GB882494A - Adjustable tablet counter and container filling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

882,494. Shoots. LAKSO CO. Inc. Feb. 26 1959, No. 6745/59. Class 78 (1). [Also in Groups XVII and XIX] An apparatus for counting and feeding tablets into bottles comprises a shoot 16, Fig. 1, an inclined table 24 having a number of parallel channels 66 feeding into the shoot, a retractable pin at the lower end of each channel and a common gate 70 at an upper end of the channels whereby a predetermined number of articles can be located between the pins 62 and the gate 70, and means retracting the pins 62 in a manner permitting the continued progress of the tablets seriatim with respect to the several lines of tablets so that the lines are combined as a single delivery line of articles for disposition in the bottle. As described, the apparatus has several shoots 16, one for each of a plurality of bottles to be filled and there are three channels 66 for each shoot 16. The pins 62 associated with a set of channels 66 are marked A, B, C, Fig. 11. During a filling operation the pins 62 are retracted in sequence such that first all A pins, then all B pins, and finally all C pins are retracted, to permit the three channels per bottle to be discharged in turn. To preset the number of tablets per bottle 14, the position of a bridge member 54, Fig. 7, carrying the pins 62, is adjusted relatively to the common gate 70. Finer adjustments, for example when twentyfive tablets are to be passed into each bottle, are facilitated by staggered holes 72 in the bridge member 54, whereby the pins A and C can be spaced from the gate 70 to give, say, eight tablets per channel and the pins B can be staggered to give nine tablets per channel. The channels 66 are covered by a transparent plate 82 adjustable such that the tablets 68 cannot escape from the channels 66 in an upward direction under pressure from those behind.