Animal care and/or cleaning device

#The invention relates to an animal care and/or cleaning device, having at least one brush, which is attached to a shaft of the brush. The brush can be driven by an electromotive drive to produce a rotary motion of the brush and is rotatably mounted in a bearing device provided on a support device. An actuating device can be used to actuate the drive as a function of contact of the brush with an animal body.

#Devices of this type, which are used in particular for cleaning cattle, are state of the art. Document EP 2 359 684 A2, for instance, discloses a device of this type, in which the bearing device of the brush body is movably guided in a cantilever arm constituting a component of the support device and can be displaced against a spring force by an animal body pressing against the brush body in the cantilever arm. A position detector is provided as the actuating device for the drive, which position detector detects a displacement motion of the bearing device in the cantilever arm and triggers drive control. Document DE 100 02 688 C2 discloses a device of the same type, in which the drive and the bearing device for the shaft of the brush of two brushes are supported on a parallelogram-shaped frame structure, which forms part of the support device and which can be moved against spring force relative to a supporting structure by contact with an animal body. The actuating device for the drive has a contact element, electric contact with which can be applied by this relative motion.

#Based on this state of the art, the invention addresses the problem of providing a device of the type mentioned at the outset, which is characterized by a very effective cleaning action and a simple and robust design.

#Referring to the drawings that form a part of this disclosure:

#FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a device according to a first exemplary embodiment of the invention, wherein struts forming part of the assigned support device are shown broken off;

#FIG. 2 is a front view of a device according to a second exemplary embodiment of the invention that is slightly different from FIG. 1;

#FIG. 1 shows only the end section of struts 4 of a support device that forms the support for a brush 2, which struts are attached to an anchoring part 6 by welding, which is shown in FIGS. 2 to 4. The anchoring part 6 has the shape of a square metal plate provided with slots 8 for retaining bolts, which are used to attach the anchoring part 6 to a supporting structure, such as the wall of a stabling for livestock. The struts 4 are fastened in such a way that they, see FIGS. 3 and 4, extend downwards at an angle of 45° to the plane of the anchoring part 6. The lower ends of the struts 4 are connected to a U section beam 12 at welding points 10 (FIG. 1), which beam forms the bearing support for a shaft bearing 14, in which the brush 2 with its shaft is supported. In accordance with the inclination of the struts 4, the plane formed by the tie bar 18 of the U section beam 12 has an inclination of 45° to the vertical, such that the shaft 16 of the brush 2 has the same inclination of 45°. The shaft bearing 14 of brush 2 is attached to the tie bar 18 and extends through the tie bar 18 at right angles.

#The free, lower end of the shaft of the brush shaft 16 is connected to the bristle support of brush 2. As FIGS. 6 and 7 show, in which the brush 2 is shown separately, the bristle support is formed by a circular disk 20 made of plastic. Circular disk 20 has a central bore 22 penetrated by the shaft 16 of the brush 2 and is attached to a bristle body in the form of a truncated cone 24. The truncated cone 24 is formed by nylon bristles, which in the present example have a diameter of 2.5 mm. As can be seen most clearly in FIG. 7, the truncated cone 24, starting from the circular disk 20, has an opening angle of 25° in the example shown. The bristles end in a plane 26 parallel to the circular disk 20. The height of the cone 24 forming the bristle body is slightly smaller than the diameter of the circular disk 20 forming the bristle support.

#As FIG. 1 and most clearly FIG. 5 show, the shaft bearing 14 as bearing support has flange rings 28, which are bolted to the tie bar 18 extending between section legs 30 of the U section beam 12. The flange rings 28 form the holder of a roller bearing unit 32. It supports the shaft 16 of the brush 2 in such a way that shaft 16 extends in parallel to the struts 4 in the space therebetween. The drive 36 has an electric motor 38 having a reduction gear 40 flanged thereto, which in the present example is formed by a worm gear. The e brush shaft 16 is supported in the housing of the transmission 40 and forms the output shaft of the transmission 40. When a rotational motion is triggered by a contact of the brush 2 and an animal body, the torque acting on the shaft of the brush 16 in one or the other direction of rotation is transmitted to the transmission 40 because the self-locking effect of the worm gear, thereby entraining the drive 36 in the rotational motion. As FIGS. 1, 4 and 5 show, the transmission 40 and the adjacent part of the electric motor 38 are located in the space between the struts. The brush shaft 16 extends between the struts 4. During the entrained rotational motion of the transmission 40, when the brush 2 is twisted by an animal body, the struts 4 each form a dead stop limiting the rotational motion of twisting in one or the other direction. This rotational motion can be detected for triggering the actuating device for drive control, for instance by a proximity switch or the like. In the exemplary embodiment shown, for this purpose a vibration switch 42 is provided. The vibration switch 42 is mechanically coupled to the housing of the transmission 40 via a carrier 43 and detects generated vibrations at the latest when striking one of the struts 4 and transmits a switching pulse to an electronic circuit (not shown). As a rule, however, the impact motion by the animal body as such is sufficient for a slight motion of the drive to trigger the vibration switch and switch the motor 38 for driving the brush 2 on. In this respect, the dead stop of the motor housing on the struts 4 only serves to ensure that the motor 38 does not continue to move unintentionally.