Poultry housing installation comprising a pull-operated door

Abstract

The invention relates to a door (6) which, during use, is intended for selectively closing the passage area of a poultry housing installation (1), the door comprising a hanging curtain which has horizontal slats (7, 8) hingedly connected to one another and which can be selectively lowered into a closed position closing a door opening or raised into an open position clearing the door opening. According to the invention, the slats (7, 8) are connected to one another by spacer elements (9) and run along guide brackets (11) in such a manner that the guide brackets (11) define a curved path along which the slats (7, 8) move between the closed position and the open position of the door (6). The invention also relates to a poultry housing installation (1) comprising such a door.

Description

[0001] November 25, 2024

[0002] 85995-0012-PWO

[0003] Applicant: Franz Josef Kühlmann, Niedern 112a, 48612 Horstmar

[0004] Poultry farming facility with pull-down door

[0005] Description:

[0006] The invention relates to a door for a poultry housing system and to a poultry housing system equipped with such a door. Poultry housing systems include facilities for adult animals, but also chick rearing facilities.

[0007] In practice, poultry housing systems are known whose doors have two upright sides connected by horizontal bars. The sides are made of plastic, and the bars are designed as plastic profiles with a cross-section that deviates from a perfect circle, thus ensuring that the bars are securely mounted to the sides without twisting.

[0008] The invention is based on the objective of improving a generic door in such a way that it enables the most cost-effective and simultaneously mechanically stable design possible. Furthermore, the invention is based on the objective of providing a poultry housing system that can be designed to be particularly cost-effective and allows the door to be driven with low energy consumption.

[0009] Features of the invention are specified in claims 1 and 13. Embodiments are the subject of the dependent claims. In other words, the invention proposes not to have the struts interlock directly by means of a special profile, but rather to connect them to one another using spacers. This allows for a low weight of the blind, so that the blind requires little drive energy to move from its lowered closed position to a raised open position. Furthermore, the struts are movable along a predetermined path by running on guide brackets. At least two guide brackets are arranged side by side at a distance, and the struts follow the path of the guide brackets during their back-and-forth movements between the open and closed positions.In comparison to running the curtain in U-shaped guide grooves at both lateral ends, the invention, according to the door's design, allows for greater tolerances regarding the length of the individual struts. Furthermore, a particularly cost-effective design of the guide elements is facilitated by the fact that no profile strip with a U-shaped cross-section needs to be deformed according to the desired guide track curve. Instead, a readily available semi-finished bar with virtually any cross-section, e.g., a flat bar or the like, can be bent into a guide bracket with minimal effort.

[0010] In one embodiment, the guide brackets are designed as wire brackets, particularly with a circular cross-section. This allows, firstly, the use of particularly inexpensive semi-finished products for manufacturing the guide brackets, and secondly, particularly simple processing of these semi-finished products, since, due to the circular cross-section, a specific alignment or positional orientation of the semi-finished product does not need to be observed.

[0011] In one embodiment, the spacers not only serve to connect the individual struts and maintain them at a defined distance from each other, but they also act as sliding elements, allowing the struts to run on the guide brackets. For this purpose, each spacer has a guide clamp that engages a guide bracket.

[0012] In one embodiment, the guide clip can be designed as a closed eye, with which the spacer is threaded onto the guide bracket. However, in a preferred embodiment, the guide clip has an open cross-section, forming a clip so that it can be clipped onto the guide bracket transversely to its longitudinal direction, thus positively engaging it. In this way, for mounting a spacer, both during the manufacture of the poultry housing system and later during any necessary repairs, it is not necessary to expose one end of the guide bracket; the spacer can be placed on the guide bracket at virtually any point. In one embodiment, the spacers are made of plastic. This enables quiet operation of the door due to an acoustic damping effect between the struts and the spacers.Furthermore, this allows for quiet and low-resistance movement of the spacers on the guide brackets. Finally, the elasticity of the plastic material also enables the aforementioned clip function when mounting the spacers to the guide brackets.

[0013] In one embodiment, the struts are designed as metallic tubes, for example, galvanized steel tubes. This also allows the use of inexpensive semi-finished products, namely standard tubes that simply need to be cut to the appropriate length. Due to their tube geometry, the struts exhibit high bending stiffness, so that the wall thickness of the struts can be kept as low as possible, and the struts—and thus the entire door curtain—have a correspondingly low weight, resulting in less energy required for operation.

[0014] The spacers are designed so that they can be connected to each other without additional fasteners or tools, simplifying and quickly enabling the installation or subsequent replacement of individual spacers within a door curtain. For this purpose, the spacers in this design have two corresponding connections along their length, i.e., in the direction of door movement. This corresponding design allows two identical spacers to be connected one after the other, in the direction of the curtain's movement.

[0015] The two connections can, for example, be provided at their two opposite ends of the spacers; alternatively, it can also be provided that the spacers overlap over a certain area, so that at least one of the two connections of a spacer can be arranged at a distance from one end of the spacer.

[0016] The door curtain's multiple struts feature a so-called lower strut, namely the one closest to the floor when the door is in its closed position. In one embodiment, this lower strut is heavier than the average weight of the struts, thus acting as a counterweight that pulls the curtain downwards. In this design, the guide rails are positioned so that the heavier lower strut is lower than the other struts when the door is in its open position. Consequently, closing the door requires very little drive energy, as the curtain simply needs to be lowered in a controlled manner and then moved into its closed position by gravity.

[0017] In one embodiment, the guide bars are essentially L-shaped. They have an upright section that extends to the lower end of the guide bar, or begins at this lower end and extends upwards. From this upright section, the guide bar continues in an arc and transitions into a horizontal section that rises from the arc. In this way, the horizontal sections of two adjacent guide bars form a kind of inclined ramp on which the stays rest when the door is in its open position. Due to its own weight, the curtain is inclined to slide down this inclined ramp, so that the door can be moved into its closed position with minimal effort.

[0018] In one embodiment, the guide brackets extend from a lower to an upper end and are angled near their upper end to form a hook-in section. This hook-in section allows a guide bracket to be mounted to a suitable support element of a poultry housing system without tools. In the simplest case, the hook-in section can be achieved by simply angling the guide bracket so that its downward-angled end can be hooked into a hole in the support element from above. For example, strips with holes can be arranged below a floor that forms the lower boundary of the bottom level of the poultry housing system and is located above the floor on which the poultry housing system is placed, with each hole serving to receive a hook-in section of a guide bracket.

[0019] In a particularly advantageous embodiment, the mounting section has at least two angled sections, allowing the guide bracket to be attached to a support element from below rather than from above. For example, the mounting section can be approximately Z-shaped by means of these two angled sections, so that it can first be inserted into a bore from below and then pivoted by about 90° to secure this end of the guide bracket against falling. The ability to attach the guide bracket to the support element from below allows it to be connected directly to existing supports of a frame-type poultry housing system, such as the lower supports that hold the aforementioned floor of the poultry housing system. In this case, the strips mentioned above are therefore not required as additional elements.The guide brackets are located below the supports, allowing the door curtain to run smoothly on them. In one embodiment, the hanging section has four angled sections and runs in the shape of a downward-facing U-shape, with portions of the horizontal section of the guide bracket attached to both ends. The guide bracket is threaded into two bores of a support element such that the two parallel sections of the U-shape are located within the two bores. This arrangement, unlike using only a single bore, avoids the need for a pivot bearing around which the guide bracket would be movable, thus securing the guide bracket against lateral movement.

[0020] The spacers ensure that adjacent struts are spaced apart, creating a gap between each pair of struts. In one design, the two lowest gaps are closed. The specific design of the closure depends on which animals or objects are to be prevented from passing through the door, even when it is closed. For example, if the poultry house is used as a chick-rearing facility, the closure can be a solid panel or a sufficiently fine-mesh net or grid to be "chick-proof."Since the superimposed struts of the door and, accordingly, the height of the spaces between them are fundamentally designed to ensure that the door has a locking effect in its closed position, for example to prevent adult poultry from passing through the door, the aforementioned locking mechanism is not only located in the lowest space between the lower and the next adjacent strut, but at least also in the space above it.

[0021] A poultry housing system according to the invention has a walking area located below the aforementioned walking floor and extending to the ground on which the poultry housing system is erected. This walking area can be optionally closed off or opened to the surroundings by means of a door designed according to the invention as described above.

[0022] Assuming a standard rectangular floor plan for the poultry housing system, the door is located on one side of the running area. In one embodiment, a similar door is also located on the opposite side of the poultry housing system.

[0023] In this case, a particularly economical design of the poultry housing system is facilitated by the fact that both opposing doors can be moved simultaneously by a common drive. The movement is transmitted from a drive motor via a winding shaft, with a flexible pull element running from each door to the winding shaft. Depending on the direction of rotation of the winding shaft, this respective pull element is either wound onto or unwound from the shaft. During winding, the curtain of the respective door is pulled towards the winding shaft, thus moving the door from its closed position to the open position. Depending on its design, the flexible pull element can also transmit thrust forces. A flexible pull element, which can essentially only transmit tensile forces, can be used for particularly economical operation.When the pull element is unwound from the winding shaft, the door curtain can therefore be moved into its closed position by moving the curtain, with a suitable design of the guide brackets, solely due to its own weight and gravity, as far away from the winding shaft as the unwound length of the pull element allows.

[0024] Depending on the arrangement of the drive elements, it is possible to ensure that a rotation of the winding shaft causes one door to move into the closed position and the opposite door to move into the open position. In this way, the two opposing doors can be opened and closed alternately and in opposite directions, for example, to allow access from the walkway either into a hall or to the outside when the poultry house is located at the edge of a building. In one embodiment, however, the two doors are connected to the common winding shaft in such a way that when the winding shaft is rotated, they are either both closed or both opened simultaneously.

[0025] In one embodiment, the poultry housing system features the aforementioned horizontal beams, which support a walking floor and define the upper boundary of the walking area beneath. The height of the walking area is determined by the supports, which hold the beams at a distance from the ground on which the housing system rests. In this embodiment, the guide rails are essentially L-shaped. At the lower end of each upright section, the guide rails are attached to a support, and at their opposite ends, they are attached to one of the beams. This allows for quick and easy assembly of the guide rails and, by minimizing assembly costs, contributes to a more economical design of the poultry housing system in terms of its acquisition costs.

[0026] The invention thus relates in a first aspect to a door which is intended for use in the selective closure of the running area of ​​a poultry farming facility, with a curtain which has articulated horizontal struts connected to each other, and which can be selectively lowered into a closed position closing a door opening or raised into an open position releasing the door opening, wherein the struts are connected to each other by spacers and run on guide brackets in such a way that the guide brackets define a path curve along which the struts run between the closed and the open position of the door.

[0027] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the guide brackets are designed as wire brackets.

[0028] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the spacers each have a guide clamp which encompasses a guide bracket.

[0029] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the guide clamp is designed as a clip in such a way that it can be attached to the guide bracket transversely to the longitudinal direction of a guide bracket and engages it in a form-fitting manner.

[0030] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the spacers are made of plastic.

[0031] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the struts are designed as metallic tubes.

[0032] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the spacers in the longitudinal direction of a guide bracket have two correspondingly designed connections, such that two identical spacers in the longitudinal direction of the guide bracket can be connected to each other without tools.

[0033] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the so-called lower strut, which forms the lowest of the struts of the door in its closed position, has a greater weight than the average weight of the struts, and that the guide brackets are designed in such a way that, in the open position of the door, the lower strut is arranged lower than the other struts.

[0034] Furthermore, the invention can be configured such that the guide brackets are essentially L-shaped, with an upright section extending to the lower end of the guide bracket and a horizontal section that connects to the upright section in an arc and rises from the arc. Furthermore, the invention can be configured such that the guide brackets each extend from a lower to an upper end and are angled near their upper end in such a way as to form a hook-in section, which enables tool-free mounting of this upper end to a support element of a poultry housing system.

[0035] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the suspension section runs in the shape of a U open downwards.

[0036] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the spaces between the lower strut and the nearest neighboring strut, as well as at least one further adjacent strut, are closed by lamellae.

[0037] In a further aspect, the invention relates to a poultry housing system with a running area extending downwards to the floor, which can be optionally closed off or opened to the surroundings by means of a door, wherein the door is designed as described above.

[0038] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that a door is arranged on each of two opposite sides of the poultry housing facility.

[0039] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that both opposing doors are each connected to a common winding shaft via a flexible pull element, such that both doors can be operated simultaneously by rotating the winding shaft.

[0040] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the two doors are connected to the common winding shaft in such a way that they are opened or closed simultaneously by rotating the winding shaft.

[0041] Furthermore, the invention can be designed in such a way that the guide bars are essentially L-shaped, wherein horizontally extending supports, which support a running floor of the poultry housing system and limit the running area upwards, are held at a distance from the ground by means of supports, and wherein the guide bars are each held in their lower area on a support and in the area of ​​their respective other end on one of the supports.

[0042] Further features, details and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the wording of the claims and from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the drawings. The drawings show:

[0043] Fig. 1 a perspective view of a poultry farming facility, Fig. 2 on a larger scale than Fig. 1 the lower area of ​​the poultry farming facility,

[0044] Fig. 3 shows a view obliquely from below of the lower area of ​​the poultry housing facility, and Fig. 4 shows components from the lower area of ​​the poultry housing facility in an expanded view.

[0045] Fig. 1 shows a poultry farming facility 1, wherein the illustrated embodiment can only form one segment of a larger poultry farming facility, which has several floors on top of each other and can have several such segments arranged side by side in a row.

[0046] The exemplary embodiment of the poultry housing system 1 is designed as a frame consisting of metallic profile elements and erected on a base 3 by means of vertical supports 2. A lower level of the poultry housing system 1 is formed by several horizontally oriented beams 4 arranged at intervals and parallel to one another. This level, which forms the floor of the lowest level of the poultry housing system 1, is located at a distance above the base 3, so that a walking area 5 is created between the beams 4 and the base 3, within which the poultry can walk on the base 3. The walking area 5 can be closed off from the surroundings by means of two opposing doors 6, whereby in the illustration of Fig. 1 the door 6 shown on the right is in its open position and the door 6 shown on the left is in its closed position.

[0047] A lower strut 7 of the door 6 shown on the left runs at such a small distance above the floor 3 that the intended closing action of the door 6 is not impaired. This so-called lower strut 7 is the lowest of all struts 7 and 8 of the door 6 and is so named because, in the closed position of the door 6, it lies lower than the other struts 8. Accordingly, the strut 8 furthest from this lower strut of the same door 6 is referred to as the upper strut.

[0048] The lower strut 7 and the remaining struts 8 of the door 6 are each designed as a metallic tube, with the lower strut 7 being heavier than the remaining struts 8, for example, due to the material used, such as steel instead of aluminum, and / or due to its comparatively larger diameter and / or its comparatively greater wall thickness compared to the remaining struts 8. The struts 7 and 8 are connected to each other by spacers 9 to form a curtain that, instead of a rigid door leaf and similar to a roller shutter, can be raised to the open position and lowered to the closed position. The spacers are designed as molded plastic parts and are clipped together in such a way that they connect to each other in a pivotal manner. The door 6 is driven by a winding shaft 10, which is connected to the curtain of the door 6 via a pull element such as a belt, a rope, or the like.

[0049] Fig. 2 shows that the curtain of a door 6 runs on several guide brackets 11. The guide brackets 11 are each designed as bent wire sections and are essentially L-shaped, with an upright section 12 that is inserted into a foot fitting 14. The foot fitting 14 is a molded plastic part and is mounted on a support 2. At the upper end of the upright section 12, the guide brackets 11 each curve by approximately 90° and transition into a horizontal section 15. Compared to the horizontally extending support 4, it can be seen that the horizontal section 15 of a guide bracket 11 rises slightly from the curve and forms a hook section 16 near its free end, the so-called upper end.

[0050] The suspension section 16 is formed by four bends in the wire and is shaped like a downward-facing U. The support 4 is formed by an I-profile made of steel, with a horizontal cross-sectional portion (band) at the top and a horizontal one at the bottom, and an upright cross-sectional portion (web) running between them. The lower band has several holes so that the suspension section 16 of each guide bracket 11 can be threaded into any two of the holes, thus holding the guide bracket 11 securely and in a defined orientation on the support 4.

[0051] Fig. 2 further shows that the supports 2 are partially concealed by the door 6 shown on the left, namely by louvers 17. The louvers 17 close the gaps between adjacent struts 7 and 8 of the door 6. In the illustrated embodiment, the louvers 17 are designed as fully enclosed surface elements, namely in the form of sheet metal strips, which are sufficiently robust to ensure a long service life, even considering the curiosity of the poultry. However, in contrast to the illustrated embodiment, the louvers 17 can also be made of a different material, e.g., plastic, or they can be designed not as solid panels but as perforated sheet metal, mesh, or the like, or they can be made not of a rigid material but of a deformable material, e.g., a textile.The slats 17 serve to reliably ensure the closing effect of the lower area of ​​the door 6, even if the distance between adjacent struts 7 or 8 is comparatively large in relation to the poultry, as may be the case, for example, in chick rearing facilities.

[0052] For economic reasons, different spacers 9 are not used, so that the doors 6 do not have different numbers of struts 8 with a correspondingly smaller distance between them, in order to ensure the desired closing effect of the door 6 even for small poultry. Instead, the louvers 17 can be mounted on a door 6 as needed, so that the doors 6 can be manufactured in a standardized design and always using the same spacers 9.

[0053] Fig. 3 shows a perspective view from below of the poultry housing system 1. It can be seen that the supports 4 carry a walking floor 18, which forms the floor surface of the lowest level of the poultry housing system 1. The winding shaft 10 is rotatably mounted and driven at one end by a drive motor (not shown). Particularly evident from the door 6 shown on the right, it can be seen that the individual spacers 9 not only hold the individual struts 8, but also have a guide clip 19 with which they each engage a guide bracket 11, allowing them to run along the longitudinal extent of the guide bracket 11. Since the spacers 9 are made of plastic, they run on the respective guide bracket 11 with low frictional resistance and without the need for additional lubricants.

[0054] Fig. 4 shows some of the aforementioned elements of the poultry housing system 1 in an expanded view. The guide clips 19 on the spacers 9 are visible, as are the base plates 20, which are mounted at the lower end of the supports 2 and are height-adjustable by means of adjusting screws 21, so that the frame of the poultry housing system 1 can be leveled on the ground 3, e.g., so that all supports 4 run exactly horizontally. This ensures that the horizontal sections 15 of the guide brackets 11 run diagonally downwards from the mounting section 16 to the vertical section 12. The comparatively higher weight of the respective lower struts 7 ensures that the movement of the door 6 into the closed position can be achieved solely by following the direction of rotation of the winding shaft 10, and that the actual drive of the door 6 is provided by gravity.The use of external energy is therefore minimal when closing the door 6 and is particularly necessary when opening the door 6 if, with the winding shaft 10 rotating in the opposite direction, the curtain of the door 6 has to be lifted and the struts 7 and 8 run upwards with the guide clips 19 of the spacers 9 on the guide brackets 11.

[0055] The invention is not limited to one of the embodiments described above, but can be modified in a variety of ways. All features and advantages arising from the claims, the description, and the drawings, including design details, spatial arrangements, and process steps, can be essential to the invention both individually and in various combinations. Reference numerals: poultry housing system, support, floor, beam, running area, door, lower strut, additional struts, spacer, winding shaft, guide bracket, upright section, foot fitting, horizontal section, hanging section, slat, running floor, guide clip

Claims

Patent claims 1. Door (6), which is intended for use as a selective closure of the running area of ​​a poultry housing system (1), with a curtain having articulated horizontal struts (7, 8) and which can be selectively lowered into a closed position closing a door opening or raised into an open position releasing the door opening, characterized in that the struts (7, 8) are connected to each other by spacers (9) and run on guide brackets (11) in such a way that the guide brackets (11) define a path along which the struts (7, 8) run between the closed and open positions of the door (6).

2. Door according to claim 1, characterized in that the guide brackets (11) are designed as wire brackets.

3. Door according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the spacers (9) each have a guide clip (19) which engages a guide bracket (11).

4. Door according to claim 3, characterized in that the guide clip (19) is designed as a clip such that it can be attached to the guide bracket (11) transversely to the longitudinal direction of a guide bracket (11) and engages it in a form-fitting manner.

5. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the spacers (9) are made of plastic.

6. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the struts (7, 8) are designed as metallic tubes.

7. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that that the spacers (9) in the longitudinal direction of a guide bracket (11) have two correspondingly designed connections such that two identical spacers (9) in the longitudinal direction of the guide bracket (11) can be connected to each other without tools.

8. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the so-called lower strut (7), which forms the lowest of the struts (7, 8) of the door (6) in its closed position, has a greater weight than the average weight of the struts (7, 8), and that the guide brackets (11) are designed in such a way that, in the open position of the door (6), the lower strut (7) is arranged lower than the other struts (8).

9. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the guide brackets (11) are substantially L-shaped, with an upright section (12) extending to the lower end of the guide bracket (11), and with a horizontal section (15) which connects to the upright section (12) in an arc and extends upwards from the arc.

10. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the guide brackets (11) each extend from a lower to an upper end and are angled near their upper end in such a way that they form a suspension section (16) which enables tool-free mounting of this upper end on a support element of a poultry housing system (1).

11. Door according to claim 10, characterized in that the hanging section (16) extends in the form of a downwardly open U.

12. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the spaces between the lower strut (7) and the nearest adjacent strut (8) and at least one further adjacent strut (8) are closed by louvers (17).

13. Poultry housing system (1), with a running area (5) extending downwards to the floor (3), which can be optionally closed off or opened to the surroundings by means of a door (6), characterized in that the door (6) is designed according to one of the preceding claims.

14. Poultry housing facility according to claim 13, characterized in that a door (6) is arranged on each of two opposite sides of the poultry housing facility (1).

15. Poultry housing system according to claim 14, characterized in that both opposing doors (6) are each connected to a common winding shaft (10) via a flexible pull element, such that both doors (6) can be operated simultaneously by rotating the winding shaft (10).

16. Poultry housing system according to claim 15, characterized in that the two doors (6) are connected to the common winding shaft (10) in such a way that they are opened or closed simultaneously by rotating the winding shaft (10).

17. Poultry housing system according to one of claims 13 to 16, characterized in that the guide bars (11) are substantially L-shaped, wherein horizontally extending supports (4) which support a running floor (18) of the poultry housing system (1) and limit the running area (5) upwards are held by means of supports (2) at a distance from the floor (3), and wherein the guide bars (11) are each held in their lower region on a support (2) and in the region of their respective other end on one of the supports (4).

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