GB881022A - Improvements relating to methods and machines for forming and filling capsules of gelatine or like material - Google Patents

Abstract

881,022. Machines for forming capsules. MEHTA, M. K., and MEHTA, M. July 23, 1958 [July 24, 1957], No. 23393/57. Class 94(1). A machine for forming capsules containing granular materials simultaneously produces and fills cavities in two webs which are then sealed together and severed along the peripheries of the cavities to produce the capsules. The webs 9 pass over heater drums 1 having staggered rows of apertures, the bases of which are closed by pistons 4. Above each drum is a hopper 300 for powder, containing a helical agitator 306 and having in its base a rotary feed member 303 with pockets 301 for receiving charges of the material. As each row of filled pockets and drum apertures comes into alignment, the pistons 4 recede inwards to draw the webs into the apertures, and cam operated plungers 306 discharge the material into the cavities so formed. Just prior to the webs being nipped between the drums, the pistons 4 begin to move radially outwards so as to remove air from the cavities prior to sealing and severing continued outward movement of the pistons after sealing insures ejection of any capsules adhering to the drums. Capsules remaining on the web are ejected by a pair of rollers, Fig. 1 (not shown), between which the web passes and which rotate in the opposite direction to its movement. Each hopper may feed a different power so as to produce a capsule containing two materials. According to the Provisional Specification, a partition may be arranged to separate the materials.