Adjustable Poultry Feeder with Dynamic Feed Level Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current poultry feeders lack the ability to easily adjust feed levels and are not easily disassembled for cleaning, which can lead to inefficiencies in feed distribution and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A poultry feeder with a feed pan and grill that can be adjusted between low and high wall positions, featuring a feed level skirt and drop tube with flood windows, and an adjustment ring that allows for multiple feed levels and easy assembly/disassembly without tools, ensuring consistent feed supply and cleanliness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the feeder uses a fixed wall height design, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but it cannot adapt to different growth stages of birds and requires multiple feeders for different levels
Solution Approach 1:
The feeder incorporates an adjustable wall height mechanism that allows the feed pan walls to be repositioned between low and high positions. This dynamic adjustment capability enables the same feeder to serve birds at different growth stages, transitioning from a shallow pan configuration for young chicks to a deeper pan configuration for growing birds, thereby resolving the contradiction between adaptability and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The feed pan is divided into multiple levels with adjustable walls that can be positioned at different heights. This segmentation allows independent adjustment of wall positions to create appropriate feed depths for different bird sizes, enabling one feeder to replace multiple fixed-height feeders while maintaining relatively simple individual component structures.
2Quantity of substance
If the feeder pan is flooded with large amounts of feed, then young birds have sufficient feed access, but feed becomes stale and fouled before consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The adjustable wall height mechanism allows the feeder to provide just the right amount of feed coverage needed at each growth stage - sufficient for young birds to access feed easily, but not excessive to the point of causing staleness. By adjusting walls to appropriate heights, the system delivers partial action (just enough feed) rather than flooding the pan, thereby maintaining feed freshness while ensuring adequate supply.
3Ease of manufacture
If the feeder is designed as a single integrated unit, then manufacturing is simplified, but cleaning requires disassembly of multiple parts which is time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The feeder is designed with separable components including a removable feed pan, adjustable walls, and a base structure. This segmentation allows the feed pan to be easily detached for thorough cleaning while keeping the overall manufacturing process relatively simple through modular design. The separated components can be cleaned independently, significantly improving cleaning accessibility without requiring complex assembly procedures.
4Ease of operation
If the feeder walls are kept low for young bird access, then chicks can easily reach feed, but growing birds cannot access feed as they enlarge
Solution Approach 1:
The adjustable wall height mechanism transforms the static low-wall configuration into a dynamic system that can adapt to changing bird sizes. Young birds benefit from the low wall position that provides easy access, while the same feeder can be reconfigured with higher walls to accommodate growing birds, thereby maintaining ease of operation across different growth stages rather than requiring replacement of feeders.
Data Source
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AI summary
A poultry feeder operable in a winch-up condition where the feeder is positioned off of a floor of the poultry house and in a winch-down condition in which the feeder is position resting on the floor of the poultry house. The poultry feeder defines a first path and a second path for feed to enter the pan, the first path comprising a flood path through the aligned windows in lower drop tube portion and in the feed level skirt, and the second path comprising a path through the aligned spaces between the feed pan and the lower skirt of the feed level skirt and lower tube portion of the drop tube.