Arrangement comprising at least two automated milking parlors
Patent Information
- Application Number
- NZ835886
- Authority / Receiving Office
- NZ · NZ
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2024-02-16
- Filing Date
- 2025-01-17
- Publication Date
- 2025-08-21
AI Technical Summary
Existing automated milking parlors are complex and require significant space, complicating access for repair and maintenance, and are not optimized for efficient sharing of functional components.
An arrangement with an installation corridor beneath the floor plate that houses operationally relevant functional assemblies, allowing easy access and sharing of components between multiple milking parlors, reducing space requirements and downtime.
Facilitates easy maintenance and repair of milking parlor components, reduces downtime, and optimizes space usage by sharing components, thus minimizing overall space and cost.
Smart Images
Figure 1_ABST
Abstract
Description
[0001] Arrangement with at least two automated milking stations
[0002] The invention relates to an arrangement with at least two automated milking stations, each comprising a milking robot and being mounted on a floor plate.
[0003] Milking robots are used in a wide variety of arrangements of automated milking stations for milking milk-producing animals, especially cows. On small farms, single milking stations are often used. By contrast, very large farms often use milking carousels on which some 10 - 100 milking stations are arranged. For medium-sized farms, an arrangement of several adjacent automated milking stations is suitable. Paths and guiding devices for guiding the animals to the milking stations and for returning the animals to the stalls can thus easily be used jointly for a plurality of milking stations.
[0004] Such an arrangement of several automated milking stations, which are mounted side by side in a row, is known, for example, from the publication EP 3 145 295 B1.
[0005] Each automated milking station used has a milking robot which is able to automatically attach a milking device to the teats of the milk-producing animal, whereupon a milking process is automatically started and monitored. An end of the milking process is detected and the milking device is removed and usually also automatically cleaned, so that the milking station is available for a further milking process. Frequently, doors or other closing devices are actuated in coordination with the milking process to give or deny the animals access to the milking station. Furthermore, it can be provided to automatically supply the animals with feed during the milking process.
[0006] In order to be able to perform these functions, each milking station is equipped with a variety of functional components, which require corresponding installation space and accordingly affect the size of the milking station. Milking stations are correspondingly complex, which also makes it difficult to access certain components for repair and / or servicing. It is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement with at least two milking stations that are constructed as repair- and maintenance-friendly as possible and that can be set up on the floor plate with little space requirement.
[0007] This object is achieved by an arrangement having the features of the independent claim. Advantageous configurations and developments are the subject of the dependent claims.
[0008] An arrangement of the aforementioned type according to the invention is characterized in that an installation duct extends below the bottom plate, in which operating-relevant functional assemblies for the at least two automated milking stations are arranged.
[0009] In this way, a part of the components that, according to the prior art, are arranged in the milking stands or even in the milking robot can be relocated externally into the installation duct located below the floor plate. In this installation duct, the operation-relevant functional components are easily accessible for maintenance or repair. In particular, they can also be replaced without much effort with temporarily used replacement components, which keeps the time during which the milking stand cannot be used, the "downtime", as short as possible. Furthermore, there is the possibility of jointly using certain of the operation-relevant functional components that, according to the prior art, are arranged in each milking stand by two or more of the milking stands.
[0010] The milking stations can be arranged along a line, where the line can be, for example, a straight line or have a U-, L- or arc shape. The individual milking stations can each be aligned with the line in a direction transverse to the course of the line, or they can also be arranged offset relative to each other with respect to the line. The installation aisle preferably follows the course of the line in its course.
[0011] In an advantageous embodiment of the arrangement, the installation aisle has walls and a floor and is preferably passable. It can have, for example, a height of at least 1.8 meters and a width of at least 1.0 meters in order to provide convenient access to the operation-relevant functional components. The operation-relevant functional components can be mounted on one of the walls or on both walls of the installation aisle and / or on the underside of the floor plate and / or on a floor of the installation aisle.
[0012] In an advantageous embodiment of the arrangement, the operation-relevant functional components located outside the installation aisle include units with cleaning and maintenance technology, units with milking technology and sensors, at least one milk line and / or at least one milk separator. The cleaning and maintenance technology includes, for example, components that are applied by the milking robot for preparing and processing cleaning liquids or maintenance agents for the teats of the milk-producing animal before, during and / or after the milking process. In a further embodiment, the operation-relevant functional component located outside can also include components for cleaning the milking machine and / or other parts of the milking parlour.
[0013] Furthermore, it can be provided that status indicators for each milking parlour and / or for the entire arrangement are arranged in the installation aisle, which are useful for maintenance or repair purposes.
[0014] At least one unit for cleaning and maintenance technology and / or milk technology and -sensorics can be present separately for each milking station. However, it is also conceivable that a common use of a unit for cleaning and maintenance technology and / or milk technology and -sensorics by at least two milking stations is provided. The common use, which can be realistically implemented by the arrangement of the operation-relevant functional building blocks according to the invention, can save material and thus costs. On the other hand, if each milking station is equipped with the operation-relevant functional building block, the "downtime" in the case of maintenance or repair is reduced.
[0015] In any case, preferably one or more milk pipelines and / or one or more milk separators can be provided for common use by at least two of the milking stations.
[0016] In a further advantageous embodiment of the arrangement, the at least two milking stations each have gates and / or movable and / or pivotable feed troughs. The arrangement can thus be based on milking stations that could also be used as individual milking stations. In particular when the milking stations are constructed in pairs in a mirror-image manner, the space requirement in the arrangement according to the invention is smaller than when individual milking stations are placed side by side, since less space between the milking stations is required for servicing purposes.
[0017] In a further advantageous embodiment of the arrangement, the milking robots of at least two milking stations are configured in the form of dividers, such that a space for milking is defined on both longitudinal sides by the milking robots of adjacent milking stations. In this embodiment, the space occupied by a milk-producing animal during milking is bounded by the milking robot that milks the animal on one side and by the milking robot assigned to the adjacent milking station on the other side. As a result, the distance between the milking robots and thus the milking stations in the longitudinal direction can be kept particularly small, which results in a particularly low space requirement in total for the arrangement of the plurality of milking stations.
[0018] The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to exemplary embodiments with the aid of figures. The figures show:
[0019] Fig. 1 shows a first exemplary embodiment of an arrangement of milking stations according to the invention in a spatial representation;
[0020] Fig. 2 shows two sectional views of the arrangement according to Fig. 1, once without and once with a milk-producing animal drawn in;
[0021] Fig. 3 shows a further sectional view of the arrangement according to Fig. 1;
[0022] Fig. 4 shows a second exemplary embodiment of an arrangement of milking stations according to the invention in a spatial representation;
[0023] Fig. 5 shows two sectional views of the arrangement according to Fig. 4, once without and once with a milk-producing animal drawn in; and
[0024] Fig. 6 shows a further sectional view of the arrangement according to Fig. 4.
[0025] In all figures, like reference numerals designate like or equivalent elements. For the sake of clarity, not every element is provided with a reference numeral in each figure. In the context of the following description, directional terms such as "left", "right", "front" and "back" refer to the figure shown. Terms such as "above" and "below" refer to the natural orientation of the arrangement in space. Figure 1 shows a first exemplary embodiment of an arrangement according to the invention, in which a plurality, here specifically six, milking stands 10 are arranged side by side in a straight line in a first direction on a floor plate 1, typically a concrete plate. This first direction is also referred to hereinafter as the longitudinal direction L of the arrangement.
[0026] Each milking station 10 has a milking robot 11 that can automatically attach a milking device (compare milking device 111 in the embodiment of FIGURE 4), which is not visible in FIGURE 1, to the teats of a milk-producing animal. To operate the milking station 10, in particular the milking robot 11, an operating unit 112 is provided.
[0027] Each milking station 10 has a rectangular floor plan, with the space for the milk-producing animal being approximately in the middle of the milking station 10. This space is demarcated on one long side by the milking robot 11, on the opposite long side by two gates 12, an entrance gate and an exit gate, and towards the cross sides by partition grids 13 or a movable and / or pivotable feed trough 14. Animals enter the milking station 10 through the entrance gate and leave it through the exit gate. The animals thus ultimately move transversely to the longitudinal direction L in a second direction through the arrangement of the milking stations 10. This second direction is drawn as the transverse direction Q in FIGURE 1.
[0028] The milking stations 10 are arranged in pairs, with one of the milking stations 10 and a mirror-image milking station 10 forming a pair together. This paired arrangement has the advantage that the doors 12 of adjacent milking stations 10 open into a common passageway that is used by the animals. On the sides of the milking stations 10 where the milking robots 11 are located and not the doors 12, the milking stations 10 can be placed closer together because there is no animal traffic through these passageways. In the longitudinal direction L, a smaller space requirement is thus needed than in a non-mirror-image paired arrangement. Also, the space requirement in the arrangement according to the invention is smaller than when individual milking stations are placed side by side, since less space between the milking stations is needed for servicing purposes.
[0029] Below the floor plate 1, there is an installation duct 2 with walls 3 and a floor 4 in the longitudinal direction L of the arrangement of the milking stands 10. The installation duct 2 extends in its length (i.e., in the longitudinal direction L) over at least the extent of the arrangement of the milking stands 10. The height and width of the installation duct 2 are chosen such that it is passable for service and maintenance purposes.
[0030] The installation duct 2 is used to accommodate the operation - relevant functional sub - assemblies 20 of the milking stands 10. The operation - relevant functional sub - assemblies 20 and their arrangement in the installation duct 2 are shown in more detail in Figures 2 and 3.
[0031] In Figure 2, a cross-section through the arrangement is shown, that is, a cut in the transverse direction Q. On the left, the milking station 10 is shown without an animal, and on the right with a cow 5 as the milk-producing animal. Figure 3 shows a longitudinal section through the arrangement of the milking stations 10 and the installation aisle 2 along the longitudinal direction L.
[0032] In the illustrated embodiment, these operation-relevant functional components 20 are arranged on one of the walls 3 of the installation aisle 2. An arrangement on the floor 4 or both walls 3 as well as the underside of the floor plate 1 is also conceivable.
[0033] In the example shown, the operation-relevant functional modules 20 include units with cleaning and maintenance technology 21, units with milking technology and -sensors 22, at least one milk line 23, and at least one milk separator 24 with further components, for example, a pump 25 assigned to each milk separator 24. Furthermore, it can be provided that status indicators for each milking station 10 and / or for the entire arrangement are arranged in the installation process 2, which are helpful for maintenance or repair purposes.
[0034] Each unit with cleaning and care technology 21 includes components that are applied, for example, to prepare cleaning liquids for the teat cups of the milking machine 111 and / or the teats themselves before or during the milking process by the milking robot 11. The cleaning liquids are prepared and / or conveyed, for example. Furthermore, it can be provided to treat the teats with care agents, e.g. ointments, after milking. In this case, the units with cleaning and care technology 21 also include components for preparing and applying the care agents. If necessary, there are also sensors that measure the recycled cleaning solution for analysis purposes, for example for disease detection.
[0035] Each unit with milk technology and -sensorics 22 comprises on the one hand control technology for the milking process and on the other hand sensorics for monitoring the milking process and / or the milked milk. The control technology includes, for example, valves, such as shut-off valves, multi-way valves, etc., as well as pulsators that control the vacuum used during milking. The sensors are used, for example, to measure milk quantities, milk flows, milk color, cell counts, conductivity values, milk ingredients, etc. as well as to measure the vacuum.
[0036] According to the prior art, the cleaning and maintenance technology 21 and the milking technology and sensors 22 are arranged in the milking parlour or in the milking robot itself, where on the one hand they are space-intensive and on the other hand they are difficult to access for maintenance and repair purposes. The inventive arrangement of these and further components in the installation duct 2 allows for a more compact design of the milking parlours 10 or the milking robots 11 and easy access to these operation-relevant functional assemblies 20, if possible.
[0037] In the example shown, the cleaning and maintenance technology 21 and the milking technology and sensors 22 are each provided individually for each milking parlour 10 in the installation duct 2. It is also alternatively conceivable, for example, to use one cleaning and maintenance technology 21 for two or more of the milking parlours 10.
[0038] The milking technology and milk sensor 22 delivers the milked milk, usually after separating the milk that can be utilized and the milk to be discarded. Additionally, it can be provided to separately process the calf milk as well. For each type of milked milk, a milk pipeline 23 is provided, which forwards this milk to a milk separator 24.
[0039] Each of the milk pipelines 23 can be configured as a single pipeline or as a header pipeline into which branch pipelines from the units with milk technology and sensors 22 open. The milk pipelines 23 transport a milk / air mixture and are subjected to negative pressure. The respective milk separator 24 then serves to separate the milk from the air. Usually, the aforementioned pump 25 is assigned to each milk separator 24, which pressurizes and further conveys the milk. Through the installation passage 2, it is advantageously possible to commonly use the milk separator 24 or milk separators provided for the different milk types by several, in the example shown all milking stations 10.
[0040] Due to the pairwise mirror-image configuration of the milking stations 10, within the longitudinal direction of the milking stations 10, which corresponds to the transverse direction Q of the arrangement, the milking robots 11 are all aligned along a line. Accordingly, lines from the milking robots 11 that emerge from the milking robot 11 at the same position (seen in the transverse direction Q) can be easily continued in the installation duct 2, for example, such that without an angular offset, lines from the milking robot 11 can be guided through the floor plate 1 in as straight a line as possible to the operation-relevant functional assemblies 20 that are mounted on the wall.
[0041] Figures 4 to 6 show a second exemplary embodiment of an arrangement according to the invention in the same way as Figures 1 to 3. Figure 4 shows the arrangement in a spatial representation, Figure 5 in two cross-sections in the transverse direction, on the left without, on the right with a cow as the milk-producing animal, and Figure 6 shows the arrangement in a longitudinal section.
[0042] With regard to the basic structure, this second exemplary embodiment corresponds to the first exemplary embodiment, to the description of which reference is hereby explicitly made.
[0043] As in the first exemplary embodiment, a plurality of milking stations 10 are arranged next to each other in a row in a longitudinal direction L on a floor plate 1.
[0044] In contrast to the first embodiment, the milking stations 10 in this embodiment essentially only comprise the milking robot 11, which, due to its shape, acts as a kind of divider between the individual milking stations 10. Or, in other words, the space occupied by an animal, for example the cow 5 shown in FIG. 5, is bounded on one side by the milking robot 11 that milks the animal and on the other side by the milking robot 11 that is assigned to the adjacent milking station 10. If necessary, which is not shown here, the space taken up by the animal during milking can be bounded towards the front by a pivotable door or a pivotable feed trough and / or towards the rear by a pivotable door.
[0045] Another difference from the first exemplary embodiment is that in the present case, all milking robots 11 are identically designed and aligned, and not, as in the first exemplary embodiment, formed and arranged in pairs in a mirror image manner.
[0046] As in the first exemplary embodiment, the installation duct 2 located beneath the floor plate 1 serves to accommodate operation-relevant functional sub-assemblies 20, by way of example again cleaning and maintenance technology 21, milking technology and -sensors 22, milk pipelines 23, milk separators 24 and optionally further components such as pumps 25. These components do not accordingly have to be arranged in the milking stalls 10 or the milking robots 11, which enables a particularly compact and also cost-optimized design of the milking robots 11.
[0047] Furthermore, since the space for each animal 5 during the milking process in the longitudinal direction L is defined only by the milking robots 11, the distance between the milking robots 11 in the longitudinal direction L can be kept particularly small, resulting in a small overall space requirement for the arrangement of the majority of the milking parlors 10. In particular, in contrast to the first embodiment, laterally pivoting gates do not require any additional space in this longitudinal direction L.
[0048] Reference symbol
[0049] 1 base plate
[0050] 2 installation steps
[0051] 3 Wall
[0052] 4 Floor
[0053] 5 animals
[0054] 10 milking parlor
[0055] 11 milking robots
[0056] 111 milking cluster
[0057] 112 Control unit
[0058] 12 goals
[0059] 13 dividing grids
[0060] 14 feeding trough
[0061] 20 operation-related functional subassembly
[0062] 21 cleaning and maintenance technology
[0063] 22 milk technology and sensors
[0064] 23 milk pipeline
[0065] 24 milk separator
[0066] 25 pump
[0067] L first direction (longitudinal direction)
[0068] Q second direction (transverse direction)
Claims
Claims 1. Arrangement with at least two automated milking stations (10), each comprising a milking robot (11) and mounted on a floor plate (1), characterized in that an installation duct (2) extends below the floor plate (1), in which operation-relevant functional sub-assemblies (20) for the at least two automated milking stations (10) are arranged.
2. Arrangement according to Claim 1, in which the milking stations (10) are arranged along a line.
3. Arrangement according to Claim 2, in which the line is a straight line, or has a U-, L- or arc shape.
4. Arrangement according to Claim 2 or 3, in which the installation duct (2) follows the course of the line in its course.
5. Arrangement according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, in which the installation duct (2) has walls (3) and a floor (4).
6. Arrangement according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, in which the installation duct (2) is accessible.
7. The arrangement according to claim 6, wherein the installation aisle (2) has a height of at least 1.8 meters and a width of at least 1 meter.
8. The arrangement according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the operation-relevant functional assemblies (20) are mounted on one of the walls (3) of the installation aisle (2).
9. The arrangement according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the operation-relevant functional assemblies (20) are mounted on the underside of the floor plate (1) and / or the floor (4) of the installation aisle (2).
10. The arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the operation-relevant functional assemblies (20) include units with cleaning and maintenance technology (21), units with milk technology (22), at least one milk pipeline (23) and / or at least one milk separator (24).
11. The arrangement according to claim 10, in which at least one unit for cleaning and maintenance technology (21) and / or milk technology and -sensorics (22) is present separately for each milking station (10).
12. The arrangement according to claim 10 or 11, in which at least one unit for cleaning and maintenance technology (21) and / or milk technology and -sensorics (22) is present for common use by at least two milking stations (10).
13. The arrangement according to any one of claims 10 to 12, in which the at least one milk line (23) and / or the at least one milk separator (24) are provided for common use by at least two milking stations (10).
14. The arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 13, in which the at least two milking stations (10) each have doors (12) and / or movable and / or pivotable feed troughs (14).
15. An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 14, in which the milking robots (11) of at least two milking stations (10) are configured in the form of partitioners, such that a space for milking is defined on both longitudinal sides by the milking robots (11) of adjacent milking stations (10).