Central Milk Conduit Switching for Milking Uptime During Flushing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional milking systems face challenges such as high costs, reduced uptime due to cleaning processes, difficulty in expanding capacity, and inefficiencies in milk conduit management, leading to potential downtime and animal waiting times.
Innovation Solution
A milking system with two central milk conduits and a milk flow controller that allows switching between active and inactive conduits for milk discharge and flushing, along with a central liquid supply conduit for modular cleaning, enabling efficient milk transport and maintenance without interrupting operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional milking systems use a single milk conduit, then the system structure is simple, but cleaning requires temporary shutdown reducing uptime
Solution Approach 1:
The single milk conduit is segmented into multiple parallel conduits (first central milk conduit and second central milk conduit), allowing independent cleaning of each conduit while others remain operational, thereby maintaining system uptime during maintenance
Solution Approach 2:
Different conduits are assigned different functional states (active vs. inactive) at different times, allowing localized cleaning operations without affecting the overall system operation, enabling maintenance without shutdown
2Productivity
If individual milk conduits are provided for each milking device, then milk transport efficiency is improved, but the number of components increases leading to higher costs and maintenance requirements
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple milking devices are merged into shared central milk conduits, reducing the total number of individual components while maintaining efficient milk transport through centralized collection points and bulk transport infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The central milk conduits serve multiple functions: transporting milk from multiple devices, enabling centralized cleaning operations, and providing flexible routing capabilities, thereby reducing overall system complexity while maintaining productivity
3Adaptability or versatility
If the milking system is expanded with more animals, then production capacity increases, but drastic modifications to the milking system are required
Solution Approach 1:
The milking system is designed with dynamic expandability, allowing additional milking devices to be connected to existing central conduits or new conduits to be added without requiring complete system reconfiguration, enabling gradual capacity increases
Solution Approach 2:
The system is segmented into modular units (milking devices, central conduits, milk tanks) that can be independently added or removed, allowing flexible expansion to match herd size increases without drastic modifications
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a milking system provided with central milk conduits, milking parlour provided therewith and method therefor. The milking system according to the invention comprises: - two or more milking devices; - a first central milk conduit connected operatively to the two or more milking devices; - a second central milk conduit connected operatively to the two or more milking devices; - a central liquid supply conduit; - at least one milk tank connected to the first and second central milk conduit; - a milk flow controller configured to switch between the first and the second central milk conduit as an active milk conduit for discharging milk to the at least one milk tank, wherein the other of the first and second central milk conduit is designated as an inactive milk conduit; and - a flushing controller configured to control the flushing of one of the first and/or second central milk conduit which is designated as inactive milk conduit.