PulsNexus

PulsNexus is a stand alone pulsation monitoring system that can be fitted to any brand or type of pulsation system in your existing parlor.

Here is how it works.
A PulsNexus monitor is fitted to eash pulsator at every milking stall. The electronic control senses each pulsation cycle and alerts the operator with a red alarm light at the stall when the pulsation cycles malfunction. The PulsNexus system can also be equiped with a parlor monitor and audible speaker to alert operators.

At the moment one of the PulsNexus monitors detects a problem, the parlor alarm and speaker will be activated. The speaker first sends an audible message to get the operators attention. The message can be set to send the message in either English or Spanish. The operator looks at the monitor and the stall with a problem is displayed. Along with the stall number they can also see not only that there is a problem, but what the problem actually is.

This is a powerful feature of the system because the problem will be continually displayed as long as the problem is not corrected. Likewise, the audio will keep repeating the message so that operators can not easily ignore the situation or become distracted by other duties that cause them to forget the problem.

Powerful tools to put you in complete control!
If you are like most dairymen, you don’t look at pulsation graphs very often. Chances are that you leave that to your serviceman. But what do you do when you have a pulsation problem and the serviceman is not around? With the PulsNexus system you now are in control because you have the tools to get the job done on your own.

The first indication of a problem is that the light on the PulsNexus turned red. The parlor display and speaker alerted the milkers but perhaps they were not sure what to look for. All you need to do is go to your computer and click on the stall with a problem. A graph appears that looks similar to the one illustrated above. Pulsation lines and numbers, what do they all mean? Not to worry because the BECO software will interpret the problem and tell you what needs fixing. If you look near the bottom of the screen showing the pulsation graph you will see what the problem is. In the case of this problem, there was a air leak that caused pulsation to fail. This is a powerful tool in getting right to the problem. No longer do you have to change out a pulsator to hopefully fix the problem only to find it was only an air leak.

Frequently asked questions.
If I have the PulsNexus monitoring system in my milking parlor how often should I have my serviceman graph my pulsators?....The answer is never. The system is designed to continually graph your pulsators 24/7. As long as the light is green you can be assured the graph is good. Therefore you can now save the time and expense of having someone graph your system for you.

If I have the PulsNexus monitoring system in my milking parlor how often should I clean or rebuild my pulsators?.... The answer is only when the system tells you to do so. All manufacturers have a recommended cleaning and rebuilding time on their pulsators. This time period is based on a recommendation to avoid even the smallest failures because one malfunctioning pulsator can affect many cows before the problem is noticed. The truth of the matter is that most pulsators will far exceed these rebuild recommendations. With the PulsNexus system however you will learn that the system will tell you when these problems occur. Therefore there is no need to do any maintenance as long as the light is green indicating a properly functioning pulsator.

PulsNexus is more than an alarm.
PulsNexus becomes much more than an alarm when installed in combination with a computer and proprietary PulsNexus software. The PulsNexus software communicates with each PulsNexus monitor and continually analyzes pulsation.

Need help figuring out the problem?
If you see a red light and the problem is not obvious just log-on to the computer, click on the stall with the problem, and in real time you see the pulsation graph for that stall.

Wonder how many pulsation problems took place when you were not there to observe them?
The system is designed to alert the operators the moment a problem is detected. But, if nobody bothers to fix the problem your benefits will diminish. Therefore, the system was designed to put you back in control!

Automatic reports put you in control!
At the end of a milking shift, or for any time period you designate, a report will automatically print out showing you all the pulsation problems that occurred while you were away. The report is designed to quickly pinpoint what happened and when it happened. It will also let you know how long it took the parlor operator to correct the problem. With this information you now have the tools to better manage the people responsible for the parlor when you are away.

At a quick glance of the report you notice that stall #14 had eight problems that were not corrected before eight cows were milked. Furthermore you can tell just what the problems were and when the last one happened. Take a close look at the line with the “1” bubble to the right. You can see that all of these problems were caused by a disconnected hose or a failed pulsator coil. Fifty nine minutes of milking expired and affected eight cows with the last one happening at 7:23 PM on Sunday May 22.

Experience tells us that problems occur daily on most large parlors and more often than not several problems occur. With PulsNexus you now have the tools to put a stop to the damaging results of a failing pulsation system. Weather it be a sticking pulsator, leak in the air tubes or a split liner, you are alerted right away.

In the case of pulsation problems one only needs to concentrate on bars that are red rather than green. Red bars represent cows that were milked with a pulsation problem. When a long sequence of cows are red management knows the operators were ignoring a problem. Knowing the exact time the occurrence took place tells management who was there. Management now has the tools necessary to know exactly what took place when they were away from the parlor.

As seen on the chart below there is a tremendous picture of what takes place other that pulsation problems. The length of time individual cows take to milk out is visible, how many units are reattached and the procedures operators are taking to apply units. To further simplify the data critical data is displayed at the bottom. Example: Average unit on time vs. average unit idle time. It may be the case that training of operators will lead to reducing unit on time. Often units are reattached because it was completely necessary. However if that number gets to high management is alerted to investigate why so much is occurring and take action to correct the problem and speed up the milking parlor.

Lastly, because the chart is a moving window of history, management can easily move forward or back in time to see when milkers started and when they stopped. The entire wash cycle is also displayed. Its like having a set of eyes on the parlor 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

The picture becomes crystal clear!
The previous report does a good job of illustrating when problems occurred and how long they lasted. When it is discovered that the operators failed to respond to problems in a timely manner, management needs to know when things happened so they can take corrective action to avoid similar occurrences in the future. With a simple click of a mouse, the following chart appears. This chart gives a precise illustration of what has taken place with each and every cow milked. An explanation of the chart is as follows... The numbers on the left represent a stall number. In the case of the chart on this page, this is a double 25 milking parlor, so you see 50 milking stalls. The information on the top represents the day and time of day. The colored bars of data are as follows... When a machine goes on a cow a green bar will start. When the unit comes off the cow the green bar stops. The blue column represents when the first machine goes on for that group of cows and then turns white when the last unit from the group comes off. The white area therefore represents the time it takes for that group of cows to exit and a new group to come in and the first unit to be applied. With this information you can see how each and every cow is being milked. Obviously there is a much bigger picture of what is taking place than just pulsation problems.

More than an equipment monitoring system
As an added benefit of the system you also get a picture as to how the parlor is performing. The report shown above can be automatically printed at the end of a shift or at any time desired. This is a history of the number of cows milked. the average machine on time and idle tome. It also gives you the number of units that were reattached and the percentage it represent of all the cows milked that day. The information is displayed for the last 24 hours as well as the daily average for the last three, seven, fifteen and thirty days. With this information it is possible to implement improvements in parlor procedures, take-off settings and/or pulsation and come back the very next day to see the results of the changes made.

You control pulsation performance

When you install PulsNexus pulsation monitoring system in combination with the BECO MegaFlow pulsators, you get even more control of pulsation performance. You can set the pulsation rates and ratios of every pulsator through the computer network. PulsNexus can also be programmed to turn off the pulsator when each cow has finished milking. This feature can greatly reduce the wear and tear on the pulsator compared to pulsators that run continously. And with BECO MegaFlow pulsators you get larger porting for quicker opening and closing of liners to speed milking without sacrificing critical massage time.
To learn more about the BECO MegaFlow pulsator click here.