Project Agricultural Sort Gate

Posted on 23rd May 2024  by Tom Green

Read time: 2 minutes

THE BRIEF

The client approached Twenty20 Engineering's expertise to redesign crucial components of their cattle sorting gate, followed by fabrication and delivery of the updated version.

The cattle sorting gate, utilised in the dairy industry, efficiently separates specific cows from the main herd, employing RFID tagging technology.

This system allows for the safe and effective implementation of welfare checks and veterinary inspections.

The gate eliminates the necessity for manual search and separation of cow (s) from the herd, thereby reducing the risk of injury to farmers. Our assigned redesign tasks focused on the following specific areas:

• Enhancing the hinge design for increased strength and reduced noise. 
• Revamping the slider mechanism of the Texas gates for quieter operation. 
• End users were most bothered by the excessive noise produced by the current design.

CHALLENGE

The project's challenge lay in identifying an available hinge design capable of enduring daily usage on large dairy farms.

The hinge had to function silently, possess a substantial load capacity, endure a 500,000-cycle test without failure, and withstand extensive chemical exposure to ammonia.

After successfully locating the appropriate hinge for the project, we integrated it into the design of the hinge plates for the gates and slider mechanism, significantly reducing the system's noise.

RESULT

Twenty20 Engineering effectively located and presented the new hinge to the client before providing a 3D CAD model and fabrication package for approval.

Upon approval, we proceeded to fabricate and deliver 10 gate kits, meeting the expectations of both the client and end users with high levels of customer satisfaction.

The sort gate kits have become a recurring order for the client, attributed to the consistently high quality achieved by Twenty20 Engineering.