US Patent 8001930 System and method for milking animals

A system for milking animals comprises a plurality of milking machines (107), a common vacuum source arrangement (102-105), and a vacuum conduit system (101, 106a-l) connecting each of said milking machines to the common vacuum source arrangement, wherein each of the milking machines is connected to the common vacuum source arrangement via an air flow regulation device (108). Preferably, the common vacuum source arrangement comprises at least one vacuum pump (103-105) and a header tank (102), and each of the air flow regulation devices is provided to regulate the air flow from the milking machine, to which it is connected, to be lower than a threshold value.