Replaceable Milking Cassette for Accurate Milk Sample Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing milking systems face challenges in reliably operating for extended periods in barn environments with unfiltered milk and harmful gases, leading to wear and inaccuracy due to aggressive cleaning substances.
Innovation Solution
A replaceable cassette system with a milking control device, a sampling and analysis device, and a cassette that includes a tape reel with reagent pads, a dosing device, and an optical sensor, where vulnerable parts like the dosing device and tape are exchanged regularly to maintain accuracy and reliability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the sampling and analysis device operates continuously in barn environment with unfiltered milk, then productivity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to wear and contamination from harmful gases and cleaning substances
Solution Approach 1:
The device is divided into a permanent housing and a replaceable cassette module. The cassette contains all components exposed to milk and harsh environment (nozzle, sample line, reagent tape) as separate replaceable units, allowing them to be exchanged without replacing the entire device.
Solution Approach 2:
The cassette module with its exposed components is designed as a consumable item with limited service life. After a certain number of measurements or time period, the cassette is replaced rather than cleaned and maintained, ensuring measurement accuracy without extensive maintenance of sensitive components.
2Measurement precision
If aggressive cleaning substances are used to maintain accuracy, then measurement precision is improved, but the device components suffer increased wear and degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The cassette is designed as a disposable or limited-life component that is replaced rather than repeatedly cleaned. This eliminates cumulative damage from aggressive cleaning substances while maintaining measurement precision throughout the cassette's service life.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of attempting to restore components to original condition through cleaning, the system discards the worn cassette and replaces it with a new one. The permanent housing is recovered and reused, while the consumable cassette is discarded after use.
3Reliability
If the dosing device and reagent tape are made replaceable, then reliability is improved by maintaining accuracy, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The nozzle, sample line, and reagent tape are merged into a single integrated cassette module. This consolidation simplifies the replacement process (one unit instead of multiple components) while maintaining the reliability benefits of replaceable exposed components.
Solution Approach 2:
The permanent housing is designed with universal interfaces to accommodate different cassette types. This allows the same housing to work with various reagent tapes for different analyses, reducing overall system complexity through standardization.
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 maintains reliable and accurate milk analysis by minimizing wear and maintenance through regular exchange of vulnerable parts, ensuring consistent milking control and animal management based on analysis results.
Implementation Method 1
an optical radiation source for emitting optical radiation, and an optical sensor device arranged to detect optical radiation coming from the reagent pad supplied with said droplet of the sample
Data Source
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Figure 2
AI summary
There is provided a milking system, comprising a device to sample and analyse a milk sample, and that comprises a control unit, a sample supply line connected to the milk line, a pump to control the sample flow, an optical radiation source, and an optical sensor device to detect and analyse optical radiation coming from the reagent pad with said sample, to provide an indication of a substance in said sample, a tape mover to move and unwind the tape from the tape reel, and a pump drive, that is external to the cassette, and that is releasably operably connected to the pump device for driving the pump device. The sampling and analysis device also comprises a cassette with a sample receiving line, releasably connected to the sample supply line by means of a liquid connector, and arranged to receive the sample from the sample supply line, a tape reel with a tape that comprises a base tape layer and a series of separate reagent pads, and a dosing device to provide a droplet of the sample onto a reagent pad. The dosing device comprises a nozzle in fluid connection with the sample receiving line, and a nozzle mover arranged to move the nozzle in at least a longitudinal direction. The cassette is replaceably received in the milking system. Hereby, a large number of parts that are subject to wear and contamination by milk residues are exchanged regularly, which improves measurement reliability and accuracy.