Milk pump device and method for displacing an amount of milk
AssigneeLely Patent N.V.
InventorsJacobus Izaak Van De Walle, Michiel Adriaan Van Dorp, Gerard Mostert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A milk pump device, comprising a passage duct, a first one-way valve, a second one-way valve and a membrane pump. The first and second one-way valves are included in the passage duct and oriented in the same direction relative to each other. The membrane pump is positioned between the first one-way valve and the second one-way valve. The membrane pump forms a first milk meter for generating a first milk measurement with respect to a number of complete pumping strokes of the membrane pump. The milk pump device further comprises a second milk meter for carrying out a second milk measurement with respect to a residual pumping stroke.
Claims17
A milk pump device, comprising a passage duct and a membrane pump for displacing milk through the passage duct, wherein the membrane pump forms a first milk meter for generating a first milk measurement of an amount of milk displaced by a number of complete pumping strokes of the membrane pump, and the milk pump device further comprises a second milk meter for carrying out a second milk measurement of only an amount of milk displaced by a residual pumping stroke, the first and second milk measurements together representing the total amount of the milk displaced by the milk pump device;
- wherein the milk pump device further comprises a control device, which is configured to control the membrane pump to perform a number of pumping strokes for displacing an amount of milk, wherein the control device is configured to:
- record the first milk measurement, which is determined based on the number of required complete pumping strokes of the membrane pump,
- record the second milk measurement, which is an indication of only an amount of milk displaced by a residual pumping stroke of the membrane pump, and
- to determine the total amount of the milk displaced by the milk pump device on the basis of said recorded first and second measurements.
A method for displacing an amount of milk through a passage duct by means of a membrane pump included in the passage duct, wherein the method comprises:
- controlling the membrane pump to perform a number of pumping strokes;
- generating a first milk measurement by means of a membrane pump which forms a first milk meter, which first milk measurement is an indication of a number of required complete pumping strokes for displacing the amount of milk;
- generating a second milk measurement by means of a second milk meter of only an amount of milk displaced by a residual pumping stroke of the membrane pump;
- and
- determining the total amount of displaced milk on the basis of the first milk measurement and the second milk measurement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.