EFFECT OF THE TEAT CUP SIZE OVER THE PULSATOR RATE

C. Chirilă, R. Roşca

Abstract
    The paper presents the preliminary tests performed on various types of pulsators, aiming to evaluate the influence of the teat cup size over the pulsator rate.
    Two types of teat cups, with different volumes of the pulsation chamber, were use during the tests.
    The tests were performed in the "Machinery and animal husbandry equipment' laboratory of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine-Iasi, on a rig equipped with high line bucket milking machine; the system was also equipped with the necessary devices for recording the operating diagrams of the pulsator that equipped the milking machine. The same operating pressure was used for all tests; there were no significant changes of the environmental temperature during the tests. The pulsators used during the tests were different with respect to the operating principle.
    During the tests, the milking machine was equipped with one of each tested pulsators at a time. Each type of pulsator was tested with each of the two types of teat cups and the operating characteristics were recorded. Based on the recorded diagrams the pulsator rate and ratio was evaluated and the different values were than compared with each other.
    The results were synthetically presented in a table, allowing an easy comparison of the pulsators operating parameters.
    The results showed that for some of the tested pulsators differences were recorded in the operating parameters, depending on the teat cup size, but the deviations were within the acceptable range.

Key words: milking equipment; teat cup