Healthy animals are necessary for efficient stockyard production. Disease and other bacterial conditions can thrive in these types of close quarters, making regular vaccinations for all livestock a prerequisite. For those working in the stockyards, implementing and documenting consistent injections for all animals is tedious, expensive and, in some cases, hazardous. To alleviate some of these issues, Acushot™, an innovative veterinary design company, was looking for a better system than the current hand-held injection needles. Typically, these hand-held needle injections were used for vaccinating thousands of animals coming through production at once, making successful and safe supervision of the injections an increasing concern.
The solution by Acushot was to first design the prototype for an automated, needle-free injection gun specifically for mass livestock vaccination. Since this design required a linear bearing system to absorb recoil, they requested the help of a third-party engineering firm, Colpitt Designs. In response, Colpitt recommended using Simplicity® plain bearings from PBC Linear. Together, Acushot and Colpitt worked to reduce components and assemble a triggering/injection system that uses a gas cylinder with varying degrees of strength, providing up to 600 pounds of force. The system will automatically save each dose with a time stamp for accurate vaccination records. The cylinders were designed to inject the vaccines to the same recommended depth as a typical needle that would have been used on a range of animals. The injector allows for the option of being set at a low threshold of 0.2 cc and deposited just under the skin, or set up to 2.5 cc and injected at a recommended depth into the animal’s muscle.
Colpitts, using a simplified approach, was able to reduce moving components and make the design more cost-effective while still adhering to the criteria defined by Acushot. The final product was a lightweight, compact, and battery powered needle-less injection unit that packed up to 28,000 psi delivery pressure, while concurrently documenting each injection.
The Simplicity plain bearings can withstand the system parameters and harsher environments of this application, including 650 lbs of force that acts continuously on the bearings while under extreme temperatures and outdoor working conditions. The bearings accomplish this by gliding via a proprietary Teflon liner. This provides even disbursement of forces throughout the bearing while allowing for smooth, reliable travel. In contrast, bronze and linear ball bushings would have spalled the shafting under the high forces and short strokes, accumulating and contaminating the system and ultimately resulting in catastrophic failure.
Now, when production personal use the new vaccine gun, no needle trauma recovery is necessary for the animals. In fact, the livestock do not even take notice when given their injection with the new injector from Acushot. The device also reduces the diameter of the injection mark to about one-eighth of the previous size. Simplicity bearings from PBC Linear have helped to make the Acushot system easy to use, with no extra vaccine containers, improved productivity, and improved overall health in stockyards and barnyards worldwide.
Configure & Quote
