A portable flow simulator was developed for recording vacuum variations in commercialmilking machine clusters. The cluster in the milking unit under evaluation wasmounted on the frame of the simulator and the flow of water through each liner wasregulated by separate flow meters. By placing an artificial teat into the liners the flowcharacteristics during actual milking were simulated. Measurement vacuum sensorswere mounted in the claw, in one artificial teat, in the pulsation chamber and in themilk pipeline. Analog and digital outputs were recorded. The system was validated bycomparing the outputs with those obtained with a laboratory flow simulator and withrecordings taken during cow milking. The recordings with the portable simulator andthe laboratory simulator were identical; the profiles of the analogue signals obtainedwith the portable simulator and from cow milking were similar. The portable flow simulatorwill allow recording of vacuum variations in commercial milking machines duringsimulated or actual milking.
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