EVALUATION OF A DATA AQUISION SYSTEM FOR MEASURING THE MILKING MACHINE PROCESS PARAMETERS

R. Roşca, P. Cârlescu, I. Ţenu, C-tin. Chirilă

Abstract
The purpose of the paper is the development and evaluation of a computer driven system for the assessment of the mechanical milking machines. The system consists of two parts: an electromagnetic pulsator, controlled by a computer driven impulses generator and a pressure recording system, equipped with an artificial teat with force sensor and absolute pressure sensors. Tests were performed using two types of teat-cups (the WestfaliaSurge Classic Proliner and the WestfaliaSurge Classic liner), in different operating conditions (50, 55 and 60 cycles/min pulsation rates and 60/40 and 50/50 pulsation ratios), at a vacuum level of 47 kPa (54.3 kPa absolute pressure). The recorded data was used to evaluate the durations of the pulsation phases, the teat-liner contact pressure and the pressure difference at which the liners starts to close. The experimental results confirmed the functionality of the system. As far as the pulsation ratio was concerned, the relative differences between the values prescribed by the computer software and the recorded ones were lower than 3% for 10 of the 12 variants. The results concerning the other pulsation characteristics were in accordance with the results reported by other authors; the ClassicPro liner recorded the lowest contact pressures and the highest critical collapsing pressure differences.

Key words: mechanical milking, teat-cup, pressure sensor, force sensor, liner