JP2001048101A - Device for supplying specified amount of medicine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppy various kinds of medicine by a common device regardless of shapes of medicines and surely supply the medicines one by one without producing any clogged state. SOLUTION: There are provided a medicine storing container 3 having many medicines stored therein; a substantial conical-shaped rotor 4 arranged in the medicine storing container 3 and having fan-shaped storing pockets 7 widened toward an outer circumference in a radial manner; an agitating vane 6 arranged at the medicine storing container 3 so as to be projected out on the outer circumferential surface of the rotor 4; a medicine discharging passage 8 arranged to be communicated with the storing box; 7 a partition wall 9 arranged between the storing pocket 7 and the medicine discharging passage 8; and a first dropping restriction wall 14 arranged to close the opening part of the partition wall 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying a fixed amount of medicine such as tablets and capsules one by one.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a medicine fixed amount supply apparatus for supplying medicines such as tablets and capsules to a medicine packaging part one by one, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-47041, a medicine container is used. In addition, a rotor whose upper surface is inclined downward toward the outer periphery is provided, and a plurality of pockets having a size capable of storing one medicine are provided on the outer periphery of the rotor, and the medicine stored in these pockets is rotated by the rotor. There is known a structure in which the paper is conveyed in the circumferential direction and discharged one by one downward from a discharge port formed in a bottom plate in the medicine container.

[0003]

However, in this type of conventional apparatus, the size of the pocket provided on the outer peripheral portion of the rotor is adjusted so that two or more drugs do not enter the pocket. It is necessary to design according to the size, and if the type (shape, size) of the drug to be supplied changes, another supply device having a different pocket shape must be prepared. Not only is a device necessary and cost is high, but also there is a problem that the operation of storing the drug in a supply device corresponding to the drug when storing the drug is required, and the operation is extremely complicated.

Further, in the rotor structure of the conventional apparatus, it is difficult to reliably store the medicines which are thrown into the medicine container and are in an irregular direction one by one in the pocket. There is a high possibility that a clog will occur between the container and the inner peripheral wall of the container and supply will not be possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and it is possible to supply many kinds of medicines with a common device regardless of the shape of the medicines and to prevent clogging. It is an object of the present invention to provide a medicine constant-quantity supply device capable of supplying medicines one by one without fail.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems and Action / Effect In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a medicine metering / supplying device according to the present invention is provided with a medicine accommodating container accommodating a large number of medicines and provided in the medicine accommodating container. And a substantially conical rotor in which a storage pocket having a divergent shape is formed radially toward the outer peripheral side, and at least one stirring blade provided in the medicine storage container so as to protrude on the outer peripheral surface of the rotor. A medicine discharge passage radially arranged on the outer peripheral side of the rotor so as to communicate with a storage pocket of the rotor,
An arcuate partition wall in plan view provided between the storage pocket and the medicine discharge passage, and a fall regulation in plan arc shape provided on the outer peripheral side of the medicine discharge passage so as to close an opening portion of the partition wall. The partition wall has a curtain-shaped member at the end on the upstream side in the rotation direction of the rotor that can swing at least in the medicine discharge direction.

In the present invention, when a large number of medicines are stored in the medicine storage container and the rotor is rotated, the rotor in the medicine storage container is rotated relative to the fixed stirring blades. While being agitated by the agitating blades, they are stored one by one in the storage pocket formed on the surface of the rotor in the radial direction without clogging. In this way, the medicines stored in the storage pockets are separated one by one by a partition wall provided between the storage pocket and the medicine discharge path when the medicines fall outward from the storage pockets. The dispensed medicines are rotated with the rotation of the rotor in a state where the leading end of the medicine in the conveying direction is in contact with the drop regulating wall, and are dropped and supplied one by one through the opening of the drop regulating wall. Here, the partition wall has a curtain-shaped member that can swing at least in the medicine discharge direction at an end portion on the upstream side in the rotation direction of the rotor, so that the partition wall is arranged in the storage pocket and the medicine discharge path in a tandem state. Each medicine stored before and after can be reliably separated by the curtain-shaped member without abutting against the end of the partition wall when the rotor rotates.

According to the present invention, since the storage pocket provided on the outer peripheral surface of the rotor is formed so as to expand toward the outer peripheral side, even if the shape of the medicine slightly changes, one medicine can be stored in the storage pocket. It can be stored securely. Further, since the curtain-shaped member is swingable in the medicine discharging direction, even if the size of the medicine is slightly changed, the medicine can be separated one by one correspondingly. In this way, it is possible to provide a device capable of separating and supplying many kinds of drugs by a common device regardless of the shape of the drug.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the curtain-shaped member is composed of a plurality of bars whose upper end portions are elastically supported, and that a bar at the most upstream side has a larger diameter than other bars. . By such a curtain-shaped member, each medicine before and after stored in the storage pocket and the medicine discharge path in a tandem state can be more reliably separated. Further, even if the length of the medicine in the discharge direction is slightly changed, it is possible to cope with the change.

[0010] In the present invention, it is preferable that a removable annular adjusting member is provided on the inner peripheral side of the drop regulating wall in accordance with the type of the medicine. In this way, when the length of the medicine is short and it is difficult to separate each one by the partition wall,
By attaching the adjusting member, the separation can be surely performed. Therefore, by preparing several kinds of adjusting members, one kind of supply device can correspond to many kinds of medicines.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the storage pocket is formed by continuously connecting a second pocket portion for storing a small-diameter drug to the bottom of a first pocket portion for storing a large-diameter drug. By doing so, the large-diameter drugs are stored and aligned in the first pocket portion, and the small-diameter drugs are stored and aligned in the second pocket portion. In particular, the small-diameter drugs are bridged in the storage pocket. Can be reliably prevented from becoming unavailable. In this way, a plurality of types of drug supply devices having different diameters can be shared.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a specific embodiment of a drug quantitative supply device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a drug quantitative supply device according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the drug quantitative supply device, and FIG. FIG. 3B
FIG. 3A is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 3A, and FIG.

The present embodiment is particularly applied to a device for supplying a fixed amount of a drug such as a capsule. The fixed amount supply device includes a mount 2 on which a motor 1 and the like are supported, and a mount 2
The apparatus is provided with a drum-type medicine container 3 mounted and fixed thereon, and a substantially conical rotor 4 rotatably arranged at the bottom of the medicine container 3.

The medicine container 3 has an inner wall surface 3a inclined in a funnel shape, and the medicine (capsule) 5 introduced from the upper opening is collected at the center by the inner wall surface shape. An opening is formed in the bottom surface of the medicine container 3, and the rotor 4 is arranged so that the head protrudes from the opening. The rotor 4 is rotated by the motor 1 around the vertical axis with respect to the gantry 2. It can rotate in the direction of arrow P.

A plurality (five in this embodiment) of stirring blades 6 are attached to the inner wall surface 3a of the medicine container 3. The stirring blade 6 has a part on the upstream side in the rotation direction of the rotor 4 projecting toward the rotor 4 and has a substantially triangular shape in plan view, and the side facing the rotor 4 has a side facing the rotor 4. The shape is such that the thickness gradually increases toward the downstream side in the rotation direction.

On the other hand, the rotor 4 has a plurality (eight in this embodiment) of groove-shaped storage pockets 7 in the head projecting into the medicine storage container 3 in the radial direction from the center. . The storage pocket 7 has a semicircular cross-section and is formed so as to expand toward the outer peripheral side of the rotor 4.
Has a width and depth sufficient to allow the medicine 5 to enter the storage pocket 7 and radially align the medicine 5 with the rotation of.

When the rotor 4 is rotated while a large number of medicines 5 are housed in the medicine storage container 3, the medicines 5 injected into the periphery are collected in the center by the funnel-shaped inner wall surface 3a. With the medicine 5 injected in the center
Is moved in the radial direction while being moved to the outer peripheral side of the rotor 4 by the rotation of the rotor 4, and is stored in the storage pocket 7 in an aligned state. At this time, the medicine 5 that has not been able to enter into the storage pocket 7 is scraped up by the stirring blade 6 that rotates relative to the rotor 4 and is once
After being placed on the rotor a, the inner wall 3a is brought back onto the rotor 4 by the inclination of the inner wall surface 3a again, and the operation is repeated so that the inner wall 3a is reliably aligned in the storage pocket 7.

On the outer peripheral portion of the rotor 4, a medicine discharge passage 8 communicating with a storage pocket 7 of the rotor 4 is provided on an extension of the inclined surface of the rotor 4, and is stored in the storage pocket 7 so as to be stored therein. The medicine 5 sliding down to the outer peripheral side along 7 is received. An arc-shaped partition wall 9 is integrally attached to the medicine container 3 between the storage pocket 7 and the medicine discharge path 8 in plan view. As shown in FIG. 5 (a partially enlarged view (a) of FIG. 4 and a front view (b) of the partition wall), this partition wall 9 is formed.
Serves to divide the medicines 5, which are aligned in the storage pockets 7 and are delivered in a tandem state, one by one, and has a large number of curtain members in order to perform the division smoothly. It has been. That is, the partition wall 9 is composed of a large number of metal rods (brushes) 9b and 9c whose upper end portions are suspended by being held by a holder 9a made of an elastic member such as rubber. It is swingable at least in the discharge direction of the medicine 5. Further, of these rods, the rod 9c at the most upstream part in the rotation direction of the rotor 4 has a larger diameter than the other rods 9b. It is made more reliable.

On the outer peripheral side of each medicine discharge passage 8, an annular body 1 having a medicine storage portion 11 communicating with each medicine discharge passage 8 is provided.
2 is provided so as to rotate integrally with the rotor 4, and the medicine 5 sliding down toward the outer peripheral side through the medicine discharge passage 8 is received in the medicine storage section 11. Also,
Between the medicine discharge path 8 and the medicine storage section 11, a first drop-regulating wall 14 having an arc shape in plan view is integrally attached to the medicine storage container 3 at a position closing the opening 13 of the partition wall 9. I have. The first drop regulating wall 14 serves to regulate the medicine 5 from falling downward until the separation of the medicine 5 before and after by the partition wall 9 is completed. Therefore, after one medicine 5 is stored in the medicine supply path 8 by the partition wall 9, the medicine 5 in the medicine supply path 8
Is released from the regulation by the first drop regulating wall 14 and
The two medicine storage units 11 are stored one by one.

Further, on the outer peripheral side of the medicine storage section 11, a second drop regulating wall 16 having a circular arc shape in plan view and having a drop opening 15 as a cutout portion at a portion facing the first drop regulating wall 14 is provided. It is integrally attached to the medicine container 3. The second drop regulating wall 16 separates the medicine 5 stored in the medicine storage section 11 into the opening 15 for dropping.
And regulates the drug 5 from falling down until the pressure reaches the threshold value. Note that a chute 17 is attached to the dropping opening 15, and the medicine 5, which has reached the dropping opening 15 and has been released from regulation, is sent by the chute 17 to a packaging portion such as a medicine bottle.

The above-configured drug fixed-quantity supply device has
It works as follows.

When the medicine 5 to be supplied in a constant amount is put into the medicine container 3 and the motor 1 is driven to rotate the rotor 4, the medicine 5 put into the periphery is surrounded by the funnel-shaped inner wall surface 3a. The medicine 5 injected into the center moves to the outer peripheral side of the rotor 4 due to the conical shape of the rotor 4. The medicine 5 on the rotor 4 changes its direction with the rotation of the rotor 4 and is stored in the storage pocket 7, while the medicine 5 that has not been stored in the storage pocket 7 and has moved to the outer peripheral portion of the rotor 4. While being stirred by the stirring blades 6 relatively moving with respect to the rotor 4, the blades 5 are also aligned and mounted on the rotor 4 again, and finally stored in the storage pockets 7 in the radial direction. You. Thereafter, the medicine 5 stored in the storage pocket 7 slides down the medicine discharge path 8 along the storage pocket 7 with the rotation of the rotor 4, and the tip of the medicine 5 comes into contact with the first drop regulation wall 14. Reach up to.

Next, with the rotation of the rotor 4, the medicine 5 located in the medicine discharge passage 8 and having its tip abutting on the inner surface of the first drop regulating wall 14 and the medicine 5 adjacent behind the medicine 5 are formed. The leading end of the partition wall 9 intervenes between them (see FIG. 5A), and the leading drug 5 is separated from the succeeding drug 5 by the partition wall 9. At this time, since the partition wall 9 is constituted by a swingable curtain member, the front and rear medicines 5 and 5 do not come into contact with the ends of the partition wall 9, in other words, the medicine 5 is impossible. The separation can be reliably performed by the curtain member without applying force.

The medicines 5 thus separated and stored in the medicine discharge passage 8 are accompanied by the rotation of the rotor 4 with the leading end in the transport direction abutting on the first drop regulating wall 14. When the rotation reaches the opening of the first drop regulating wall 14, the regulation is released, and the medicine is dropped and supplied one by one into the medicine storage section 11 communicating with the medicine discharge path 8.

Subsequently, the medicine 5 accommodated in the medicine accommodating section 11 is rotated with the rotation of the rotor 4 while the tip thereof is regulated by the second drop regulating wall 16, and the medicine is stored in the drop opening 1.
When it reaches 5, the restriction is released and the drop opening 1
5 is supplied to the next step through a chute 17 attached to the step 5. In the next step, a process is performed in which the number of the medicines 5 sliding down on the chute 17 is counted, and a medicine bottle or the like arranged at the lower end of the chute 17 is filled in a fixed amount.

According to the medicine metering device of the present embodiment, since the storage pocket 7 provided on the outer peripheral surface of the rotor 4 has a divergent shape toward the outer peripheral side, the diameter or length of the medicine is slightly changed. Also, the medicine 5 can be securely stored in the storage pocket 7 and can be sent out into the medicine discharge passage 8. Further, the partition wall 9 inserted between the storage pocket 7 and the medicine discharge passage 8 is formed of a curtain member, and this curtain member is swingable in the medicine 5 discharge direction. Even if the size of the medicine 5 is slightly changed, the medicine can be separated one by one correspondingly.
Thus, there is an advantage that many kinds of medicines can be separated and supplied by a common device regardless of the size of the medicines.

In the present embodiment, when the length of the medicine 5 'is too short compared to the width of the medicine discharge passage 8, it is difficult to separate the medicines 5 by one by the partition wall 9 (two points in FIG. 6A). 6 (b), a ring-shaped adjusting member (adjusting ring) 18 as shown in FIG.
8 may be mounted on the inner peripheral side of the first drop regulating wall 14. In this way, a single supply device can deal with various types of drugs regardless of the length of the drugs.

FIGS. 7B and 7C show modified examples of the storage pocket 7 'of the rotor 4. FIG. This is shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), when a medicine 5 ″ having a small diameter is handled, two medicines 5 ″ and 5 ″ cannot be aligned in the usual storage pocket 7 in the size of the storage pocket 7 and a bridge is formed. In order to avoid this, in this example, as shown in FIGS. 7 (b) and 7 (c), the storage pocket 7 'stores the large-diameter drug 5 in this example. The first pocket portion 7a and a second pocket portion 7b provided at the bottom of the first pocket portion 7a for storing a small-diameter drug 5 "are continuously provided, and the small-diameter drug 5" is introduced. In this case, the device is adapted to enter the second pocket portion 7b and be aligned, so that the device can be applied to any medicine from a small diameter to a large diameter.

In the present embodiment, a description has been given of the case where the stirring blade 6 is formed as a separate component from the medicine container 3.
As shown in (2), the stirring blade 6 ′ may be formed integrally with the inner wall surface 3 a of the medicine container 3.

In the present embodiment, since the medicine accommodating portions 11 of the annular body 12 are made to correspond one-to-one with the medicine discharge passage 8, the annular body 12 is not an essential component. Therefore, an embodiment is also possible in which the annular body 12 is omitted and the chute 17 communicates directly with the opening of the first drop regulating wall 14.

Further, in the present embodiment, the case where the annular body 12 is rotated integrally with the rotor 4 has been described. The rotor 4 may be driven separately and rotated at a higher speed than the rotor 4.

In this embodiment, as the curtain-like member constituting the partition wall 9, a large number of metal bars 9b and 9c are suspended from the holding member 9a made of an elastic member. Can be made of a hard material, and the bars 9b and 9c can be made of a soft material. With such a structure, the same operation and effect as in the present embodiment can be expected.
Further, in this embodiment, the case where the curtain member is provided over the entire range of the partition wall 9 has been described. ) May be provided.

In this embodiment, a capsule has been described as an example of a medicine, but the present invention is not limited to a capsule but can be applied to other tablets.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a medicine metering / supplying apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the fixed-quantity drug supply device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3A is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, FIG.
FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a mode of discharging a medicine.

5 (a) is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 4, and FIG. 5 (b)
Is a front view of a partition wall.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are explanatory views of a mode in which an adjustment member is mounted.

7A is an explanatory view of a bridging phenomenon between small-diameter drugs, and FIGS. 7B and 7C are a cross-sectional view and a plan view showing a shape of a storage pocket according to a modification of the present embodiment, respectively. It is.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing an embodiment in which the stirring blade is formed integrally with the medicine container.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Motor 2 Stand 3 Drug storage container 4 Rotor 5, 5 ', 5 "Drug 6, 6' Stirrer blade 7, 7 'Storage pocket 7a 1st pocket part 7b 2nd pocket part 8 Drug discharge path 9 Partition wall 9a Holder 9b, 9c Bar 11 Drug storage 12 Ring 13 Opening 14 First drop regulating wall 15 Drop opening 16 Second drop regulating wall 17 Chute 18 Adjusting member

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3E018 AB05 BB02 CA02 DA02 DA06 EA02 3F075 AA02 AA04 AA05 BA01 BB01 CA04 CA09 CB12 CB16 CC04 CC08 CC11 CD04 DA04 DA15 3F080 AA34 BA02 BF07 CC04 CC23 CF02

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A medicine container for accommodating a large number of medicines, and a substantially conical rotor provided in the medicine container and having storage pockets diverging toward the outer periphery formed radially. At least one stirring blade provided in the medicine storage container so as to protrude on an outer peripheral surface of the rotor, and a medicine discharge passage radially arranged on an outer peripheral side of the rotor so as to communicate with a storage pocket of the rotor. And a partition wall having a circular arc shape in a plan view provided between the storage pocket and the medicine discharge path, and a circular arc shape in a plan view provided on the outer peripheral side of the drug discharge path so as to close an opening portion of the partition wall. A drop regulating wall, wherein the partition wall has, at an end on the upstream side in the rotation direction of the rotor, a curtain member swingable at least in a medicine discharging direction. Feeding device. 2. The screen member according to claim 1, wherein the curtain-shaped member is composed of a plurality of bars whose upper end portions are elastically supported, and a bar at the most upstream side has a larger diameter than other bars. Medicine fixed quantity supply device. 3. The fixed-quantity drug supply device according to claim 1, wherein an annular adjusting member that is detachable in accordance with the type of the drug is provided on the inner peripheral side of the drop regulation wall. 4. A storage device according to claim 1, wherein said storage pocket stores a small-diameter drug at the bottom of a first pocket portion storing a large-diameter drug.
The drug fixed-quantity supply device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the pocket portion is continuously provided.