Milk Analysis Cassette Pads for Stable Automated Milking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing milking systems, particularly in robotic milking, lack an automated system for sampling and analysis that can store multiple reagent pads for long-term use without special handling, maintain chemical stability, and ensure reliable results in a dairy environment.
Innovation Solution
A milking system with a cassette containing an analysis tape that uses adhesive layers with throughgoing holes to separate reagent and priming pads, ensuring reliable chemical separation and long-term stability, using a bonding layer with a support layer to prevent deformation and maintain hole pattern integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If reagent pads are stored for long-term use in an automated system, then productivity is improved through automation, but reliability deteriorates due to chemical instability and degradation of reagents over time
Solution Approach 1:
The analysis pad is divided into separate reagent pad and priming pad components that are bonded together through an adhesive layer with holes. This segmentation allows the reagent to be isolated from environmental factors until use, maintaining chemical stability during long-term storage while enabling automated deployment when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The reagent pad and priming pad are pre-bonded together in a controlled manufacturing environment with proper chemical separation. This preliminary assembly ensures chemical stability during storage, and the pads are ready for immediate use in the automated system without requiring special handling or storage conditions.
2Productivity
If multiple reagent pads are kept available in the system, then productivity is improved through continuous operation, but device complexity increases due to storage and handling requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive layer with holes serves multiple functions: it bonds the reagent pad and priming pad together, maintains chemical separation between them, and allows fluid sample to pass through during analysis. This multi-functionality simplifies the overall device design while enabling continuous operation with multiple pads.
Solution Approach 2:
The adhesive layer acts as a thin film structure that provides both mechanical bonding and fluid permeability. This thin film approach allows multiple pads to be stored in a compact cassette without requiring complex storage mechanisms, reducing device complexity while maintaining productivity.
3Ease of manufacture
If adhesive layer with holes is used to bond pads, then ease of manufacture is improved through simple bonding process, but reliability worsens due to risk of adhesive sticking to liner during peeling
Solution Approach 1:
The support layer acts as an intermediary between the adhesive layer and the external environment. It provides a stable base that prevents the adhesive from sticking to the liner during peeling, ensuring reliable bonding between pads while maintaining the simplicity of the manufacturing process.
Solution Approach 2:
The bonding structure uses a composite of adhesive layer and support layer, where each material is selected for its specific properties. The adhesive provides bonding capability, while the support layer provides dimensional stability and prevents liner adhesion, together ensuring reliable and consistent bonding during manufacture.
4Ease of manufacture
If holes are made in adhesive layer before bonding, then ease of manufacture is improved through simplified process, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to potential misalignment and deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The holes are created in the adhesive layer before bonding the pads together. This preliminary action allows the holes to be formed in a controlled manner on a flat surface, and the subsequent bonding process maintains the hole pattern alignment through the support layer, achieving both ease of manufacture and manufacturing precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system provides reliable, long-term, automated milk analysis with minimal human intervention, maintaining measurement reliability and reducing labor and costs by ensuring consistent fluid flow and chemical separation between pads.
Implementation Method 1
allow sample (milk) fluid to go from the priming pad to the reagent pad, or vice versa. This is achieved by providing an adhesive layer between the two pad types. In order for fluid to be able to pass between the two pad types, there are holes in the adhesive layer.
Implementation Method 2
While removing the first liner, dimensional stability is provided by the support layer.
Data Source
AI summary
A milking system for sampling and analysing milk includes a milking device, a sampling device to extract a milk sample, and an analysis device for the sample. The analysis device includes a cassette with an analysis tape having a carrier layer with separate vertical flow analysis pads, a tape displacer, a sample provision device providing a droplet of the sample to a selected analysis pad, a sensor to sense a response in the analysis pad after provision of the sample, and a control unit. The analysis pads include a reagent pad with a reagent reacting with a predetermined compound in the sample, a priming pad with a priming agent to change a property of the sample that enhances the reaction, and a bonding layer between the reagent pad and the priming pad, and including a first and second adhesive layer, and a support layer therebetween.