JPH1173507A - Size parameter inspection device for inspected body - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make uniform size parameters of inspected body which are produced in time series by obtaining the relative permissible values of the size parameters of the inspected bodies according to a calculated mean value. SOLUTION: A relative permissible upper-limit value decision part 7 sends only data which never exceed a relative permissible upper-limit value among data within an absolute permissible range to a relative permissible lower-limit value decision part 8. Area data exceeding the relative permissible upper-limit value, on the other hand, are decided as an area defect by a 3rd comparison part 18, which outputs an area defect signal C3. The relative permissible lower- limit value decision part 8 decides a case wherein there are area data which do not reach the relative permissible lower-limit value among area data less than the relative permissible lower-limit value and in such a case, a 4th comparison part 21 decides an area defect and outputs an area defect signal C4. Thus, only tablets having area data within the relative permissible range among area data within the absolute permissible range are left on the production line.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to, for example, PTP (P
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting size parameters such as area and perimeter of tablets (including capsules) packed in a less-through-package sheet. The present invention relates to a device for inspecting a size parameter of an object to be inspected for inspecting a degree.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art After supplying a circular (including a perfect circle and an ellipse) tablet to a pocket portion of a PVC sheet, a PTP sheet is used.
It is manufactured by thermocompression bonding an aluminum film to the back of the PVC sheet so as to seal these pockets. The PTP sheet tablet thus manufactured is inspected in a state where the tablet is supplied to the pocket portion to determine whether or not the area representing the size of the tablet is within a predetermined range (absolute allowable range). The absolute allowable range of the tablet to be inspected defines the allowable range (upper limit and lower limit) of the amount of the drug as a tablet.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an appearance inspection apparatus used as a conventional PTP sheet tablet area inspection apparatus as an inspection object size parameter inspection apparatus. The appearance inspection apparatus includes a transport device 31 for transporting a PVC sheet (which is later formed into a PTP sheet by thermocompression bonding of an aluminum film) 30 and a PVC transported by the transport device 31.
A strobe 32 for irradiating the sheet 30 from below the PVC sheet 30, and a PVC sheet 3 irradiated by the strobe 32
An imaging device 33 composed of a CCD camera or the like that captures 0 from above the PVC sheet 30; an image processing device 34 that processes image data output from the imaging device 33 and inspects the area of the tablet; As a result of the inspection, a discharge control device 35 that discharges a PTP sheet tablet whose tablet area is determined not to be within the predetermined range, and a discharge device 36 controlled by the discharge control device 35 are provided.

[0004] The operation of the conventional inspection apparatus will be described below. The transport device 31 outputs a transport timing signal, and the strobe 32 and the imaging device 33 synchronize the illumination timing and the imaging timing, respectively, based on the transport timing signal. The image processing device 34 captures the image signal from the imaging device 33 and inspects the tablets on the PVC sheet according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

Hereinafter, the operation of the image processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step S31, image data from the imaging device is fetched. When capturing the image data, A / D conversion is performed by a known method, and binarization processing based on contrast is performed. When the image data is captured, it is next determined in step S32 whether or not there is PVC sheet image data.
Proceeding to 33, the tablet is inspected in step S33. In this tablet inspection, the number (N) and area (S) of tablets are calculated from the captured binary image data, and these values are stored. In step S34, a parameter J relating to the number (N) of tablets to be processed with the image data is initialized, and in step S35, the parameter J is updated.

Then, in step S36, it is first determined whether or not the area S (J = 1) of the first tablet is between the absolute upper limit value AH and the absolute lower limit value AL.
The absolute allowable upper limit value AH defines the maximum value of one tablet, and the absolute allowable lower limit value AL defines the minimum value of one tablet, and is not within the range of these values. Tablets must be discharged.

If it is determined in step S36 that the tablet is in the range of the absolute allowable value, the process proceeds to step S37. On the other hand, in step S36, it is determined that the tablet is not in the range of these values (absolute allowable value). If it is determined, the process proceeds to step S38, and the discharge information is output to the discharge control device 3.
Then, the process proceeds to step S37. Then, the same processing is repeated the same number of times as the number of areas stored in step S33.

FIG. 6 shows an inspection result by a conventional inspection apparatus. Tablets whose area S is not in the range between the absolute upper limit value AH and the absolute lower limit value AL are ejected, and tablets in the range are discharged. Only are acceptable as PTP sheet tablets,
Pass size parameter (area) inspection. In FIG. 6, I (a) and I (c) to I (d) are ejected because they are not within the range of the absolute allowable value, but I (b) passes the size inspection without being ejected.

[0009]

However, in the conventional inspection apparatus, as described above, all the tablets in the range of the absolute allowable value are allowed as the allowable range.
Within one PTP sheet, tablets may be included in which the size parameter (area) of one tablet accidentally differs from the size parameter of another tablet.

FIG. 7 shows such a PTP sheet tablet. FIG. 7 shows a case where the size parameter (area) of the second tablet 40a among the plurality (for example, 10) of PTP sheet tablets 40 is slightly smaller than the other ones. Although all of these tablets are within the range of the absolute allowable value, only one tablet 40a is slightly smaller than the other tablets, so that the difference in the size of the tablets is conspicuous. . This corresponds to I (b) shown in FIG.
Pass the size parameter check. When such a PTP sheet tablet is manufactured, shipped, and delivered to the patient's hand, the difference in the size of the tablet seems abnormal, and the patient holding such a PTP sheet tablet becomes anxious. .

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a conventional problem, and it is an object of the present invention to detect a case where a size parameter of a test object produced in time series is changed accidentally. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to obtain an inspection object size parameter inspection apparatus capable of aligning size parameters of an inspection object produced in time series.

[0012]

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention relates to an image pickup means (an image pickup device 33 such as a CCD camera) for picking up a plurality of test objects (PTP sheet tablets) in time series. ), A size parameter calculating unit (area calculating unit) 4 for calculating a size parameter (area S (k)) of the inspection object based on an image signal captured by the image capturing unit, and the size parameter calculating unit Means for calculating the average value of the size parameter of the inspection object by cumulatively adding the size parameter calculated by the above and dividing the cumulative added value by the cumulative number (cumulative average value calculating unit 9) And a relative allowable value (a relative allowable upper limit value RH and a relative allowable lower limit value RL) of the size parameter of the inspection object based on the average value calculated by the average value calculating means. Relative tolerance calculating means for determining (relative permissible upper limit value calculating unit 17 and the relative tolerance lower limit calculating section 2
0), and a relative allowance value determining means (for determining whether or not the size parameter of the inspection object calculated by the size parameter calculating means is within the range of the relative allowance value calculated by the relative allowance value calculating means ( And a third comparing section 18 and a fourth comparing section 21).

According to such a configuration, since the history data can be considered as the allowable value, it is possible to detect, for example, a case where the size parameter of the test object manufactured in time series suddenly changes. By excluding such an inspection object from the production line, an inspection object whose size parameter is uniform in time series can be manufactured.

Further, the present invention provides a method for determining whether a size parameter of an inspection object calculated by the size parameter calculating means is within a range of a predetermined absolute allowable value (an absolute allowable upper limit value AH and an absolute allowable lower limit value AL). It further includes absolute allowable value determination means (first comparison section 12 and second comparison section 15) for determining whether or not the determination is affirmative.

According to such a configuration, when the size parameter of the inspection object slowly changes in time series, and the size parameter greatly changes (exceeds the absolute allowable value) over a long period of time. Can be detected, and the inspection object exceeding the absolute allowable value can be discharged from the production line.

Further, in the present invention, the average value calculating means (cumulative average value calculating section 9) is configured to determine, by the absolute allowable value determining means, an object to be inspected which is determined to be out of the range of the absolute allowable value. It is configured not to perform addition.

According to such a configuration, since the size parameters of the tablets to be cumulatively added can be limited to those within the absolute allowable range, the variation of the size parameters can be effectively prevented.

Note that the size parameter of the object to be inspected suddenly falls within the absolute allowable range due to a certain cause (for example, a change in the lot), because those within the relative allowable range are subject to cumulative addition. Even if the product is manufactured continuously outside the allowable range, these size parameters will contribute to the calculation of the relative allowable value. Parameters can be automatically placed within relative tolerances.

In the present invention, the inspection object is a PTP sheet tablet.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to PT.
An example of a P sheet tablet area inspection apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a PTP sheet tablet area inspection apparatus according to Embodiment 1. The overall configuration of this area inspection apparatus is substantially the same as the conventional PTP sheet tablet appearance inspection apparatus shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 1 mainly shows the internal configuration of the image processing apparatus shown in FIG.

The area inspection apparatus 1 includes a signal pre-processing unit 2 that performs noise removal, D / A conversion, binarization processing, and the like on an image signal from the imaging device 33, and an output image from the signal pre-processing unit 2. An image memory 3 for capturing a signal over one frame;
An area calculator 4 is provided for calculating an area based on the image signal taken into the image memory 3.

Further, the area inspection apparatus 1 includes an area calculation unit 4
Absolute upper limit determining unit 5 for determining whether or not the input area data S is equal to or smaller than the absolute allowable upper limit, and the area determined to be equal to or smaller than the absolute allowable upper limit by the absolute allowable upper limit determining unit 5. Data S1 is input, and the area data S
An absolute allowable lower limit determining unit 6 that determines whether 1 is equal to or greater than the absolute allowable lower limit, and area data S2 determined to be equal to or greater than the absolute allowable lower limit by the absolute allowable lower limit determining unit 6 are input. A relative allowable upper limit value determining unit 7 that determines whether or not the area data S2 is equal to or less than a relative allowable upper limit value, and the area data S3 that is determined by the relative allowable upper limit value determining unit 7 to be equal to or less than the relative allowable upper limit value. A relative permissible lower limit determining unit 8 for determining whether or not the area data S3 is greater than or equal to the relative permissible lower limit.

Further, the area inspection apparatus 1 accumulatively adds the area data S2 which is equal to or larger than the absolute allowable lower limit value (within the absolute allowable range) output from the absolute allowable lower limit value judging section 6 and accumulates the cumulative added value. A cumulative average value calculating unit 9 for calculating a cumulative average value S (AVE) by dividing by a number (here, 100) is provided, and a control unit 10 for controlling operations of the processing unit, the arithmetic unit, and the like is provided.

The absolute allowable upper limit value judging section 5 outputs the absolute allowable upper limit value setting section 11 for setting the absolute allowable upper limit value, and the absolute allowable upper limit value set in the absolute allowable upper limit setting section 11 and the area calculating section 4. A first comparing unit 12 for comparing the obtained area data with the obtained area data, and when the area data S is equal to or smaller than the absolute allowable upper limit value based on the comparison result of the first comparing unit 12, The lower limit value judging section 6 outputs the area data S
And a first gate 13 for sending as 1.

The absolute allowable lower limit determining unit 6 sets an absolute allowable lower limit setting unit 14 for setting an absolute allowable lower limit, an absolute allowable lower limit set in the absolute allowable lower limit setting unit 14 and an output from the first gate 13. A second comparison with the obtained area data S1
When the area data S1 is equal to or larger than the absolute allowable lower limit value based on the comparison result of the comparing unit 15 and the second comparing unit 15, the area data S1 is compared with the next relative allowable upper limit value determining unit 7.
And a second gate 16 for sending the cumulative average value calculation unit 9 as area data S2.

The relative permissible upper limit value determining unit 7 calculates a relative permissible upper limit value based on the cumulative average value obtained from the cumulative average value calculating unit 9, and a relative permissible upper limit value calculating unit 17. 17 and the second relative allowable upper limit calculated by
Based on the comparison result of the third comparing unit 18 that compares the area data S2 sent from the gate 16 with the third comparing unit 18, when the area data is equal to or less than the relative allowable upper limit value, And a third gate 19 for sending the data as the area data S3 to the relative permissible lower limit value determination unit 8.

Here, the relative permissible upper limit calculating section 17 calculates a value which is larger by 5% than the cumulative average value and sets this value as the relative permissible upper limit RH. The cumulative average value used at this time is sent from the second gate 16 to the third comparing unit 1
8 does not include the area data that is currently being compared, but whether to include it is only a matter of design.

The relative allowable lower limit determining unit 8 calculates a relative allowable lower limit based on the cumulative average value obtained from the cumulative average calculating unit 9, and a relative allowable lower limit calculating unit 20. 20 and the relative lower limit value calculated by
And a fourth comparing unit 21 for comparing the area data sent from the gate 19 with the fourth comparing unit 21. Here, the relative permissible lower limit value calculation unit 20 calculates a value that is 5% smaller than the cumulative average value, and sets this value as the relative permissible lower limit value RL.

The main operation of the first embodiment will be described below. The absolute allowable upper limit determining unit 5 sends only the area data equal to or smaller than the absolute allowable upper limit to the absolute allowable lower limit determining unit 6. On the other hand, for area data exceeding the absolute allowable upper limit value, the first comparing unit 12 determines that the area is defective, and outputs an area defect signal C1 to the discharge control device 35. Thereafter, the tablets having the area defect are discharged from the production line in PTP sheet units.

The absolute allowable lower limit value judging section 6 sends only the area data having the absolute allowable lower limit value or more to the relative allowable upper limit value judging section 7 and the cumulative average value calculating section 9. On the other hand, for the area data less than the absolute allowable lower limit, the second comparing unit 15 determines that the area is defective, and outputs the area defect signal C2 to the discharge control device 35. Thereafter, the tablets having the area defect are discharged from the production line in PTP sheet units.

In this way, only the area data within the absolute allowable range is selected, and it is determined whether or not this data is included within the relative allowable range next, and is used as data for calculating the cumulative average value.

The relative allowable upper limit value judging section 7 sends only the area data not exceeding the relative allowable upper limit value to the relative allowable lower limit value judging section 8 among the data within the absolute allowable range. On the other hand, for the area data exceeding the relative allowable upper limit value, the third comparing unit 18 determines that the area is defective, and outputs the area defect signal C3 to the discharge control device 35. Thereafter, the tablets having the area defect are discharged from the production line in PTP sheet units.

The relative permissible lower limit value judging section 8 judges that there is area data that does not exceed the relative permissible lower limit value for the area data that does not exceed the relative permissible upper limit value. The comparing unit 21 determines that the area is defective, and outputs an area defect signal C4 to the discharge control device 35.
Thereafter, the tablets having the area defect are discharged from the production line in PTP sheet units.

Thus, only the tablets having the area data within the relative allowable range among the area data within the absolute allowable range remain on the manufacturing line, and the tablets having the uniform area in time series It will be produced in.

FIG. 2 shows an operation result according to the first embodiment. The relative allowable upper limit value RH and the relative allowable lower limit value RL of the measured area data (shown by a solid line) are substantially the actual measured values. Follow with a difference of ± 5%. Therefore, not only I (B) but also tablets that are in the absolute allowable range indicated by I (a) or I (c) but not in the relative allowable range are ejected. A PTP sheet tablet having uniform grains (area) is manufactured.

As shown in the section between I (1) and I (2) in FIG. 2, the relative allowable lower limit AL is equal to the absolute allowable lower limit A.
In some cases, the area may be smaller than L. In this case, the range of the absolute allowable lower limit AL is prioritized, and the area range is determined based on the value of the absolute allowable lower limit AL. When the relative allowable upper limit RH exceeds the absolute allowable upper limit AH, the same processing as described above is performed, and the area range is determined.

Embodiment 2 Next, FIG. 3 shows a configuration when the image processing of the present invention is performed using a personal computer.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, for simplification of the description, an outline of this operation will be described. It is as follows.

(1) L calculated in the past (up to the present)
A cumulative average value of (L = 100) pieces of area data is obtained.
In this case, data outside the absolute allowable range are excluded from the data of the cumulative average. (2) When the cumulative average value is obtained, a relative allowable range (relative allowable upper limit value RH, relative allowable lower limit value RL) of ± 5% is calculated with the cumulative average value as a center value. in this case,
RH = cumulative average value × 1.05, RL = cumulative average value × 0.
95.

(3) Next, the newly obtained (L + 1)
It is determined whether or not the area data is within the absolute allowable range. If the data is within the absolute allowable range, it is next determined whether the area data is within the relative allowable range. If it is within the relative allowable range, the inspection is continued with "no abnormality".
This area data is used as data of a new cumulative average value. (4) On the other hand, when the newly obtained area data is out of the absolute allowable range or the relative allowable range, it is determined that “abnormality exists”, and the PTP sheet including the tablet is discharged. In this case, if the area data is out of the absolute allowable range, it is excluded from the data of the cumulative average, but if it is within the absolute allowable range, even if it is out of the relative allowable range, the area data is excluded from the cumulative average. Used as data for

(5) At the initial stage just after the start of the inspection, if there are not L data yet, the area data initially found (within the absolute allowable range) is not sufficient. Used instead.

FIG. 3 shows the above procedure more specifically.
It is. Hereinafter, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step S11, a parameter n representing the number of tablets obtained in time series is initialized. Next, in step S12, a parameter J representing the number of tablets to be processed in one image is initialized. Then, in step S13, the image data is fetched. In step S14, the presence or absence of the PVC sheet image data is determined. If yes, the process proceeds to step S15. In step S15, the number N of tablets and the area A (k) (k = 1... N) are calculated and stored using the captured image data. Here, N represents the number of tablets in one PTP sheet, for example.

When the area and number of tablets are obtained in step S15, the parameter J is updated in step S16. In step S17, the value of S (n) is set to the value of A (J), and An area inspection is performed.

First, in step S18, S (n)
Is determined to be within the absolute allowable range. If it is within the absolute allowable range, it is determined in step S19 whether or not the value of n is 1. This step S19 determines whether or not the area data is the first value. If it is determined that the area value is the first value, the process proceeds to step S21, where
The values of the L registers (n) to S (n−L + 1) are represented by S
(N), that is, the value of S (1). This is because the value of S (1) is used as the initial value of the L cumulative average values. Then, in step S22, these values are accumulated (added), and the added value is set as SUM.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S18 that the value of S (n) is not within the absolute allowable range, the process proceeds to step S18.
At 20, the tablet ejection information is transferred, and the process proceeds to step S29 described later.

In step S19, the value of n is 1
If not, the process proceeds to step S23, where it is determined whether the value of S (n) is within the relative allowable range. If it is within the relative allowable range, in step S25, this value is cumulatively added, the area data obtained L times earlier is removed from the cumulative added value, and the data is updated while keeping the cumulative added data L times.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S23 that the tablet is not within the relative allowable range, the ejection information of the tablet is transferred in step S24, and the flow advances to step S25.

When the cumulative addition is obtained in step S25, the value is divided by the cumulative number L in step S26 to obtain the average value S (AVE).
In step S27, the relative allowable upper limit RH is determined as a value 5% larger than the average S (AVE), and the relative allowable lower limit RL is determined as a value 5% lower than the average S (AVE).

When the relative permissible upper limit RH and the relative permissible lower limit RL are obtained in step S27, the value of n is updated in step S28, and in step S29, whether the value of J is equal to N (the processing is performed in one Is determined by the number of PTP sheets), and if J is equal to N, the process returns to step S12 to perform the next image processing.

On the other hand, if J is not equal to N in step S29, it is determined that the processing has not yet been completed for all tablets on one PTP sheet and step S16.
Return to

In the embodiment of the present invention described above, for example, before the L area data is obtained, the unmeasured area data among the L data to be cumulatively added is first Is used as a substitute, but in such an initial stage, the accumulated number L is varied until the area data is sufficiently obtained. The value may be gradually increased. Further, in the embodiment, the relative allowable range is fixed within the range of 5%. However, particularly in this initial stage, this width may be slightly increased, and then gradually reduced to finally 5%. .

In the case where a value outside the relative allowable range is continuously obtained even within the absolute allowable range, it is considered that the change is due to, for example, a change in lot, and such a state is detected. For example, a process of temporarily changing the relative allowable range to a larger value may be performed.

In the embodiment, the PTP sheet tablet is taken as an example to be inspected, and the area of the tablet is taken as an example of the size parameter. However, the present invention is limited to such an embodiment. For example, “length” may be handled as the size parameter.

[0054]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the inspection object size parameter inspection apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to detect the case where the size parameter of the inspection object produced in time series is changed accidentally. Therefore, there is an effect that the size parameters of the test objects produced in time series can be made uniform.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing an operation result of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a PTP sheet tablet appearance inspection apparatus as a conventional technique.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the conventional technique.

FIG. 6 is a time chart showing an operation result of the conventional technique.

FIG. 7 is a view showing a PTP sheet tablet showing an operation result of the conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 3 Image memory 4 Area calculator 5 Absolute upper limit determination unit 6 Absolute lower limit determiner 7 Relative upper limit determiner 8 Relative lower limit determiner 9 Cumulative average value calculator 11 Absolute upper limit setting unit 12th 1 comparison unit 14 absolute permissible lower limit setting unit 15 second comparator 17 relative permissible upper limit calculator 18 third comparator 20 relative permissible lower limit calculator 21 fourth comparator

Claims (4)

[Claims] An imaging unit configured to time-sequentially image a plurality of inspection objects; a size parameter calculation unit configured to calculate a size parameter of the inspection object based on an image signal captured by the imaging unit; Average value calculating means for calculating the average value of the size parameter of the inspected object by cumulatively adding the size parameter calculated by the size parameter calculating means and dividing the obtained cumulative added value by the cumulative number. A relative allowance value calculating means for calculating a relative allowable value of the size parameter of the object based on the average value calculated by the average value calculating means; and a size parameter of the object calculated by the size parameter calculating means. A relative allowance value determining means for determining whether or not the value is within a range of the relative allowance value calculated by the relative allowance value calculating means. Inspection device for size parameter of inspection object. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an absolute allowable value determining unit configured to determine whether the size parameter of the inspection object calculated by the size parameter calculating unit is within a range of a predetermined absolute allowable value. 2. The apparatus for inspecting a size parameter of an inspection object according to claim 1. 3. The average value calculating means is configured not to perform the cumulative addition for the test object determined to be out of the range of the absolute allowable value by the absolute allowable value determining means. A size parameter inspection apparatus for an object to be inspected as described in the above. 4. The apparatus for inspecting a size parameter of an inspection object according to claim 1, wherein the inspection object is a PTP sheet tablet.