ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,369,557, issued on July 29, was assigned to LELY PATENT N.V. (Maassluis, Netherlands).
"Automatic milk valve" was invented by Gerard Mostert (Schipluiden, Netherlands), Dirk Kraaij (Delft, Netherlands) and Dimitri Bjorn De Kort (Leidschendam, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A milking system for milking dairy animals includes a milking device, a milk line for transporting milk; a cleaning device for cleaning the milk line with a cleaning liquid; a first outlet for discharging the milk to a milk tank; a second outlet for discharging the cleaning liquid; a valve mechanism for controllably connecting the milk line to one of the fi...