The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 17, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 30, 2000
Paul A. Eppers, Jr., Madison, WI (US);
DEC International, Inc., Madison, WI (US);
Abstract
A milking parlor has a platform receiving cows and having a plurality of spaced stall dividers defining milking stalls therebetween, each stall divider having a milking cluster including a claw and teat cups. A cluster drop and lift retractor, provided by a detacher cylinder, raises the cluster to an up position above the platform ready for attachment of the teat cups to the teats of a cow in a respective stall, and lowers the cluster to a down position below the platform after detachment of the teat cups from the teats of the cow. A cluster prelift control and sequence actuates the retractor to raise the cluster to the up position prior to milking such that when the dairyman operator is ready to milk the cow, the milking cluster is already in the up position and ready for attachment of the teat cups to the teats of the cow, without the dairyman operator having to bend down to lift the milking cluster from the down position.