Apparatus for dispensing bedding material

Abstract

The application relates to an apparatus configured for dispensing bedding material inside of laboratory cages or boxes for use in research centers. The apparatus comprises a rack supporting, at least one supporting plane, at least one loading hopper, one or more dosing mouths located in the lower part of the loading hopper, a dispensation system adapted to dispense given quantities of bedding material into cages, wherein the dispensation system is configured to slide a sliding block from a resting position where it is open to the loading hopper to a dispensing position where it is open to the supporting plane side for releasing the bedding material into cages via gravity, and at least one lever bar connected to the dispensation system and configured to slide the sliding block from the resting position into the dispending position and back by means of manual agitation.

Description

[0001] APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING BEDDING MATERIAL

[0002] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing bedding material inside of laboratory cages or boxes, for example, in research centers, and to a method of using said apparatus.

[0004] BACKGROUND ART

[0005] In the field of the pharmaceutical preclinical research, and particularly in the field of animal breeding centers and their washing areas, where laboratory animals are bred, it is known that it is necessary to use systems for bedding material dispensation ensuring that the quantity of bedding in the cages is known and repeatable.

[0006] In particular, systems exist which are defined as " tand-alone" systems, wherein the operator, by simply laying the cage onto a table, can fill the cage with a known quantity of bedding. Those systems can be used together with robotic systems for cage handling.

[0007] Some common stand-alone dispensation systems use a single bulk material holding hopper, which can be moved and positioned either into a lower position for loading the bedding, so that an operator can easily load the hopper with the specific bedding, or in an upper position of dispensation, so as to move the dispensation point above the cage supporting plane for filling the cages. The moving mechanism in the common systems is a pneumatic or motor-driven linear lifting mechanism. Other more common systems use auger to move bulk bedding materials from the lower loading hopper to the upper bulk holding hopper where dispensing amounts are drawn from.

[0008] Most common systems use auger-type dispensation systems capable of accurately treating beddings of any kind by motorize action and in standardized amounts.

[0009] The various solutions employed by the apparatuses known in the art suffer from a number of problems that have been known for a long time and have not yet been solved. Especially, in that they all require the use of electrical systems, they utilize mechanical systems like augers which have the side effect of creating more dust from the grinding movements, and they also have issues with ‘bridging’ or jamming or compressing of the granular product together as a result of funneling the material into a smaller aperture for dispensing into narrow cages or boxes causing flow of material to stop, or incorrect amounts to be dispensed. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] It is therefore an object of the present invention to propose an apparatus for dispensing bedding material inside of laboratory cages or boxes, e.g., for use in pharmaceutical preclinical research centers, and a method of using said apparatus, which are intended to overcome all of the above-mentioned drawbacks. More particularly, the present invention concerns a stand-alone dispensation system that is easy to use and can easily be moved to variable locations without the need of electricity, without such augers and mechanical actions that create dust and does not experience the same ‘bridging’ or jamming of material.

[0011] The apparatus may comprise a rack supporting at least one supporting plane and at least one loading hopper, wherein the at least one supporting plane may be adapted to support one or more cages and is located in the middle part of the rack and positioned under a loading hopper. The at least one loading hopper located in an upper part of the rack, and may be adapted to contain and store bedding material to be dispensed into the cages, wherein one or more dosing mouths may be located in the lower part of the loading hopper, and may be adapted to feed bedding material into a dispensation system.

[0012] The dispensation system as described herein is adapted to dispense given quantities of bedding material into cages placed on the supporting plane below the loading hopper by using simple mechanics. The mechanism is easier and does not need any electricity. Thus, handling exact quantities can easily be achieved by this dispensation system, which may be configured to slide a sliding block from a resting position where it is open to the loading hopper to a dispensing position where it is open to the supporting plane side for releasing the bedding material into cages via gravity. At the same time, the sliding block closes the dosing mouths of the loading hoppers by means of the closed upper side at this position. The bedding material opening slides away from the dosing mouths and towards the dispensing position. If the sliding block reaches the dispensing position, the bedding material opening in the sliding block is in coincidence with an opening in a bottom plate of the dispensation system on which the sliding block is slid. Thus, the full content of the bedding material opening in the sliding block can be dispensed through this opening into the cage placed below the loading hopper.

[0013] For this sliding movement, the apparatus further comprises at least one lever bar connected to the dispensation system and configured to slide the sliding block from the resting open position into the dispending position and back by means of manual actuation. The operator can manually operate the system by actuating the lever bar once for each cage or box to be filled with the bedding material. Of course, if the amount of bedding material at one stroke is too less, the procedure can be repeated once or twice or as long as the intended amount of bedding material has been reached. With one lift of the lever bar, one portion with a predefined amount of bedding material can be dispensed in the cage or box. In order to increase the speed of operation, two lever bars or two separate dispensation systems of two loading hoppers may be present in the apparatus as described herein. Then, the operator can fill two cages or boxes at the same time with each of his or her two hands.

[0014] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment and variants thereof and from the annexed drawings, which are supplied merely by way of non-limiting example, wherein:

[0016] FIG. 1 shows an overall perspective view of an embodiment of the apparatus as described herein;

[0017] FIG. 2 describes a front view of the apparatus with the hopper in lower position for refilling;

[0018] FIG. 3 shows as side sectional view of the apparatus showing the lever bar position inside the apparatus;

[0019] Fig. 4 shows a sectional view of the loading hopper including the dispensation system in a closed position for filing the sliding block with bedding material;

[0020] Fig. 5 shows a sectional view of the loading hopper including the dispensation system in an open position for dispensing the bedding material into a cage.

[0021] Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of some parts of the funneling means above the dispensation system.

[0022] In the drawings, the same reference numerals and letters identify the same items or components.

[0023] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0024] Referring now to Fig. 1, the apparatus 1 for dispensing bedding inside of laboratory cages or boxes can be used in research centers, universities, breeding centers and so forth. The apparatus has a rack 3 supporting at least one supporting plane 5 and at least one loading hopper 10. The rack may be on rolls for easily being moveable from room to room. The lower part of the rack is stable enough for holding the upper part of the apparatus, especially, the hopper 10 with the dispensing system included. During the operation of apparatus, the hopper 10 is in upper position as shown in Fig. 1.

[0025] In an embodiment, the apparatus 1 comprises at least one supporting plane 5 adapted to support one or more cages or boxes. In this embodiment, one supporting plane is located in the middle part of the rack 3 and positioned under the loading hopper 10. This configuration is due in the working position so that the operator can place one or two cages or boxes to be filled with bedding material on the suspension plane and below the hopper 10. If more than one cage is filled at the same time, two or more supporting planes may be provided, or one supporting plane may be provided with several separate cage holders.

[0026] According to an embodiment, at least one loading hopper 10 is located in an upper part of the rack, and adapted to contain and storage bedding material to be dispensed into the cages. The bedding material may be granular, chip-like or shaving materials, for example from wood machines or wooden materials which suitably are used for natural bedding materials. Of course, synthetic bedding materials can be used as well in the apparatus as described herein.

[0027] According to an embodiment, the apparatus 1 may further comprise a lifting mechanism (not shown) configured to lower the loading hopper 10 into a lower position for refilling the hopper with bedding material. Referring now to Fig. 2, the apparatus 1 with the loading hopper 10 in a lowered refilling position is shown. In this position, the loading hopper 10 is open at its top side so that bedding material can easily be filled into the lowered hopper 10 by the operator. Generally, a suitable height of the top opening is about 1 meter from the bottom. The lifting mechanism may be a sliding or sliding / rotating mechanism wherein the operator moves the loading hopper 10 at its front handle 12 from the upper position to the lower position. The loading hopper may be guided by holding bars (not shown) and may be rotated in upward position around the supporting plane 5. In order to facilitate the movement, the holding bars may be connected with the rack via springs (not shown) allowing an easy handling of the loading hopper 10 even if it is filled with bedding material. Usually, the spring power acts such that it holds at least the gravity force of the loading hopper during the movement from the upper to the lower position. In this case, any motorization is no longer necessary to lift the hopper from a filling position into a dispensing or working position.

[0028] Fig. 3 shows as side sectional view of an embodiment of the apparatus as described herein, showing the position of the loading hopper 10 and the lever bars 20 inside the apparatus. The lever bars 20 are located at the bottom side of the loading hopper 10 and are part of the dispensation system. The dispensation system and its functioning mechanism is described in greater detail in the following with regard to Figs. 4 and 5.

[0029] Referring now to Fig. 4, the dispensation system 30 is comprised of a bottom plate 31, a top plate 33, a sliding block 32 located between the bottom plate 31 and the top plate 33. The bottom plate 31 and the top plate 33 may be connected with springs 34 at each corner to hold the sliding block 32 in a slidable manner. The sliding block may have a through hole or bedding material opening 35 which can be filled with a defined amount of bedding material when it is placed in coincidence with a loading mouth 15 of the loading hopper 10. In some embodiments, the sliding block is configured to have a mechanism for adapting the size of the bedding material opening and, thus, the quantity of bedding material to be dispensed into a cage or box during one strike of the sliding block.

[0030] The end of the lever bar 25 is rotationally connected with the sliding block, e.g. in this embodiment near the bedding material opening 35. If the lever bar 20 is pushed backwards, it rotates around the shaft 23 and pushes the bedding material opening 35 frontwards until the bedding material opening is in coincidence with the bottom plate opening 36. In this open position of the sliding block, the bedding material may be dispensed through the bottom plate opening into the cage or box (not shown) placed below the loading hopper 10 (cf. Fig. 5).

[0031] An easy rotation of the lever bar 20 by manual agitating it is enough for dispensing a predefined amount of bedding material into the cage. After the dispensing of the bedding material, the sliding block is forced into the closed position again by means of the force of a spring, for example. A motorization is not necessary when using the sliding mechanism rendering the herein described system and apparatus advantageous over the presently used dispensing systems.

[0032] Referring now to Fig. 6, the funneling system located above and below the dispensation system in the loading hopper is shown. This funneling system is based on a funneling action only two directions in a first section and a funneling action in two directions perpendicular to the first direction in a second section of the funneling system. As can be gathered from the perspective view of parts of the apparatus described herein (cf. Fig. 6), one funneling systems is above the dispensation system (not shown) and the second one is below the dispensation system. This unexpectedly solved the troubles with ‘bridging’ in a very simple way.

[0033] In some embodiments, the at least one supporting plane is positioned at a variable level relative to the hopper for allowing the adjustment of an individual operating height for each operator having different preferences for the bet workbench height.

[0034] “At least one" means in the above-described embodiments, that one, two or even more of a means or feature may be provided in the apparatus in the same or similar manner.

[0035] The above-described example of embodiment may be subject to variations without departing from the protection scope of the present invention, including all equivalent designs known to a man skilled in the art. The elements and features shown in the various preferred embodiments may be combined together without however departing from the protection scope of the present invention. From the above description, those skilled in the art will be able to produce the object of the invention without introducing any further construction details.

Claims

CLAIMS1 . An apparatus configured for dispensing bedding material inside of laboratory cages or boxes for use in research centers, comprising: a rack supporting at least one supporting plane and at least one loading hopper, at least one supporting plane adapted to support one or more cages and located in the middle part of the rack and positioned under a loading hopper; at least one loading hopper located in an upper part of the rack, and adapted to contain and storage bedding material to be dispensed into cages; one or more dosing mouths located in the lower part of the loading hopper, and adapted to feed bedding material into a dispensation system; a dispensation system adapted to dispense given quantities of bedding material into cages, wherein the dispensation system is configured to slide a sliding block from a resting position where it is open to the loading hopper to a dispensing position where it is open to the supporting plane side for releasing the bedding material into cages via gravity; at least one lever bar connected to the dispensation system and configured to slide the sliding block from the resting position into the dispending position and back by means of manual agitation.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a lifting mechanism configured to lower the loading hopper into a lower position for refilling the hopper with bedding material.

3. The apparatus according to in claim 2, wherein the loading hopper is rotated around the at least one supporting plane in an upward position during the motion from the upper position into the lower refilling position.

4. The apparatus according to any of the previous claims, wherein the at least one supporting plane is positioned at a variable level relative to the hopper.

5. The apparatus according to any of the previous claims, wherein the sliding block is configured to have a mechanism for adapting the size of the bedding material opening.The apparatus according to any of the previous claims, wherein the loading hopper comprises a funneling system with a two directional funneling action in a first direction in a first section and a two directional funneling action in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction in a second section of the in the lower part of the loading hopper.

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