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US 11,723,341 B2Granted
Safety valve for an automated milker unit backflushing and teat dip applicator system
AssigneeGEA Farm Technologies GmbH
InventorsKevin L. Torgerson, Nathan Hedlund, Matthew J. Stuessel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for cleaning a dairy animal milker unit and applying dip to a dairy animal, the system includes a main control, an air supply, a water supply, a backflush fluid supply, a dip supply, a stall control for receiving the air, water, backflush fluid and dip supplies, and a safety valve that is adjacent to a downstream portion of the milker unit to control backflush and dip fluids being fed to the milker unit.
Claims4
An automated teat dip application system comprising:
- a main control;
- a water supply in communication with the main control;
- a dip supply in communication with the main control;
- a mixer in communication with the dip supply and the water supply;
- and
- a safety valve in fluid communication with the mixer and a downstream portion of a milker unit, and a dip valve piston for movement between a milking position and a backflush position, and the safety valve comprises:
- a first valve, a second valve, and a third valve comprising:
- a common valve seat element including:
- a cylindrical cup having a closed end and an open end;
- and the closed end defines a first valve seat and a second valve seat, and the cylindrical cup defines a vent;
- and
- the dip valve piston is at least partially disposed in the cylindrical cup and includes a first valve head disposed to engage the first valve seat when the first valve is closed, a second valve head disposed to engage the second valve seat when the second valve is closed, and a third valve element disposed to engage the third valve seat when the third valve is closed to the vent.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.