Patent US3633547A successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
US3633547A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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System for feeding and maintaining animals in a confined environment
Assignee: International Farm Systems Inc
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Filing: 1969-11-24
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Granted: 1972-01-11
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Expires: 1989-11-24
Abstract
Abstract A system for maintaining and feeding animals in a confined environment wherein a structure is provided having a plurality of tiers with each tier being partitioned into a plurality of animal confinement pans. The floors of each pen are of an open grillwork to allow a controlled flow of ambient ventilation air to flow upwardly through the pen and into the pen in the tiers above, and a portion of each pen is set aside to collect the animals''excrement. The collected animal excrement is flushed by a flowing water system into a collecting trough and returned to a central collecting trench where it is processed by promoting a bacteria and fungi action to convert the animal waste into a useable protein supplement which is added to the animals''food supply. The supply, i.e., a slurry mixture of bean and/or corn meal and the protein supplement derived from the reprocessed animal waste is pumped by a central distributing pump and distributed into troughs disposed adjacent each of the animal confinement pens where it is made continuously available to the animals. In addition, a dome-shaped covering is provided over the tiered structure including a ventilation system which automatically maintains proper temperature and humidity levels within the enclosure at all times and provides for proper airflow within the enclosure so that each pen on each tier is properly ventilated at all times.
Inventors
- 👤 Roger H Stevens
- 👤 Bruce A Blair
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-05 18:56
CPC Classifications
A; A01; A01K; A01K1/00; A01K1/0041; A01K1/02; A01K1/0227; B; B01; B01F; B01F23/00; B01F23/20; B01F23/23; B01F23/233; B01F23/2331
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 22
Claim 1
Independent Claim
205 words
A system for maintaining a feeding animals in a confined environment comprising: a multitiered animal housing structure; each said tier in said structure comprising a plurality of modular animal confinement pens arranged circumferentially about a central area and contiguous to each other; means within said central area to afford access to said modular confinement pens immediately adjacent thereto; said modular confinement pens including a flooring of an open mesh grillwork along the whole extent of each pen, said open mesh grillwork being sufficiently small to support an animal comfortably thereon while still allowing free passage of light and ventilation air therethrough; each said pen further including trough means to collect animal waste products which fall through said open mesh grillwork of the flooring, said trough means being located under a portion of the flooring in each said pen, means associated with said trough means to flush said troughs to remove animal waste products to collect said waste products, and means to provide a supply of feed to animals confined in each said pen, said trough means in the pens in each said tier being in register whereby light and ventilation air may pass readily through the remainder of the open flooring of each said pen.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
205 words
A system for maintaining a feeding animals in a confined environment comprising: a multitiered animal housing structure; each said tier in said structure comprising a plurality of modular animal confinement pens arranged circumferentially about a central area and contiguous to each other; means within said central area to afford access to said modular confinement pens immediately adjacent thereto; said modular confinement pens including a flooring of an open mesh grillwork along the whole extent of each pen, said open mesh grillwork being sufficiently small to support an animal comfortably thereon while still allowing free passage of light and ventilation air therethrough; each said pen further including trough means to collect animal waste products which fall through said open mesh grillwork of the flooring, said trough means being located under a portion of the flooring in each said pen, means associated with said trough means to flush said troughs to remove animal waste products to collect said waste products, and means to provide a supply of feed to animals confined in each said pen, said trough means in the pens in each said tier being in register whereby light and ventilation air may pass readily through the remainder of the open flooring of each said pen.
Claim 3
Independent Claim
295 words
A system for maintaining and feeding animals in a confined environment comprising: a multitiered animal housing structure; each said tier in said structure comprising a plurality of modular animal confinement pens arranged circumferentially about a central area and contiguous to each other; means within said central area to afford access to said modular confinement pens immediately adjacent thereto; said modular confinement pens including a flooring of an open mesh grillwork along the whole extent of each pen, said open grillwork being sufficiently small to support an animal comfortably thereon while still allowing free passage of light and ventilation air therethrough; each said pen further including means extending under a portion of said flooring to collect and remove animal waste products which fall through said open mesh grillwork of the flooring; means to provide a supply of feed to animals confined in each said pen; a plurality of the lowermost tiers of said multitiered structure including an inner ring of trapezoidal-shaped modular confinement pens and an outer ring of trapezoidal-shaped confinement pens spaced radially outwardly from said inner ring; each said plurality of lower tiers including an intermediate circumferential access walkway between said inner ring and outer ring of modular confinement pens to permit access to the interior of said confinement pens in said outer ring; a radially extending access walkway from said central area to said intermediate circumferential access walkway to permit access to said outer ring of confinement pens from said central area; and at least the uppermost tier of said multitiered structure comprising only an inner ring of modular confinement pens with an access to said pens from said central area and whereby said structure in elevated cross section has a silhouette of a wider base portion tapering to a thinner top portion.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
295 words
A system for maintaining and feeding animals in a confined environment comprising: a multitiered animal housing structure; each said tier in said structure comprising a plurality of modular animal confinement pens arranged circumferentially about a central area and contiguous to each other; means within said central area to afford access to said modular confinement pens immediately adjacent thereto; said modular confinement pens including a flooring of an open mesh grillwork along the whole extent of each pen, said open grillwork being sufficiently small to support an animal comfortably thereon while still allowing free passage of light and ventilation air therethrough; each said pen further including means extending under a portion of said flooring to collect and remove animal waste products which fall through said open mesh grillwork of the flooring; means to provide a supply of feed to animals confined in each said pen; a plurality of the lowermost tiers of said multitiered structure including an inner ring of trapezoidal-shaped modular confinement pens and an outer ring of trapezoidal-shaped confinement pens spaced radially outwardly from said inner ring; each said plurality of lower tiers including an intermediate circumferential access walkway between said inner ring and outer ring of modular confinement pens to permit access to the interior of said confinement pens in said outer ring; a radially extending access walkway from said central area to said intermediate circumferential access walkway to permit access to said outer ring of confinement pens from said central area; and at least the uppermost tier of said multitiered structure comprising only an inner ring of modular confinement pens with an access to said pens from said central area and whereby said structure in elevated cross section has a silhouette of a wider base portion tapering to a thinner top portion.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
27 words
A structure as defined in claim 2 wherein each said tier is a polyhedron in plan whereby said modular confinement pens have a trapezoidal-shaped configuration in plan.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
44 words
A structure as defined in claim 2 including a flexible, translucent dome enclosing said multitIered structure, said dome adapted to be supported by air pressurization from within and means operatively associated with said structure to provide sufficient air pressurization to support said flexible dome.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
153 words
A structure as defined in claim 1 wherein radially disposed side floor support members are secured to each said flooring member on opposed radially disposed sides thereof, a plurality of spaced cross brace members interconnect said opposed side floor support members to provide a floor unit assembly comprising support framework fixed to the flooring member in each said modular confinement pen, thereby to permit light and ventilation air to pass readily through the major portion of the unsupported flooring member, a plurality of spaced upstanding support members disposed in a plurality of concentric rings about said central area, and said radially disposed side floor support members in each said floor unit assembly being fixed to adjacent ones of said upstanding support members with the modular confinement pens in each tier being in a common plane substantially perpendicular to said upstanding support members and vertically spaced from the pens on a tier immediately below.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
67 words
A structure as defined in claim 5 wherein each said floor unit assembly has its opposed radially disposed sides fixed to at least two said upstanding support members in cantilever fashion with a radially inwardly disposed segment of said floor unit assembly overhanging the radially innermost pair of upstanding support members thereby to provide a structural unit having a maximum structural integrity and minimum auxiliary support bracing.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
133 words
A structure as defined in claim 6 wherein adjacent modular confinement pens on the same tier are separated by radially disposed side partitions fixed to said upstanding support members at a height above said floor member sufficient to confine an animal therein, the outer perimeter of each modular confinement pen being closed by a partition spaced above said floor member to permit access to an animal''s head and neck thereunder and fixed to upstanding stanchions secured to the floor unit assembly of each modular confinement pen, and the inner perimeter of each said modular confinement pen including a gate member adapted to pivot from a first position wherein the gate member completes an enclosure with said side partitions and said outer partition to a second position to allow access to said confinement pen.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
70 words
A structure as defined in claim 1 wherein said means to provide a supply of feed to animals confined in each said modular confinement pen includes feed troughs adjacent the outer perimeter of each modular confinement pen and means within said structure adapted to distribute a slurrylike food mixture to said troughs on each said tier whereby animals confined within said modular confinement pens may feed from said feed troughs.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
33 words
A structure as defined in claim 8 including collecting lines communicating with said troughs to return unused portions of said slurry mixture to said mixing tank to be recirculated to said feed troughs.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
84 words
A structure as defined in claim 1 wherein said trough means to collect animal waste products associated with said first tier of said multitiered structure comprises an annular waste collection trench disposed beneath said first tier and wherein the animal waste products from animals confined on said first tier are flushed into said trench, and means to direct the animal waste products from the trough means on each of said upper tiers of said multitiered structure to said collection trench beneath said first tier.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
137 words
A structure as defined in claim 10 wherein the trough means of adjacent confinement pens in a common tier in each of the upper tiers of said multitiered structure are interconnected to form an annular collection trough on each tier and said means to flush said troughs to remove animal waste products comprises a plurality of flush pipes disposed within each trough adapted to periodically emit a continuous stream of water, an annular overflow trough adjacent said collection troughs to receive the overflow of water carrying animal waste products and a plurality of circumferentially spaced collection lines communicating with said overflow trough on each said upper tier and with said collection trench to direct said water and animal waste products into said collection trench whereby animal waste products are automatically removed from said each animal confinement pen.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
45 words
A structure as defined in claim 11 including means operatively associated with said waste collection trench to separate the major portion of the collected water from said mixture of animal waste and water and recirculate said recovered water through said flushing system for waste removal.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
80 words
A structure as defined in claim 12 including means to process said separated animal waste products to promote bacterial and fungi action within said waste products thereby converting said waste products into micro-organisms having a high-protein content and useable as a protein food supplement for the animal feed and means to extract said micro-organisms and to add said micro-organisms to said mixing tank whereby said water and grain meal and said micro-organisms are mixed to form said slurry food mixture.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
54 words
A structure as defined in claim 1 including a flexible dome-shaped membrane to completely enclose said multitiered structure, said dome-shaped structure adapted to be supported by air pressurization from within and means operatively associated with said structure to provide a supply of air under pressure within said membrane sufficient to support said dome-shaped membrane.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
136 words
A structure as defined in claim 14 wherein said means to provide a supply of air includes an air supply duct having an outlet exterior of said membrane, fan means in said duct to draw air from without said structure, said supply duct communicating with an annular air delivery duct disposed below the first tier of said multitiered structure, air exit ports spaced about said air delivery duct to permit airflow from said delivery duct to said multitiered structure enclosed within said membrane and at least one air outlet port in said membrane located centrally therein and at an elevation above the uppermost tier of said multitiered structure whereby an air circulation path is provided for ventilation air upwardly through the open mesh grillwork of the floor members in each said confinement pen on each tier.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
42 words
A structure as defined in claim 15 including selectively operable means to dehumidify air passing through said supply duct and means within said supply duct to purify air passing therethrough whereby ventilation air circulated within said membrane is climatically controlled and purified.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
98 words
A structure as defined in claim 15 including means responsive to temperature and humidity sensors within said membrane to cool the air circulating within said membrane comprising a plurality of water supply lines operably connected to a source of water under pressure disposed within said structure having a plurality of spray nozzles operatively associated therewith, said nozzles being adapted to open to emit a water spray to each said modular confinement pen responsive to said temperature and humidity sensors thereby to cool the air circulating within said membrane as well as cleansing said structure and animals confined therein.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
24 words
A structure as defined in claim 15 including means in said air outlet port in said membrane to deoderize and purify air exhausting therefrom.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
128 words
A structure as defined in claim 15 wherein said dome-shaped membrane when erected and supported by air pressure from within is hemispherically shaped, a plurality of radiating water supply lines operatively connected to a source of water under pressure fixed to the exterior surface of said membrane, said water lines being adapted to emit a fine mist spray responsive to temperature conditions sensed within said membrane, whereby said fine spray mist evapOrates rapidly thereby causing a cooling effect on the ambient air immediately adjacent the exterior of said membrane and cause a cooling effect which cools the air circulating within said membrane, said cooling effect also resulting in a flow of cool air downwardly from the apex of said membrane to the ground along the exterior surface thereof.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
64 words
A structure as defined in claim 19 wherein said air supply duct outlet exterior said membrane is provided with an arcuate funnel to direct the flow of cool air flowing downwardly along the exterior surface of said membrane into said air supply duct, whereby air supplied to the interior of said membrane is cooler than the temperature of the ambient air outside the membrane.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1975-01-10 | 1975-07-12 | 1976-01-11 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1979-01-10 | 1979-07-12 | 1980-01-11 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1983-01-10 | 1983-07-12 | 1984-01-11 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |