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US 11,510,389 B2Granted
Anti-twist liner and shell for a dairy animal teat cup assembly
AssigneeGEA Farm Technologies GmbH
InventorsNathan Hedlund, Terry Thornton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A milker unit teat cup assembly for dairy animals having a shell and liner combination that resists twisting by the liner barrel relative to the shell using a recess in the liner that is spaced apart from the longitudinal axis in the liner and engaged by a key in the shell.
Claims12
A method for installing an anti-twist shell liner into a shell of a teat cup assembly, and the teat cup assembly includes:
- a shell having an upper opening, a bottom wall including an annular edge defining a bottom opening, a cylindrical wall portion between the upper opening and the bottom wall, and a plurality of spaced apart mating keys joined to and extending upwardly from the bottom wall and extending radially inwardly from the cylindrical wall portion;
- a shell liner having:
- a mouthpiece;
- a cylindrical barrel portion joined to the mouthpiece, and spaced apart from and not connected to the cylindrical wall portion;
- an upper locking ring joined to the cylindrical barrel portion, and the upper locking ring defines a plurality of spaced apart alignment recesses each disposed to engage a corresponding mating key of the plurality of spaced-apart making keys, and each of the alignment recesses does not extend into the cylindrical barrel portion;
- a lower locking ring spaced apart from the upper locking ring to define an annular recess;
- and
- an integral short milk tube joined integrally to the lower locking ring;
- and the method comprises the steps of:
- partially installing the shell liner in the shell by:
- extending the integral short milk tube through the shell and partially out of the bottom opening;
- and
- partially engaging each mating key of the plurality of mating keys into a corresponding recess of the plurality of spaced apart alignment recesses;
- and
- fully installing the shell liner in the shell by extending the integral short milk tube completely through the shell and out of the bottom opening and moving the shell liner only in an axial direction to fully engage each mating key of the plurality of mating keys with its corresponding alignment recess of the plurality of spaced apart alignment recesses and engaging the annular edge of the shell with the annular recess.
12 more elements
A method for installing a shell liner into a shell of a teat cup assembly to resist twisting of the shell liner relative to the shell, the method comprising the steps of:
- partially installing a shell liner into a shell, the shell liner having a mouthpiece, a cylindrical barrel portion joined to the mouthpiece and without any shell-engaging features, an upper locking ring joined to the cylindrical barrel portion, and a lower locking ring spaced apart from the upper locking ring to define an annular recess, and an integral short milk tube joined to the lower locking ring, the step of partially installing the shell liner into the shell performed by moving the shell liner into the shell and engaging an alignment recess formed only in the upper locking ring with a corresponding mating key extending upwardly from a bottom wall of the shell and radially inwardly from a cylindrical wall of the shell;
- and then fully installing the shell liner into the shell to continue engaging the alignment recess with the mating key;
- and then
- engaging the annular recess with an annular lip in the bottom wall of the shell;
- engaging the mouthpiece with an upper opening in the shell;
- and
- moving the short milk tube completely through a bottom shell opening.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.