DK177560B1 - Feed cart with cutting device at the mouth piece - Google Patents
Feed cart with cutting device at the mouth piece Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- DK177560B1 DK177560B1 DKPA201200231A DKPA201200231A DK177560B1 DK 177560 B1 DK177560 B1 DK 177560B1 DK PA201200231 A DKPA201200231 A DK PA201200231A DK PA201200231 A DKPA201200231 A DK PA201200231A DK 177560 B1 DK177560 B1 DK 177560B1
- Authority
- DK
- Denmark
- Prior art keywords
- feed
- cutting device
- cart
- mouth piece
- cutting
- Prior art date
Links
- 238000005520 cutting process Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 70
- 241001465754 Metazoa Species 0.000 claims abstract description 20
- 241000772415 Neovison vison Species 0.000 claims abstract description 5
- 230000004913 activation Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 5
- 238000005086 pumping Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 5
- 210000000988 bone and bone Anatomy 0.000 description 3
- 241000251468 Actinopterygii Species 0.000 description 2
- 230000009471 action Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000008901 benefit Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000004140 cleaning Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000000881 depressing effect Effects 0.000 description 2
- 231100001261 hazardous Toxicity 0.000 description 2
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 description 2
- 239000007787 solid Substances 0.000 description 2
- 230000003213 activating effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000003203 everyday effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000004044 response Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000002699 waste material Substances 0.000 description 1
Landscapes
- Feeding And Watering For Cattle Raising And Animal Husbandry (AREA)
Abstract
A feed cart (1) is disclosed for delivering feed portions on animal cages, wherein said feed cart (1) comprises a feed delivery mouth piece (6) having an extemal opening (15), a feed container (3) and a pump (4) for pumping feed from the feed container (3) through the external opening (15) of the mouth piece (6), a cutting device (7) having at least one cutting member (13, 22) arranged to be driven across the extemal opening (15) of the feed delivery mouth piece (6) upon activation of the cutting device (7), and a control device (9) for controlling the operation of the cutting device (7). The use of the feed cart (1) for the feeding of fur animals, in particularly mink is furthermore disclosed.
Description
i DK 177560 B1
Feed cart with cutting device at the mouth piece
The present invention relates to a feed cart for delivering feed portions on each of a plurality of animal cages for fur animals.
5
Background
Feed carts for delivering feed portions on each of a plurality of animal cages for fur animals are well known in the art and are e.g. described in international patent application No. WO 2008/101500 and in international patent application No. WO 10 2012/025119.
The feed to be provided to the fur animals, in particular to mink, are usually placed on the top surface of a wire mesh cage holding the animal, so that the animal can devour the feed from below, i.e. from the inside of the cage. The feed is therefore a 15 paste of a consistency sufficiently firm for the feed to remain on the top surface instead of falling down through the wire mesh.
In Danish patent No. DK 176 402 B1 a feed cart is disclosed, where the delivery mouth piece is equipped with a plate that can be driven back and forth in front of the 20 opening of the mouth piece so as to cut the feed string emerging from the opening of the mouth piece and when closed prevent spillage of feed from the delivery mouth piece of the feed cart. Thereby it is ensured that the feed portion metered out has the intended magnitude to avoid either a waste of feed, overfeeding of some animals or insufficient feeding of animals.
25
However, the moving plate for cutting the feed string constitutes a safety risk for the person working with or operating the feed cart and having his hands close to the mouth piece, and it is thus one objective of the present invention to obtain an improved safety for the persons working with or operating the feed cart.
30 2 DK 177560 B1
Brief description of the present invention
The present invention relates to a feed cart for delivering feed portions on each of a plurality of animal cages for fur animals, wherein said feed cart comprises a feed 5 delivery mouth piece having an external opening, a feed container and a pump for pumping feed from the feed container through the external opening of the mouth piece to the animal cages, the feed cart further comprising a cutting device having at least one cutting member arranged to be driven across the external opening of the feed delivery mouth piece upon activation of the cutting device, and a control device 10 for controlling the operation of the cutting device, the cutting member comprises one or more wires.
The diameter of the one or more wires is advantageously in the range of 1.5 mm to 4 mm, preferably 2 to 3.5 mm. The use of wires is a low-cost solution which is 15 sufficient to severe the feed string but at the same time is flexible and is less hazardous for hands and fingers of the optional human operator of the feed cart.
The pump may be a diaphragm pump, an auger pump (also known as screw pump) or any other type of pump being suitable for pumping the high-consistence feed paste.
20
The at least one cutting member is arranged to pass across the opening of the mouth piece, such as in actual contact with the mouth piece. However, it is preferred that the cutting member passes the rim of the opening at a distance of 3-8 mm from the rim of the opening so that it is facilitated for the cutting member to adapt to parts 25 having a higher consistency in the feed paste (i.e. lumps and bones).
The control device may include a switch or push button to be manually operated by a person controlling the feed cart or it may include various degrees of automation of the control of the operation of the cutting device, which e.g. may be activated in 30 response to the stopping of the operation of the pump.
3 DK 177560 B1 A further advantage of the present invention is that for manually operated feed carts, it is common that the human operator has to ensure that the portion of feed metered out actually is released from the mouth piece, such as by shaking the mouth piece.
This manual movement of the mouth piece is physically wearing on the human 5 operator, and with the provision of the present invention such movements are made superfluous and the operation of the feed cart is made more ergonomically advantageous for the human operator.
It is preferred that the at least one cutting member is arranged as cantilevered 10 members having a free end which allows the cutting member to deflect in case a more solid object than the ordinary feed string, such as a finger of the optional human operator of the feed cart is accidentally inserted in the path of the cutting member. Thereby, the cutting device is safe for the optional human operator and requires no further safety arrangements such as shielding. The free end will also 15 allow material in the feed that may become entangled with the cutting member, such as fish bones, to fall off the cutting member by itself, and the cutting device becomes thus substantially self-cleaning.
The at least one cutting member is preferably flexible which makes it less hazardous 20 for hands and fingers of the optional human operator of the feed cart and allow the cutting member to deflect from lumps and other harder parts of the string of feed.
The cutting device comprises preferably a stepper motor for driving the at least one cutting member. An alternative could be a solenoid that drives one or two cutting 25 members back and forth across the external opening, but a stepper motor is generally known to be very durable and thus be able to withstand the wear from the large number of operations of the driving means every day.
The stepper motor may be driven back and forth in case it is equipped with one 30 cutting member or in steps of e.g. 60° or 90° where the cutting device is equipped with a corresponding number of cutting members, i.e. six or four cutting members.
4 DK 177560 B1
The control device may in a particular embodiment be arranged to automatically activating the cutting device when a feed portion has been delivered, such as when the operation of the pump is halted. The operation of the pump itself may be 5 controlled by an optional human operator of the feed cart, e.g. by depressing and releasing a pedal push button, but in a preferred embodiment, the control device is further arranged to control the operation of the pump and coordinate the operation of the pump and the activation of the cutting device.
10 In a fully automated version of the feed cart according to the present invention, the control device is arranged to control the pump to metering out individual feed portions according to a database of information related to desired size of feed portions to each animal cage. Such feed cart may, in case it is equipped with a suitable control system for the position of the feed cart, be an unmanned feed cart.
15
The present invention also relates to the use of a feed card according to the present invention for the feeding of fur animals, in particular of mink, in particular wherein the feed portions are placed on the top surface of a wire mesh cage arranged in a row of such cages.
20
Brief description of the figures
Embodiments of the present invention are shown in the enclosed drawing of which 25 Fig. 1 is a sketch of a feed cart according to the present invention,
Fig. 2 is a side view of a feed delivery mouth piece according to a first embodiment of the present invention, 30 Fig. 3 is a front view of the mouth piece of Fig. 2, 5 DK 177560 B1
Fig 4a is a side view of a feed delivery mouth piece according to a second embodiment of the present invention in a first state,
Fig. 4b is a front view of the mouth piece of Fig. 4a in the first state, 5
Fig. 5a is a side view of a feed delivery mouth piece according to a second embodiment of the present invention in a second state,
Fig. 5b is a front view of the mouth piece of Fig. 5a in the second state, 10
Fig. 6a is a perspective view of a third embodiment of the present invention in a first state, and
Fig. 6b is a perspective view of the embodiment of Fig. 6a in a second state.
15
Detailed description of the present invention A sketch of a feed cart 1 is shown in Fig. 1 being provided with wheels 2, a feed container 3 and a pump 4 for pumping the feed from the container 3 through a tube 5 20 to a mouth piece 6 for delivering the feed in portions at the top of wire mesh cages where the fur animals, in particular the mink, are kept. At the mouth piece 6 is arranged a cutting device 7 for severing or cutting the string of feed coming out from the opening 15 of the mouth piece 6 so that the intended feed portion actually is delivered at the correct position at the intended cage. The mouth piece 6 is 25 furthermore provided with a handle 10 for the human operator of the feed cart 1 to position the mouth piece 6 at the correct position. The feed cart 1 is provided with a pedal 8 for the operator to initiate the feed delivery by depressing the pedal 8 and activate the feed pump 4 controlled by the control device 9 of the feed cart 1. The pump 4 is stopped when the pedal 8 is released and the control device will activate 30 the cutting device 7 to separate the feed portion from the feed string coming out from the opening 15 of the mouth piece 6.
6 DK 177560 B1
The present invention may be applied in a number of ways with a feed cart 1 ranging from the more simple, where an existing feed cart 1 is retrofitted with a cutting device 7 which is operated by a manual switch arranged at the handle 10 of the 5 mouth piece to semi-automatic control where the cutting device 7 is activated when the pedal 8 or a similar manual control part is released, or feed cart 1 where the pump 4 is activated by depression of the pedal 8 and is stopped by the control device 9 when a predetermined portion of feed is delivered, where after the cutting device 7 is activated by the control device 9, to full automatic feed carts 1 where the pump 4 is 10 fully controlled by the control device 9 which meters out an individual amount of feed for each cage according to a database and activates the cutting device 7 when the predetermined portion of feed has been produced from the opening 15. The feed cart 1 may even be a fully automatic, i.e. unmanned motorised feed cart as described e.g. in WO 2008/101500 and in WO 2012/025119.
15 A first embodiment of the cutting device 7 is shown in Figs. 2 and 3 where a stepper motor 11 is fastened by fastening means 12 to the mouth piece 6. The stepper motor 11 carries four wires 13 extending radially from an axis of rotation of the stepper motor 11 so that one wire 13 sweeps in front of the opening 15 of the mouth piece 6 20 when the stepper motor 11 is activated to perform a 90° rotation. The wires 13 are cantilevered from the stepper motor 11 and have a free end 14 which allow the wires 13 to deflect in case a more solid object than the ordinary feed string, such as a finger of the human operator of the feed cart 1 is accidentally inserted in the path of the wires 13. Thereby, the cutting device 7 is safe for the human operator and requires no 25 further safety arrangements such as shielding. The free end 14 will also allow material in the feed that may become entangled with the wires 13, such as fish bones, to fall off the wire 13 by itself, and the cutting device 7 becomes thus substantially self-cleaning.
30 In alternative embodiments of the cutting device of Figs. 2 and 3, the stepper motor 11 is provided with fewer or more wires 13 and the stepper motor 11 is arranged to 7 DK 177560 B1 upon activation to rotate a suitable number of degrees, such as 60° in case the stepper motor 11 is provided with six wires 13 extending radially with an even distribution.
The wires 13 are in Fig. 3 depicted as straight wires 13, but the wires 13 may in alternative embodiments be provided with a curved or angled shape.
5
The second embodiment of the cutting device 7 shown in Figs. 4a, 4b in one state and in Figs. 5a, 5b in a second state comprises a linear solenoid actuator 16 with a plunger 17 that is connected to one end of a lever 18 via a first pivot 19. The lever 18 is at the other end connected to a second pivot 20 at a first end of a rocker arm 21 10 that is fastened to the mouth piece 6 by means of fastening means 12 so that the rocker arm 21 can tilt between a first position as shown in Figs. 4a, 4b and a second position as shown in Figs. 5a, 5b in reaction to the back and forth movement of the plunger 17 when the linear solenoid actuator 16 is activated. At the opposite end of the rocker arm 21 is arranged two wires 22 for cutting the string of feed emerging 15 from the opening 15 of the mouth piece 6. The two wires 22 are arranged as substantially parallel cantilever members fastened at one end to the rocker arm 21 and extending to a free end 23 of the wire 22. The wires 22 are bend to extent in front of the opening 15 of the mouth piece 6 and the wires 22 cross each other in the shown embodiment. In an alternative embodiment, the wires 22 are shorter and the 20 free ends 23 thereof do not meet and have a mutual distance of about 1-3 mm.
In the third embodiment of the cutting device 7 as shown in Fig. 6a in one state, i.e. during the cutting process and in Fig. 6b in a second state, i.e. ready for performing the cutting process, the device 7 comprises a stepper motor 24 fastened to the mouth 25 piece 6 by means of fastening means 12. A rocker arm 25 is fastened to the axle of the stepper motor 24 and at each end of the rocker arm 25 is a wire 26 attached in a ball socket 27. Each wire 26 is wound around separate pins 28 on each side of the mouth piece 6 so that they may tilt around the pins 28. The two wires extent as cantilever members from the pins 28 to a free end 29 of the wires 26. The wires 26 30 are bend to extent in front of the opening 15 of the mouth piece 6 and the ends 29 of the wires 26 have, when they are at the same horizontal position as shown in Fig. 6a, 8 DK 177560 B1 a mutual distance of about 2 mm. The cutting device 7 of the third embodiment in the second state as shown in Fig. 6b will, when activated operate by turning the stepper motor 24 by an angle of 45° so that the ball socket 27 to the left at the figures is moved upwards and the ball socket 27 to the right is moved downwards. The effect 5 will be that the bend parts of the wires 26 will pass the opening 15 of the mouth piece 6 at a distance of about 5 mm and severe a string of feed emerging from the opening 15 and end on opposite positions, i.e. that the left wire 26 as seen in the figures 6a, 6b moves from being positioned above the opening 15 to be positioned below the opening 15 and vice versa for the right wire 26. During the operation, the 10 free ends 29 of the two wires 26 will pass each other right in front of the opening as shown in Fig. 6a. From the new position of the wires 26, the cutting device 7 is ready to be activated again where the rocker arm 25 is turned 45° in the opposite direction by the stepper motor 24 to severe yet another portion of feed from a feed string emerging from the opening. An advantage of this embodiment is that the cutting 15 action is precise and with a result that is repeated in each cutting action, so that the portion of feed will be positioned at the same place with respect to the mouth piece each time the cutting device 7 is activated.
List of reference numerals 20 1 Feed cart 2 Wheel 3 Feed container 4 Pump 25 5 Tube connecting feed pump with mouth piece 6 Feed delivery mouth piece 7 Cutting device 8 Pedal 9 Control device 30 10 Handle for mouth piece 11 Stepper motor 9 DK 177560 B1 12 Fastening arrangement 13 Cutting member wires 14 Free end of wires 15 External opening of mouth piece 5 16 Linear solenoid actuator 17 Plunger of actuator 18 Lever 19 Lirst pivot 20 Second pivot 10 21 Rocker arm 22 Cutting member wires 23 Lree end of wires 24 Stepper motor 25 Rocker arm 15 26 Wire 26 27 Ball socket 28 Pin 29 Free end of wire 20
Claims (11)
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| DKPA201200231A DK177560B1 (en) | 2012-03-28 | 2012-03-28 | Feed cart with cutting device at the mouth piece |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| DKPA201200231A DK177560B1 (en) | 2012-03-28 | 2012-03-28 | Feed cart with cutting device at the mouth piece |
| DK201200231 | 2012-03-28 |
Publications (2)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| DK201200231A DK201200231A (en) | 2013-09-29 |
| DK177560B1 true DK177560B1 (en) | 2013-10-14 |
Family
ID=49289797
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DKPA201200231A DK177560B1 (en) | 2012-03-28 | 2012-03-28 | Feed cart with cutting device at the mouth piece |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| DK (1) | DK177560B1 (en) |
Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP3772273A1 (en) | 2019-08-05 | 2021-02-10 | Hedensted Gruppen A/S | Powered feed vehicle |
| EP3772274A1 (en) | 2019-08-05 | 2021-02-10 | Hedensted Gruppen A/S | Powered feed vehicle |
-
2012
- 2012-03-28 DK DKPA201200231A patent/DK177560B1/en active
Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP3772273A1 (en) | 2019-08-05 | 2021-02-10 | Hedensted Gruppen A/S | Powered feed vehicle |
| EP3772274A1 (en) | 2019-08-05 | 2021-02-10 | Hedensted Gruppen A/S | Powered feed vehicle |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| DK201200231A (en) | 2013-09-29 |
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