date: 2001-04-26
Also published as: AU1184801A; SE9903788D0; SE9903788L; SE515687C2

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device (1) for fitting and resiliently holding at least one teat treating member onto an animal teat (39) during a teat cleaning or milk sampling operation. Each teat treating member comprises a substantially rigid body (9) intended to be attached to a manipulating arm (3) of a robot for placing said device (1) below the teat (39) to be treated and a teat cup (15) having drainage means (35) and being supported by the rigid body (9). The device is characterised in that said teat cup (15) is resiliently supported by the rigid body (9) by means of at least one expandable and contractible wall member (11) attached to the teat cup (15) and to the rigid body (5) such that an inner space (10) is formed therebetween. The volume is being variable by varying the pressure of a gaseous medium supplied to said inner space (10), whereby the teat cup (15) is movable essentially in its axial direction relative the rigid body (9) from a first position in which the teat cup (15) is located below the teat (39) and in which said wall member (11) is contracted, to a second position in which the teat (39) is inserted into the teat cup (15) and in which said wall member (11) is expanded.

Description

Teat treating device

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a device for fitting and resiliently holding at least one teat treating member onto an animal teat during a teat cleaning or milk sampling operation, each teat treating member comprising a substantially rigid body intended to be attached to a manipulating arm of a robot for placing said device below the teat to be treated and a teat cup having drainage means and being supported by the rigid body.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

One essential step in the milking process is to effectively clean the teats of an ani- mal, such as cows, to avoid dirt contaminating the collected milk. To this end a teat cup having cleaning means, such as brushes or nozzles, may be provided for cleaning teats one at a time. A computer controlled manipulating arm of a robot may accomplish the attachment and detachment of the teat cup prior to and after the cleaning operation as well as supporting the teat cup during said operation.

However, an animal standing in a stall never stands completely still, although it is not able to walk inside the stall. It continuously changes its centre of gravity by moving some of its weight to other feet or by stretching its body when trying to reach a fodder bin.

The manipulating arm has to compensate for these movements otherwise the teat cup could be unintentionally detached during the cleaning operation. This would be unfortunate since the attachment procedure is to be repeated. However, the manipulating arm may have difficulties in compensating for these small movements, particularly if the movements are rapid and the processing skills of the computer are unsatisfactory. The German document DE 4113 700 Al discloses a device intended for milking animals and is supportable by means of a manipulating arm of a robot. The device comprises a tray having four inflatable bellows where each bellow is provided, on there upper surfaces, with a telescopic means having an annular cylinder and a matching piston. A teat cup is attached to an end portion of each of said pistons. Pipes for transferring pressurised air are drawn through the manipulating arm via the tray and to each bellow and cylinder.

When the bellows are provided with an overpressure the teat cups are erected into substantial vertical positions, and by also providing the cylinders with an overpressure the teat cups are elevated and can thereby be attached to a corresponding teat. When the teat cups are attached to the teats the overpressure is removed from the bellows, only the overpressure in the cylinders remains. Hereby, the teat cup is flexibly supported and tiltable up to 40° in its lateral directions and can compensate for horizontal movements of the animal. Since the overpressure remain in the cylinder the teat cup is also flexible in the longitudinal direction of the teat cup so as to compensate for vertical movements of the animal.

The design of this device is however unnecessarily complicated, e.g. it requires movable mechanical parts to accomplish elevation of the teat cup.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to improve known technical solutions.

This object is achieved according to the present invention by means of a device as imtially defined and characterised in that said teat cup is resiliently supported by the rigid body by means of at least one expandable and contractible wall member at- tached to the teat cup and to the rigid body such that an inner space is formed therebetween, the volume of which being variable by varying the pressure of a gaseous medium supplied to said inner space, whereby the teat cup is movable essentially in its axial direction relative the rigid body from a first position in which the teat cup is located below the teat and in which said wall member is contracted, to a second position in which the teat is inserted into the teat cup and in which said wall member is expanded. Hereby is also obtained a device without any movable mechanical parts, where the device is able to resiliently hold a teat treating member onto a teat during a teat cleaning or milk sampling operation, without being unintentionally detached.

Further developments and improvements of the invention are claimed in the dependent claims 2-9.

DRAWING SUMMARY

For a better understanding of the invention, exemplifying embodiments will now be described with reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. la shows a perspective view of a device, according to a first preferred embodi- ment of the invention, together with a manipulating arm of a robot for fitting and resiliently holding a teat treating member onto an animal teat.

Fig. lb shows a partly cross-sectional side view of the device in Fig. la prior to said fitting.

Fig. lc shows a partly cross-sectional side view of the device in Fig. la during said holding.

Fig. 2a shows a perspective view of a device, according to a second embodiment of the invention, together with a manipulating arm of a robot for fitting and resiliently holding a teat treating member onto an animal teat. Fig. 2b shows a partly cross-sectional side view of the device according to the second embodiment prior to said fitting.

Fig. 2c shows a partly cross-sectional side view of the device in Fig. 2a during said holding.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figure la shows a perspective view of a device 1 according to a first preferred embodiment of the invention. A manipulating arm 3 of a robot, having a gripper 5 for holding the device 1, is intended to manoeuvre the device 1 to a desired position below an udder 7 of an animal upon commencement of a teat cleaning- or a milk sampling operation. The determination of the desired position is accomplished by means of various sensors (not shown), which function is well known in the art and thus not part of the invention.

The device 1 comprises a rigid body 9, intended to be gripped and manoeuvred by said gripper 5, first and second expandable and contractible wall members 11, 13, and a teat treating member, such as teat cup 15. The rigid body 9 is substantially tubular and hollow with not shown upper and lower openings and is mainly coaxially arranged about the longitudinal axis of the teat cup 15.

The first wall member 11 is seahngly attached to an upper circumferential portion of the rigid body 9, so as to enclose the upper opening, and attached to an upper circumferential portion of the teat cup 15. The latter attachment also improves the lateral stability of the teat cup 15. The second wall member 13 is seahngly attached to a lower circumferential portion of the rigid body 9, so as to enclose the lower opening, and attached to a circumferential portion of a hose 21, which hose 21 is protruding from the teat cup 15. The wall members 11, 13 are preferably made from rubber or any other suitable expandable and contractible material. Each wall mem- ber 11, 13 comprises an accordionlike bellow 11, 13 having annular crinkles. The wall members 11, 13 will from now on be referred to as bellows 11, 13.

The rigid body 9 is together with the teat cup 15 and said bellows 11, 13 defining an inner space 10 (shown in Figs, lb-c) or a sealed cavity, which volume may be pressurised by means of a gaseous medium supplied thereto, e.g. compressed air. To this end a compressed-air supplying means 27, connected to a not shown compressed air supply, is provided on the manipulating arm 3 of the robot and is with the aid of valve means 29a-b connected to said inner space 10.

The valve means 29a-b is preferably of a dockable type, i.e. comprising a first 29a and a second 29b valve part, where the first valve part 29a is disposed on the manipulating arm 3 while the second valve part is disposed in a wall of the rigid body 5. When the gripper 5 grips the rigid body 9 the first and second valve parts will mutually cooperate and the inner space 10 is simultaneously fluidly connected to the compressed air supply. Said wall is also provided with valve means 31 for evacuation of compressed air from the inner space 10 and for venting ambient air into the inner space 10. The supply of compressed air as well as said evacuation and venting are controlled by not shown control means, such as a computer.

The hose 21 is basically a covering shell and comprises a plurality of pipes and tubes, e.g. liquid supplying means 33 for supplying said teat cup 15 with cleaning liquid, drainage means 35, such as a hose or a pipe, for drainage of cleaning liquid during the cleaning operation and vacuum supplying means 37 for providing said teat cup 15 with and under-pressure, which under-pressure serve to facilitate evacuation of drainage liquid but also for extraction of milk if desired.

The first bellow 11 has a larger expandable capacity, i.e. a larger area when fully expanded compared with the second bellow 13 when fully expanded. This will en- able an upwardly directed vertical elevation of the teat cup 15 when the inner space 10 is pressurised. The purpose of the bellows 11, 13 is to enhance a correct attach- ment and detachment of the teat cup 15 prior to respective after a cleaning operation, but also to resiliently hold the teat cup 15 onto a teat 39 during said cleaning operation, so as to avoid an unintentionally detachment.

The attachment is proceeded, by raising the teat cup 15 in relation to the rigid body 9 from a first position, in which position the teat cup 15 is located below the teat 39 and the first bellow 11 is substantially contracted and the second bellow 13 is substantially expanded to a second position, in which position the teat 39 is inserted in the teat cup 15 and the first bellow 11 is substantially expanded and the second bellow 13 is substantially contracted. The detachment is accomplished by lowering the teat cup 15 in relation to the rigid body 9 from said second position to said first position. This procedure is more exhaustively described below in connection with Fig. lb-c.

Fig. lb-c show schematic side views of the device 1 according to the preferred embodiment of the invention. The manipulating arm 3 of the robot is in Fig. lb holding the device 1 below the teat 39 to be cleaned prior to commencement of the teat cleaning operation. This is the aforementioned first position and the inner space 10 of the device 1 is not pressurised, i.e. having the same pressure as the ambient. The first bellow 11 is in this situation, as said before, substantially contracted and the second bellow 13 is substantially expanded.

By providing said inner space 10 with pressurised air, as occurs in Fig. lc, the pressure of the inner space 10 increases due to the closed cavity situation. When the pressure increases the first and second wall bellows 11, 13 will start to expand.

Since the second bellow 13 already is substantially expanded, it has little remaining expandable capacity. The first bellow 11, on the other hand, has just begun expanding and will continue expanding even though the second bellow 13 is fully expanded. This is made possible since the first bellow 11 has a larger expandable ca- pacify, i.e. a larger area, compared with the second bellow 13. Accordingly, due to the area difference between the bellows 11, 13 the teat cup 15 is upwardly elevated together with the hose while forcing the second bellow 13 to contract.

Consequently, there is an axial movement, i.e. a vertical movement of the teat cup relative the rigid body 9 and thus to the manipulating arm. The elevation continues as long as compressed air is supplied to the inner space 10 and as long there is remaining expandability of the accordionlike first bellow 11, or if an upper surface of the teat cup 15 comes in contact with the udder 7 of the animal.

When the teat cup 15 comes in contact with the udder 7 further elevation is prevented and the teat may be considered as being inserted in the teat cup. The teat cleaning operation or the milk sampling operation may now commence. In this situation the first bellow 11 exhibits a substantially funnel like shape. This shape improves the stability in the lateral directions. If the animal, during said operations, moves a little bit, e.g. changing it's centre of gravity, the teat cup 15 will not be unintentionally detached. Since the first bellow 11 is crinkled and flexible, it will tilt in its lateral directions in relation to the rigid body thereby maintaining a correct attachment of the teat cup 15 onto the teat. If the animal is curtsying the first bellow 11 will absorb the associated movement in the vertical direction due to the pressurised inner space 10. The second bellow 13 serve to further enhance these effects.

When the operation is completed the compressed air is evacuated from the inner space 10 and the pressure of the inner space is decreasing. So the teat cup 15 is moving vertically downwards due to gravity, while the first bellow 11 is contracting and the second bellow 13 is expanding. When the teat 39 is released the manipulating arm 3 may continue to an other teat for repetition of the procedure.

Figure 2a shows a perspective view of a device 101 according to a second embodi- ment of the invention. In this embodiment a manipulating arm 103 of a robot, having a gripper 105 for holding the device 101, is manoeuvring the device 101 to a de- sired position below an udder 107 of an animal upon commencement of a teat cleaning- or a milk sampling operation. The determination of the desired position is accomplished by means of not shown sensors which function is well known in the art and thus not part of the invention.

The device 101 comprises a rigid body 109, intended to be gripped and manoeuvred by said gripper 105, an expandable and contractible wall member 111, and a teat treating member, such as teat cup 115 from which a hose 121 is debouching. The rigid body 109 is substantially tubular and hollow with not shown upper and lower openings and is mainly coaxially arranged about the longitudinal axis of the teat cup 115.

The wall member 111 is seahngly attached to an upper circumferential portion of the rigid body 109, so as to enclose the upper opening, and attached to an upper cir- cumferential portion of the teat cup 115. The latter attachment also improves the lateral stability of the teat cup 115. The hose 121 is slidably and seahngly attached to a sealing bearing means 122 disposed in the lower opening of the rigid body 109. The wall member 111 is preferably made from rubber or any other suitable expandable and contractible material. The wall member 111 comprises an accordionlike bellow 111 having annular crinkles. The wall member 111 will from now on be referred to as the bellow 111.

The rigid body 109 is together with the teat cup 115, the sealing bearing means 122 and said bellow 111, defining an inner space 110 or a sealed cavity, which volume may be pressurised by means of a gaseous medium supplied thereto, e.g. compressed air. To this end a compressed-air supplying means 127, connected to a not shown compressed air supply, is provided on the manipulating arm 103 of the robot and is with the aid of valve means 129a-b connected to said inner space 110.

The valve means 129a-b is preferably of a dockable type, i.e. comprising a first 129a and a second 129b valve part, where the first valve part 129a is disposed on the manipulating arm 103 while the second valve part is disposed in a wall of the rigid body 105. When the gripper 105 grips the rigid body 109 the first and second valve parts will mutually cooperate and the inner space 110 is simultaneously fluidly connected to the compressed air supply. Said wall is also provided with valve means 131 for evacuation of compressed air from the inner space 110 and for venting ambient air into the inner space 110. The supply of compressed air as well as said evacuation and venting are controlled by not shown control means, such as a computer.

The hose 121 is basically a covering shell and comprises liquid supplying means

133 for supplying said teat cup 115 with cleaning liquid, drainage means 135, such as a hose or a pipe, for drainage of cleaning liquid during the cleaning operation and vacuum supplying means 137 for providing said teat cup 115 with and underpressure, which under-pressure serve to facilitate evacuation of drainage liquid but also for extraction of milk if desired.

The bellow 111 enables a vertical elevation of the teat cup 115 when the inner space 110 is pressurised, so as to facilitate a correct attachment and detachment of the teat cup 115 prior to respective after a cleaning operation, but also to resihently hold the teat cup 115 onto a teat 139 during said cleaning operation, so as to avoid an unintentionally detachment

The attachment is proceeded by raising the teat cup 115 in relation to the rigid body 109, from a first position, in which position the teat cup 115 is located below the teat 139 and the bellow 111 is substantially contracted to a second position, in which position the teat 139 is inserted in the teat cup 115 and the bellow 111 is substantially expanded. The detachment is proceeded by lowering the teat cup 115 in relation to the rigid body 109 from said second position to said first position. This procedure is more exhaustively described below in connection with Fig. 2b-c. Fig. 2b-c show a schematic side view of the device 101 according to the second embodiment of the invention. The manipulating arm 103 of the robot is in Fig. 2b holding the device 101 below the teat 139 to be cleaned prior to commencement of the teat cleaning operation. This is the aforementioned first position and the inner space 110 of the device 101 is not pressurised, i.e. having the same pressure as the ambient. The bellow 111 is in this situation, as said before, substantially contracted.

By providing said inner space 110 with pressurised air, which occurs in Fig. 2c, the pressure of the inner space 110 increases due to the closed cavity situation. When the pressure increases the bellow 111 will start to expand. As the bellow 111 is expanding the teat cup 115 and the hose 121, sliding in said sealing bearing means, is vertically elevated in relation to the rigid body 109.

Consequently, there is an axial movement, i.e. a vertical movement of the teat cup relative the rigid body 109 and thus also to the manipulating arm. The elevation continues as long as compressed air is supplied to the inner space 110 and as long there is remaining expandable capacity of the accordionlike bellow 111, or if an upper surface of the teat cup 115 comes in contact with the udder 107 of the animal.

When the teat cup 115 comes in contact with the udder 107 further elevation is prevented and the teat may be considered as being inserted. The teat cleaning operation or the milk sampling operation can now commence. In this situation the bellow 111 exhibits a substantially funnel like shape. This shape improves the stability in the lateral directions. If the animal, during said operations, moves a little bit, e.g. changing it's centre of gravity, the teat cup 115 would not be unintentionally detached. Since the bellow 111 is crinkled and flexible, it will tilt in its lateral directions in relation to the rigid body thereby mamtaining a correct attachment of the teat cup 115 onto the teat. If the animal is curtsying the bellow 111 will absorb the associated movement in the vertical direction due to the pressurised inner space 110. When the operation is completed the compressed air is evacuated from the inner space 110 the pressure of the inner space is decreasing. Now the teat cup 115 is moving vertically downwards due to gravity, while the bellow 111 is contracting. When the teat 139 is released the manipulating arm 103 may continue to an other teat for repetition of the procedure.

Even though the invention has been described using only one teat cup it is of course also conceivable to adapt the device using more than one teat cup performing any of said operations simultaneously. The teat treating member may not only constitute a teat cup comprising cleaning means for cleaning a teat, but may also constitute a teat cup comprising milk extracting means.

Instead of using the aforementioned dockable valve means for supplying compressed air to the inner space, compressed air can be supplied to the inner space by means of any prior art solutions known to a skilled person.

The expandable and contractible wall members may instead of being made from accordionlike walls be made from a material with an internal elasticity making it expandable and contractible.

The second wall member can be made of different materials in different portion of the wall member. If the hose for example more or less rests against one particular portion of the second wall member causing the wall member to deflect, the portion can be made of a material with a greater stiffness for neutralising this deflection.

To simplify that the teat cup, in the first embodiment, is achieving a correct rest position inside the rigid body, the rigid body may be provided with a guide means in the form of an annular and funnel shaped flange extending vertically in the longitudinal direction of the teat cup. During contraction of the first bellow the teat cup is guided by shding into the correct rest position without getting stuck on, e.g. an annular edge of the lower opening of the rigid body. The bellows may be provided with circumferential stiffening elements, such as annular rings of steel disposed in the crinkles. These rings enhances a vertical expansion and contraction of the bellows without reducing the flexibility in the lateral di- rections.

Since a second bellow is lacking in the second embodiment, the demands on the hose may be different. It may be more flexible so as to maintain the desired tiltabil- ity of the teat cup to avoid an unintentionally detachment.

Claims

1. A device (1; 101) for fitting and resiliently holding at least one teat treating member onto an animal teat (39; 139) during a teat cleaning or milk sampling op- eration, each teat treating member comprising a substantially rigid body (9; 109) intended to be attached to a manipulating arm (3; 53) of a robot for placing said device (1; 101) below the teat (39; 139) to be treated and a teat cup (15; 115) having drainage means (35; 135) and being supported by the rigid body (9; 109), characterised in that said teat cup (15; 115) is resiliently supported by the rigid body (9; 109) by means of at least one expandable and contractible wall member

(11; 111) attached to the teat cup (15; 115) and to the rigid body (5; 105) such that an inner space (10; 110) is formed therebetween, the volume of which being variable by varying the pressure of a gaseous medium supplied to said inner space (10; 110), whereby the teat cup (15; 115) is movable essentially in its axial direction relative the rigid body (9; 109) from a first position in which the teat cup (15; 115) is located below the teat (39; 139) and in which said wall member (11; 111) is contracted, to a second position in which the teat (39; 139) is inserted into the teat cup (15; 115) and in which said wall member (11; 111) is expanded.

2. Device according to claim 1, wherein said rigid body (9; 109) is substantially tubular and hollow and mainly coaxially arranged about the longitudinal axis of the teat cup (15; 115), such that the teat cup (15; 115) is movable in its axial direction within said rigid body (9; 109) during said expansion and contraction.

3. Device according to claims 1-2, wherein said wall member (11; 111) is attached to an upper part of said teat cup (15; 115).

4. Device according to any of the claims 1-3, wherein said teat cup (15; 115) comprises cleaning means for cleaning the teats.

5. Device according to any of the claims 1-4, whereby means are provided for supplying said inner space (10; 110) with an over pressure and means for controlling said over pressure.

6. Device according to any of the claims 1-5, wherein said drainage means (35) is debouching from the inner space (10) while being resiliently supported by the rigid body (9) by means of a second expandable and contractible wall member (13) attached to the rigid body (9) and to the drainage means (35).

7. Device according to claim 6, wherein said first wall member (11) has a larger expandable capacity than the second wall member (13).

8. Device according to claim 6 or 7, wherein said first and second wall members (11, 13) are so arranged, that when said first wall member (11) is substantially expanded the second wall member (13) is substantially contracted and vice verse.

9. Device according to any of the claims 1-5, wherein said drainage means (135) is debouching from the inner space (110) while being slidably and sealingly attached to the rigid body (109) by means of sealing bearing means (122).

10. Device according to any of claims 1-9, wherein at least one of said first and second wall members (11, 13; 111) comprise an accordionlike bellow (11, 13; 111).