CN213263187U

CN213263187U - Shell-shaped tooth appliance packaging system and tray rack thereof

Info

Publication number: CN213263187U
Application number: CN202021293526.0U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐希羊; 梁晓辉; 黄雷
Original assignee: Wuxi Ea Medical Instruments Technologies Ltd
Current assignee: Wuxi Ea Medical Instruments Technologies Ltd
Priority date: 2020-07-02
Filing date: 2020-07-02
Publication date: 2021-05-25
Anticipated expiration: 2030-07-02

Abstract

An aspect of the utility model provides a tray frame that uses in ware production is rescued to shelly tooth for put the tray, the tray is used for loading shelly tooth and rescues the ware, and it includes a plurality of palace check, and each palace check are used for holding the shelly tooth that will be packed in same wrapping bag and rescued the ware, the bottom of tray is made by printing opacity material, tray frame below is equipped with the pilot lamp array, pilot lamp wherein with the palace check one-to-one of tray for guide operating personnel to carry out corresponding access operation to corresponding palace check.

Description

Shell-shaped tooth appliance packaging system and tray rack thereof

Technical Field

The present invention generally relates to shell-shaped dental appliance packaging systems.

Background

Shell-like dental appliances based on polymeric materials are becoming more and more popular due to their aesthetic, convenient and easy cleaning benefits. Repositioning a patient's teeth from an original arrangement to a desired arrangement typically requires a number of successive shell appliances, for example tens or even hundreds of shell appliances. This creates a large demand for shell-like dental instruments and also presents a great challenge to the production of shell-like dental instruments.

At present, the packaging of the shell-shaped tooth appliance mainly depends on manual work, for example, an operator manually reads a code on the shell-shaped tooth appliance to judge the corresponding correction step, then the shell-shaped tooth appliance is packaged into a packaging bag which is manually labeled in advance and corresponds to the correction step, and then the packaging bag is sealed. The inventor finds that the manual participation degree of the packaging method of the shell-shaped appliance is high, and the information checking is tedious, so that the error proofing performance is poor and the efficiency is low.

In view of the above, there is a need to provide a new packaging system for shell-shaped dental appliances.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

An aspect of the utility model provides a ware packaging system is rescued to shelly tooth, include: computer, tray loading apparatus and equipment for packing, wherein, the computer is connected and is controlled tray loading apparatus and equipment for packing, the tray loading apparatus includes: the first tray frame is used for placing a tray to be loaded with a shell-shaped tooth appliance, the tray comprises a plurality of grids, each grid is used for accommodating the shell-shaped tooth appliance to be packaged in the same packaging bag, the bottom of the tray is made of a light-transmitting material, a first indicator light array is arranged below the first tray frame, indicator lights correspond to the grids of the tray one by one and are used for guiding an operator to put the shell-shaped tooth appliance into the corresponding grid of the tray, and the first image sensor is used for collecting an identity code on the shell-shaped tooth appliance and providing the identity code to the computer, so that the computer can control a corresponding indicator light in the first indicator light array to light according to the identity code received by the first image sensor so as to guide the operator to put the current shell-shaped tooth appliance into the corresponding grid of the tray, the packaging apparatus comprises: the second tray frame is used for placing a tray loaded with shell-shaped tooth appliances to be packaged, a second indicator light array is arranged below the second tray frame, indicator lights of the second tray frame correspond to the cells of the tray one by one and are used for prompting an operator that the next shell-shaped tooth appliance to be packaged is located in the cell, a packaging coil supply device is used for supplying packaging bag coils, a printing device is used for printing packaging identification information on the packaging bag coils, a second image sensor is used for acquiring an identity code on the shell-shaped tooth appliance and supplying the identity code to the computer, so that the computer can acquire the packaging identification information of the shell-shaped tooth appliance loaded on the current tray according to the identity code received by the second image sensor, the computer controls the indicator lights in the second indicator light array to light according to a specific sequence to prompt the operator that the next shell-shaped tooth appliance to be packaged is located in the cell, and controlling the printing device to print corresponding package identification information at the current package coiled material position.

In some embodiments, at least one of the first tray rack and the second tray rack can be tilted at an angle to facilitate access of the shell-shaped dental appliance by an operator.

In some embodiments, the packaging web supply may include a switchable multi-roll feeding mechanism to provide different packaging webs for different batches of shell-shaped dental appliances.

In some embodiments, the packaging web supply may include an empty sensor that generates a signal when the front package is removed and sends the signal to the computer, and the computer, upon receiving the signal, controls a corresponding indicator light of the second array of indicator lights to illuminate to indicate to the operator the next bay in which the shell-shaped dental appliance to be packaged is located.

In some embodiments, the shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system may further include a buffer rack between the tray loading device and the packaging device for buffering loaded trays and/or empty trays.

In some embodiments, the shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system can further comprise a sealing device for sealing the package.

The utility model discloses a still another aspect provides a tray frame that uses in ware production is rescued to shelly tooth for put the tray, the tray is used for loading shelly tooth and rescues the ware, and it includes a plurality of palace check, and each palace check are used for holding the shelly tooth that will be packed in same wrapping bag and rescued the ware, the bottom of tray is made by printing opacity material, tray frame below is equipped with the pilot lamp array, pilot lamp wherein with the palace check one-to-one of tray for guide operating personnel to carry out corresponding access operation to corresponding palace check.

In some embodiments, the tray stand is angled to facilitate access to the shell-shaped dental appliance by an operator.

In some embodiments, the tray rack is formed with a fool-proof structure that mates with the tray to avoid misorientation of the tray placement.

Drawings

The above and other features of the present application will be further explained with reference to the accompanying drawings and detailed description thereof. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only several exemplary embodiments in accordance with the disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The drawings are not necessarily to scale and wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts, unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a shell-like dental appliance packaging system in one embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification. The exemplary embodiments mentioned in the description and the drawings are only for illustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application. Those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that many other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present application. It should be understood that the aspects of the present application, as described and illustrated herein, may be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are within the scope of the present application.

A shell-shaped dental appliance is an integral shell that forms a cavity for receiving a plurality of teeth, and the cavity has a geometry that repositions the teeth from a current configuration to a next configuration, typically, the geometry of the cavity substantially matches a target tooth configuration for the corrective step to which the shell-shaped appliance corresponds.

When a plurality of shell-shaped tooth appliances are delivered to a patient, the shell-shaped tooth appliances of each correction step are packaged separately, and each packaging bag is provided with relevant information corresponding to the correction step, including the number of the correction step, so that the patient can use the appliance conveniently. In the case of correction of only a single jaw (upper jaw or lower jaw), each pack contains only one shell-shaped dental appliance. In the case of simultaneous correction of the upper and lower jaws, some packets are equipped with two shell-shaped appliances for the upper and lower jaws to be worn simultaneously.

In order to solve the problems of the conventional packing method for the shell-shaped dental appliance, the inventors of the present application have made extensive efforts to develop a new packing system for the shell-shaped dental appliance.

Referring to FIG. 1, a shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system 100 in one embodiment of the present application is schematically illustrated.

The shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system 100 includes a computer 101, a tray loading apparatus 103, a buffer rack 105, and a packaging apparatus 107, wherein the computer 101 controls the tray loading apparatus 103 and the packaging apparatus 107.

The tray loading device 103 is used to place a batch of shell-shaped dental appliances in the corresponding cells of the tray, respectively, in a predetermined order for subsequent packaging.

In one embodiment, a batch of shell-shaped dental appliances belongs to the same patient. In one embodiment, the shell-shaped dental appliances of one patient may comprise a plurality of batches.

The tray loading device 103 includes an image sensor 1031 for capturing an identification code on the shell-like dental appliance. In one embodiment, the identity code on the shell-shaped dental appliance may be a two-dimensional code. It will be appreciated that the identification code on the shell-shaped dental appliance may be any other type of identification code, such as a bar code, numbers, letters, combinations thereof, and the like, as taught herein.

The tray loading device 103 further comprises a tray rack 1033 for placing the tray, and indicator lights (not shown) corresponding to the tray cells one to one are provided below the tray rack for guiding the operator to place the shell-shaped dental appliance in the cell corresponding to the tray. In this embodiment, the bottom of the tray is light transmissive so that light emitted by the indicator light is visible through the tray. The tray is provided with a plurality of cells, each of which is used for placing one or more shell-shaped dental appliances to be packaged in the same packaging bag, such as upper and lower jaw shell-shaped dental appliances which are worn simultaneously. For cases where only the upper or lower jaw needs to wear a shell appliance, only one shell appliance may be placed per cell. It can be understood that the number and arrangement of the grids on the tray can be determined according to specific requirements.

When loading the tray, the operator first obtains a batch of shell-shaped dental appliances to be loaded onto the tray. Then, an empty tray is placed on the tray holder 1033. Then, any one of the batch of shell-shaped dental appliances is taken, and the image sensor 1031 reads the identification code thereon. In one embodiment, the computer 101 controls the image sensor 1031 to capture an image of the shell-shaped dental appliance and identify the identification code therein. After identifying the identity code of the shell-shaped dental appliance, the computer 101 obtains the data packet of the batch of shell-shaped dental appliances according to the identity code, which may include the corresponding orthodontic step information for each of the batch of shell-shaped dental appliances.

Then, the operator takes out the shell-shaped dental appliances of the batch one by one, reads the identification codes thereon by the image sensor 1031, and after obtaining the identification code of each shell-shaped dental appliance, the computer 101 controls the corresponding indicator light below the tray holder 1033 to light up according to the placement positions of the shell-shaped dental appliances on the tray, so as to guide the operator to place the corresponding indicator light in the corresponding grid of the tray. By the time the last shell dental appliance of the batch is placed on the tray, the tray is loaded and transferred to the buffer 105 for placement for subsequent processing.

In one embodiment, the placement of the shell-like dental appliances on the tray for a batch may be in the order of the appliances steps, or in any particular order, so long as the computer 101 records the order and follows the order in subsequent operations.

In one embodiment, the indicator light may be an LED light. In one embodiment, the computer 101 may control the indicator light array through a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC).

It will be appreciated that the indicator lights may also be provided on the tray, and may be connected to the computer 101 or PLC by providing corresponding contacts.

In one embodiment, the tray and tray holder 1033 are configured with fool-proof structures, such as pin and slot mating structures, so that the tray can only be placed on the tray holder 1033 in the correct orientation to avoid disorienting the placement of the shell-shaped dental appliances due to incorrect placement.

In one embodiment, the pallet rack 1033 is tilted at an angle such that the pallet when placed thereon is directed toward the operator for ease of handling.

The packaging apparatus 107 includes a tray holder 1071, an image sensor 1073, a marking device 1075, and a packaging web supply 1077.

In packaging, the operator first takes a tray loaded with shell-like dental appliances from the bumper bracket 105 and places it on the tray bracket 1071. Similar to the tray holder 1033, the tray holder 1071 may also be tilted at an angle to orient a tray placed thereon toward the operator for ease of handling; an indicator light array which is in one-to-one correspondence with each grid of the tray is also arranged below the tray; and a foolproof structure is also arranged to avoid the situation that the shell-shaped tooth appliance on the tray is disordered in sequence due to the wrong placement direction of the tray.

Next, the operator takes any one of the shell-shaped dental appliances from the tray on the tray rack 1071, and reads the identification code thereon with the image sensor 1073. In one embodiment, the computer 101 controls the image sensor 1073 to capture an image of the shell-shaped dental appliance and identify the identification code therein. After identifying the identity code of the shell-shaped dental appliance, the computer 101 obtains the placing sequence of the batch of shell-shaped dental appliances on the tray and the package label information according to the identity code.

Then, the computer 101 may control an indicator light under the tray holder 1071 to light up according to a specific sequence to inform an operator that the tray is currently required to be packaged with the shell-shaped dental appliance in the corresponding grid, and the computer 101 may simultaneously control the packaging coil supply device 1077 to supply a packaging coil and control the marking device 1075 to print a corresponding label on the packaging coil according to the packaging label information. After the label of current wrapping bag printed and finishes, operating personnel rescued the ware with the shell form tooth in the palace check of bright light and take out, put into accomplish the wrapping bag that the label was printed to utilize closing device to seal this wrapping bag, so far, accomplish the packing that the ware was rescued to the shell form tooth in a palace check. Repeating the above operations until the packaging of all shell-shaped tooth appliances in the tray is completed. At this point, the operator may return the empty tray to the buffer rack 105 for use in the next loading.

In one embodiment, different batches of shell dental appliances may need to be packaged from different rolls, and the roll supply 1077 may include a switchable multi-roll feeding mechanism that provides different rolls for each batch of shell dental appliances. The computer 101 may control the web supply 1077 to switch to the packaging web that the batch of shell appliances should use based on the information from the batch of shell appliances. In one embodiment, the multi-roll feed mechanism may be a dual roll feed mechanism.

The web supply 1077 may also include sensors for use therewith, such as a roll change cue sensor for a current web-out cue; the empty material sensor is used for prompting that the current packaging bag is taken away, and after the computer 101 receives the signal, the next indicator light below the tray frame 1071 can be controlled to light.

It will be appreciated that the pallet loading device 103 and the packaging device 107 may be controlled by the same computer or may each be controlled by a separate computer, in which case the two computers need to be networked directly or indirectly to exchange the necessary information and data.

While various aspects and embodiments of the disclosure are disclosed herein, other aspects and embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to be limiting. The scope and spirit of the application are to be determined only by the claims appended hereto.

Likewise, the various diagrams may illustrate an exemplary architecture or other configuration of the disclosed methods and systems that is useful for understanding the features and functionality that may be included in the disclosed methods and systems. The claimed subject matter is not limited to the exemplary architectures or configurations shown, but rather, the desired features can be implemented using a variety of alternative architectures and configurations. In addition, to the extent that flow diagrams, functional descriptions, and method claims do not follow, the order in which the blocks are presented should not be limited to the various embodiments which perform the recited functions in the same order, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, the terms and phrases used herein, and variations thereof, are to be construed as open-ended as opposed to limiting. In some instances, the presence of an extensible term or phrases such as "one or more," "at least," "but not limited to," or other similar terms should not be construed as intended or required to imply a narrowing in instances where such extensible terms may not be present.

Claims

1. A shell-like dental appliance packaging system, comprising:

a computer, a tray loading device and a packaging device, wherein the computer is connected with and controls the tray loading device and the packaging device,

the tray loading apparatus includes:

the first tray frame is used for placing trays for holding shell-shaped tooth appliances to be loaded, the trays comprise a plurality of grids, each grid is used for accommodating the shell-shaped tooth appliances to be packaged in the same packaging bag, the bottom of each tray is made of a light-transmitting material, a first indicator light array is arranged below the first tray frame, the indicator lights correspond to the grids of the tray one by one and are used for guiding an operator to place the shell-shaped tooth appliances into the corresponding grids of the tray,

the first image sensor is used for acquiring the identity code on the shell-shaped dental appliance and providing the identity code to the computer, so that the computer can control a corresponding indicator lamp in the first indicator lamp array to be turned on according to the identity code received from the first image sensor so as to guide an operator to place the current shell-shaped dental appliance into a corresponding grid of the tray,

the packaging apparatus comprises:

a second tray frame used for placing a tray loaded with shell-shaped tooth correcting devices to be packaged, a second indicator light array is arranged below the second tray frame, wherein the indicator lights correspond to the lattices of the tray one by one and are used for prompting an operator that the next shell-shaped tooth correcting device to be packaged is positioned in the lattice,

a packaging web supply device for supplying a packaging web,

a printing device for printing package identification information on the package roll material,

the second image sensor is used for acquiring the identity code on the shell-shaped dental appliance and providing the identity code to the computer, so that the computer can acquire the package identification information of the shell-shaped dental appliance loaded on the current tray according to the identity code received from the second image sensor,

and the computer controls the indicator lights in the second indicator light array to light according to a preset sequence so as to prompt an operator that the next shell-shaped tooth appliance to be packaged is located in the grid, and controls the printing device to print corresponding package identification information at the current package coiled material position.

2. The shell dental appliance packaging system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first tray shelf and the second tray shelf is angled to facilitate access to the shell dental appliance by an operator.

3. The shell dental appliance packaging system of claim 1, wherein the packaging web supply comprises a switchable multi-roll feed mechanism to provide different packaging webs for different batches of shell dental appliances.

4. The shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system of claim 1, wherein the packaging web supply comprises an empty sensor that generates a signal when the front packaging bag is removed and sends the signal to the computer, and the computer controls a corresponding indicator light of the second array of indicator lights to illuminate when receiving the signal to indicate to an operator the next cell in which the shell-shaped dental appliance is to be packaged.

5. The shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system of claim 1, further comprising a buffer shelf between the tray loading device and the packaging device for buffering loaded trays and/or empty trays.

6. The shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system of claim 1, further comprising a sealing device for sealing the package.

7. The shell dental appliance packaging system of claim 1, wherein each cell of the tray is configured to receive a shell dental appliance for the same appliance step.

8. The shell-shaped dental appliance packaging system of claim 1, wherein the first tray stand and the second tray stand each have a fool-proof structure that cooperates with the tray to prevent misorientation of the tray placement.

9. The utility model provides a tray frame for shell form tooth is rescued ware packaging system, its characterized in that, tray frame is used for putting the tray, the tray is used for loading shell form tooth and is rescued the ware, and it includes a plurality of palaces check, and each palace check is used for holding the shell form tooth that will be packed in same wrapping bag and rescues the ware, the bottom of tray is made by printing opacity material, tray frame below is equipped with the pilot lamp array, pilot lamp wherein with the palace check one-to-one of tray for guide operating personnel to carry out corresponding access operation to corresponding palace check.

10. The tray rack of claim 9, wherein the tray rack is tilted at an angle to facilitate access by an operator to the shell-shaped dental appliance.

11. The tray rack according to claim 9, characterized in that the tray rack is provided with a fool-proof structure cooperating with the tray to avoid misorientation of the tray placement.