Rotatable V-Shaped Bird Holding Mechanism for Injury-Free Grading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for handling and grading living poultry are inefficient, often causing injury and excessive stress due to their design for dead animals, and lack automation, leading to high workforce requirements and unsuitable handling of living birds.
Innovation Solution
A device and system that securely holds birds by their scapula-humeral joint using V-shaped members with adjustable rotation axes to ensure gentle handling and automatic grading, vaccination, and sorting based on weight, incorporating a counterweight mechanism for efficient operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual grading systems are used for living poultry, then workforce requirements are high and handling is intensive, but the systems are not suitable for living birds and cause injury and excessive stress
Solution Approach 1:
The receiving member is divided into multiple V-shaped members that can independently rotate, allowing each segment to adapt to the bird's body shape and size, providing gentle yet secure holding without concentrated pressure points that would cause injury
Solution Approach 2:
The V-shaped members are designed to be rotatable rather than fixed, allowing dynamic adjustment to accommodate birds of different sizes and positions. This dynamic structure adapts to the living bird's movements and anatomy, preventing injury while maintaining secure holding
2Productivity
If automated handling systems designed for dead animals are used, then throughput is increased, but the systems do not consider animal welfare and cause injury
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable V-shaped members provide dynamic adaptation to living birds, allowing the automated system to respond to the bird's anatomy and movements in real-time, preventing injury while maintaining automated throughput efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the geometric parameters of the receiving structure by allowing rotation of V-shaped members, transforming a rigid dead-animal handling structure into a flexible living-animal-friendly configuration that maintains automated operation
3Device complexity
If fixed V-shaped members are used to hold birds, then handling is simplified, but birds of different sizes cannot be accommodated
Solution Approach 1:
The V-shaped members are made rotatable rather than fixed, enabling the same simple mechanism to accommodate birds of varying sizes by adjusting the opening angle and position, maintaining structural simplicity while gaining adaptability
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 allows for efficient, automated handling and grading of poultry while ensuring animal welfare, reducing stress and injury, and enabling higher throughput with precise weight-based sorting and vaccination.
Implementation Method 1
a receiving member rotatably attached to the main member and configured to receive and hold the birds by their scapula-humeral joint in a first position and to release the birds in a second position of the receiving member
Implementation Method 2
incorporating a counterweight mechanism for efficient operation
Data Source
AI summary
The invention provides a device, a system and a method for handling, grading and vaccinating living birds, wherein the device comprises a main member; a receiving member rotatably attached to the main member and configured to receive and hold the birds by their scapula-humeral joints in a first position and to release the birds in a second position; and a locking member movably attached to the main member and configured to lock the receiving member in the first position and to release the receiving member to rotate from the first position to the second position to release the birds.