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US 12,096,743 B2Granted
Safety valve for a dairy system component
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.
Claims16
A safety valve for a dairy system, the safety valve comprising:
- a milk inlet constructed and arranged to receive milk from a milker unit;
- a milk outlet constructed and arranged to provide milk received at the milk inlet to a milk tube;
- a backflush inlet constructed and arranged to receive backflush fluid;
- and
- a set of controllable seals constructed and arranged selectively to (i) assume a first mode in which milk is allowed to pass from the milk inlet to the milk outlet or (ii) assume a second mode in which backflush fluid is allowed to pass from the backflush inlet to the milk inlet.
2 more elements
A method of controlling fluid flow in a dairy system, the method comprising:
- receiving, by a milk inlet of a safety valve, milk from a milker unit;
- providing, by a milk outlet of the safety valve, milk received at the milk inlet to a milk tube;
- receiving backflush fluid at a backflush inlet of the safety valve;
- and
- operating a set of controllable seals of the safety valve to (i) assume a first mode in which milk is allowed to pass from the milk inlet to the milk outlet or (ii) assume a second mode in which backflush fluid is allowed to pass from the backflush inlet to the milk inlet.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.