Fail-safe valve

Valving apparatus for selectively sanitizing the teat cups of one of a plurality of milking claws in an automatic milking system each claw havng a main milk line through which milk is conducted from the claw to a collection and storage container, comprising:

• (a) a housing having a peripheral wall;
• (b) a resilient main line insert carried by said housing and extending therethrough, said insert being adjacent at least a portion of said peripheral wall, said insert being insertable in a discontinuity in each main milk line to have an entrance communicating with an up-flow portion of the main line and an exit communicating with a down-flow portion of the main line;
• (c) a flushing conduit extending between a source of sanitizing agent and the main milk line for use in backflushing the milking claws, said conduit intersecting said insert within said housing and having a resilient portion within said housing and adjacent at least a portion of said peripheral wall;
• and
• (d) a pinching element, having angularly spaced first and second arms with remote ends, mounted within said housing for pivoting about a first axis between first and second positions, wherein said remote end of said first arm, when said element is in said first position, pinches closed said insert between said remote end and said portion of said peripheral wall to which said insert is adjacent, at a location along said insert down-flow of the intersection of said conduit with said insert, and wherein said remote end of said second arm, when said element is in said second position, pinches closed said flushing conduit between said remote end and said portion of said peripheral wall to which said conduit is adjacent.