ANIMAL CARE AND/OR CLEANING DEVICE

Abstract

1. Animal care and/or cleaning device.

2. An animal care and/or cleaning device, having at least one brush (2), which is mounted on a shaft of the brush (16), which can be driven by an electric motor drive (36) to generate a rotary motion of the brush (2) and is rotatably mounted in a bearing device (14) provided on a support device (4, 6), and having an actuating device by means of which the drive (36) can be actuated as a function of contact of the brush (2) with an animal body, is characterized in that the bearing device (14) has at least one shaft bearing (14) which holds the axis of rotation (16) of the brush (2) in a fixed positional relationship to the support device (4, 6), and in that the drive (36) is driven by torque acting on the shaft of the brush (16) in one or other direction of rotation, caused by an impact motion of the animal body on the brush (2), is carried along at most to a predeterminable dead stop on the support device (4, 6) and that the drive triggers the actuating device (42) for the purpose of actuating the drive (36) during this motion.

Claims

1. An animal care and/or cleaning device, having at least one brush (2), which is mounted on a shaft of the brush (16), which can be driven by an electric motor drive (36) to generate a rotary motion of the brush (2) and is rotatably mounted in a bearing device (14) provided on a support device (4, 6), and having an actuating device by means of which the drive (36) can be actuated as a function of contact of the brush (2) with an animal body, characterized in that in that the bearing device (14) has at least one shaft bearing (14) which holds the axis of rotation (16) of the brush (2) in a fixed positional relationship to the support device (4, 6), and in that the drive (36) is driven by torque acting on the shaft of the brush (16) in one or other direction of rotation, caused by an impact motion of the animal body on the brush (2), is carried along at most to a predeterminable dead stop on the support device (4, 6) and that the drive triggers the actuating device (42) for the purpose of actuating the drive (36) during this motion.

2. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the torque on the shaft of the brush (16) caused by the impact motion of the animal body against the brush (2) is at least partially passed on to the transmission or the output shaft of the drive (36) by means of friction or blocking, so that the torque entrains the housing of the drive (36) at most up to its dead stop position at the predeterminable dead stop of the support device (4, 6).

3. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the drive (36) is a self-locking worm gear or a conventional gear motor having inherent friction.

4. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the actuating device comprises a switch, in particular in the form of a proximity switch, preferably a vibration switch (42) or a sensor.

5. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the actuating device (42) is arranged on the drive (36) and/or on the support device (4, 6).

6. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the support device (4, 6) has an anchoring part (6), which can be attached to a supporting structure, such as a building wall, and struts (4) extending downwards from the anchoring part (6) at an angle of preferably 45, at the ends of which the bearing support (12, 28) of the shaft bearing (32) is attached.

7. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the bearing support (12, 28) can have a U section (12) beam support whose tie bar (18) extending between its U legs (30) and penetrated by the shaft of the brush (16) forms a plane, which is inclined to the vertical in such a way that the shaft of the brush (16) penetrating the tie bar (18) at right angles has the same inclination to the vertical as the struts (4).

8. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the shaft bearing (32) of the tie bar (18) of the U section beam (12) is arranged in such a way that the shaft of the brush (16) runs between the struts (4) and in parallel thereto and that the end of the shaft of the brush (16) is supported as the output shaft of an electric geared motor (38) in the transmission (40) of the latter.

9. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the brush (2) as the bristle support has a circular disk (20), which is connected to the assigned end of the shaft of the brush (16).

10. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the length of the U section beam (12) is greater than the diameter of the circular disk (20) and that at its ends (44) the U section beam (12) forms attachment points for an annular body (46) protruding beyond the disks, which annular body extends along the circumference of the circular disk (20) at a distance therefrom.

11. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the brush (2) and its bristles form a bristle body in the form of a truncated cone (24) which, starting from the circular disk (20), widens conically at an angle of 25 and ends in a plane (26) parallel to the circular disk (20).

12. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the height of the cone (24) is equal to or preferably less than half the diameter of the circular disk (20).

13. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the cone (24) has an interior (50) coaxial with the shaft of the brush (16) and free of bristles, and that a second bristle body (52) is arranged in the interior (50), the bristles of which project out of the plane (26) formed by the free ends of the bristles of the cone (24) forming the first bristle body.

14. The animal care and/or cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the second bristle body (52) is essentially shaped like a circular cylinder.

Description

[0020] In the Figures:

[0021] FIG. 1 shows a perspective oblique view of an exemplary embodiment of the device according to the invention, wherein struts forming part of the assigned support device are shown broken off;

[0022] FIG. 2 shows a front view of an exemplary embodiment slightly different from FIG. 1;

[0023] FIG. 3 shows a side view of the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2;

[0024] FIG. 4 shows a vertical section of the exemplary embodiment, corresponding to the section plane indicated in FIG. 2 by IV-IV;

[0025] FIG. 5 shows an enlarged partial section of the area shown in FIG. 4 designated by V-V;

[0026] FIGS. 6 and 7 show a perspective oblique view respectively a longitudinal section of the separately shown brush; and

[0027] FIG. 8 shows a longitudinal section of a modified version of the brush shown separately.

[0028] FIG. 1 shows only the end section of struts 4 of a support device that forms the support for a brush 2, which struts are attached to an anchoring part 6 by welding, which is shown in FIGS. 2 to 4. The anchoring part 6 has the shape of a square metal plate provided with slots 8 for retaining bolts, which are used to attach the anchoring part 6 to a supporting structure, such as the wall of a stabling for livestock. The struts 4 are fastened in such a way that they, see FIGS. 3 and 4, extend downwards at an angle of 45 to the plane of the anchoring part 6. The lower ends of the struts 4 are connected to a U section beam 12 at welding points 10 (FIG. 1), which beam forms the bearing support for a shaft bearing 14, in which the brush 2 with its shaft is supported. In accordance with the inclination of the struts 4, the plane formed by the tie bar 18 of the U section beam 12 has an inclination of 45 to the vertical, such that the shaft of the brush 16 has the same inclination of 45, the shaft bearing 14 of which is attached to the tie bar 18 and extends through the latter at right angles.

[0029] The free, lower end of the shaft of the brush 16 is connected to the bristle support of brush 2. As FIGS. 6 and 7 show, in which the brush 2 is shown separately, the bristle support is formed by a circular disk 20 made of plastic, which has a central bore 22 penetrated by the shaft of the brush 16 and to which a bristle body in the form of a truncated cone 24 is attached. The cone 24 is formed by nylon bristles, which in the present example have a diameter of 2.5 mm. As can be seen most clearly in FIG. 7, the cone 24, starting from the circular disk 20, has an opening angle of 25 in the example shown, wherein the bristles end in a plane 26 parallel to the circular disk 20, and wherein the height of the cone 24 forming the bristle body is slightly smaller than the diameter of the circular disk 20 forming the bristle support.

[0030] As FIG. 1 and most clearly FIG. 5 show, the shaft bearing 14 as bearing support has flange rings 28, which are bolted to the tie bar 18 extending between section legs 30 of the U section beam 12. The flange rings 28 form the holder of a roller bearing unit 32. It supports the shaft of the brush 16 in such a way that it extends in parallel to the struts 4 in the space therebetween. The drive 36 has an electric motor 38 having a reduction gear 40 flanged thereto, which in the present example is formed by a worm gear, wherein the shaft of the brush 16 is supported in the housing of the transmission 40 and forms the output shaft of the latter. When a rotational motion is triggered by a contact of the brush 2 and an animal body, the torque acting on the shaft of the brush 16 in one or the other direction of rotation is transmitted to the transmission 40 because the self-locking effect of the worm gear, thereby entraining the drive 36 in the rotational motion. As FIGS. 1, 4 and 5 show, the transmission 40 and the adjacent part of the electric motor 38 are located in the space between the struts 4 wherein the shaft of the brush 16 extends between the struts 4. During the entrained rotational motion of the transmission 40, when the brush 2 is twisted by an animal body, the struts 4 each form a dead stop limiting the rotational motion of twisting in one or the other direction. This rotational motion can be detected for triggering the actuating device for drive control, for instance by means of a proximity switch or the like. In the exemplary embodiment shown, for this purpose a vibration switch 42 is provided, which is mechanically coupled to the housing of the transmission 40 via a carrier 43, which detects generated vibrations at the latest when striking one of the struts 4 and transmits a switching pulse to an electronic circuit not shown. As a rule, however, the impact motion by the animal body as such is sufficient for a slight motion of the drive to trigger the vibration switch and switch the motor 38 for driving the brush 2 on. In this respect, the dead stop of the motor housing on the struts 4 only serves to ensure that the motor 38 does not continue to move unintentionally.

[0031] The exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 2 to 5, slightly modified compared to FIG. 1, is connected to an annular body 46 composed of round tube sections at the ends 44 (FIG. 2) of the U section beam 12, which project outwards beyond the diameter of the circular disk 20. This forms a kind of cover and protection against contact with the rotating, bristle-free circular disk 20 of the brush 2. Furthermore, see FIGS. 4 and 5, a plastic sleeve 48 is attached to the lateral legs 30 of the U section beam 12, which encompasses the shaft of the brush 16, covers the free space between the struts 4 in the area between the transmission 40 and the U section beam 12 and is not shown in FIG. 1.

[0032] As FIGS. 2 and 4 to 7 show, the cone 24 forming the bristle body has an interior 50 starting from the circular disk 20 and coaxial to the shaft of the brush 16, which interior is free from bristles. In a modified version of the brush 2 shown in FIG. 8, the interior 50 of the cone 24 forming the bristle body contains a second bristle body 52, which is essentially shaped like a circular cylinder, wherein the bristles of the second bristle body 52 project beyond the plane 26 formed by the ends of the cone 24. The bristles of the second bristle body 52 may be of the same design as the bristles of the cone 24 forming the first bristle body, but may also have a different bristle diameter or be composed of a different plastic material. Preferably, the axial projection of the bristles of the second bristle body 52 above the plane 26 is not more than half the axial height of the cone 24 of the first bristle body.

[0033] In partial agreement with the solution according to DE100 02 688 C2, in a modified version not shown in more detail, a second brush, whose axis of rotation is arranged horizontally, may be coupled in a drivable manner to a brush via an angular gear, the axis of rotation of which is vertical and which in turn interacts with the actuating device according to the invention, as described above. Both brushes are then mounted on a parallelogram linkage or a frame structure such that they can be driven by an animal body, in order to permit adaptation to different animal sizes.