MILKING APPARATUS WITH GRIPPER

摘要

An apparatus for use in the milking industry comprising a main arm suspended vertically from a rail; a supplemental arm coupled to and extending in a longitudinal direction perpendicularly from the main arm; and a gripper coupled to the supplemental arm and extending in the longitudinal direction of the supplemental arm. The gripper includes a cylinder; a cylinder arm; claw arms; claws attached to the claw arms; cylinder pivots coupled to the cylinder arm; and claw pivots coupled to the cylinder pivots and to the claw arms. Retracting the cylinder arm causes a distal end of a first cylinder pivot and a distal end of a second cylinder pivot to move outward such that the claw pivots move inward; and extending a cylinder arm causes the distal end of a first cylinder pivot and the distal end of a second cylinder pivot to move inward such that the claw pivots move outward. The main arm is operable to slide back and forth along the rail, the supplemental arm is operable to move up and down in relation to the main arm, and the supplemental arm is further operable to move laterally along the longitudinal axis.