JP2018052664A - Carrier device and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique by which orientation of granular material held by a holding section can be adjusted efficiently in a carrier device carrying the granular material.SOLUTION: This carrier device has a carrier section 31, a feed section 24, and a guide section 25. The carrier section 31 holds a granular material in a plurality of holding sections 310 disposed for each of multiple carrying rows forming a line in a width direction. Th feeding section 24 feeds the granular material to each holding section 310. The guide section 25 aligns orientations of the granular material at the downstream side of the feeding section 24. The guide section 25 has a plurality of contact sections 250 which is deformable in a direction perpendicular to an outer surface 311. The contact section 250 forms a line in a width direction and is deformable individually each other. By this, a movement of the contact section 250 touching a granular material does not affect the movement of the contact section 250 touching another granular material, Thus, reduction of orientation adjustment efficiency caused by orientation of a granular material is suppressed. As a result, orientation of each granular material can be adjusted efficiently.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a conveyance device that conveys granular materials such as tablets and tablet confectionery, and a printing apparatus that performs printing on the surface of the granular material conveyed by the conveyance device.

  Characters and codes for identifying the product are printed on the surface of the tablet as a medicine. In addition, marks and illustrations may be printed on tablet confectionery. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for printing on the surface of a granular material such as a tablet or tablet confectionery using an ink jet printing apparatus is known. Such a printing apparatus is described in Patent Document 1, for example.

  In the printing apparatus described in Patent Literature 1, ink is ejected from an inkjet head onto a tablet conveyed by a conveyance mechanism (conveyance conveyor), and printing processing is performed on the tablet. Such a printing apparatus has a supply part for supplying a granular material to a conveyance mechanism. Patent Document 1 discloses a hopper for batch-feeding tablets and a slider for supplying tablets from the hopper to the transport drum of the transport mechanism as the supply unit.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2015-223323

  When the granular material is supplied from the supply mechanism to the transport mechanism, the granular material may not have a posture suitable for printing. For this reason, it is necessary to adjust the posture of the granular material after the granular material is delivered from the supply mechanism to the transport mechanism.

  If a rigid member that cannot move in the height direction is arranged as a guide for adjusting the posture of the granular material, the granular material may be damaged depending on the posture of the granular material. Further, even when a member movable in the height direction is arranged as a guide portion, the posture cannot be adjusted appropriately for each granular material due to the influence of the posture of other granular materials. There is a fear.

  This invention is made | formed in view of such a situation, and it aims at providing the technique which adjusts the attitude | position of the granular material hold | maintained at the holding | maintenance part efficiently.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a first invention of the present application is a conveying device for conveying a granular material, and a drum-shaped or belt-shaped conveying unit that holds the granular material in a plurality of holding units recessed from an outer surface. A supply unit that supplies the granular materials one by one to each of the holding units, and a guide unit that aligns the orientation of the granular materials on the downstream side of the supply unit, and the plurality of the holding units are The plurality of transport rows arranged in the width direction are arranged at intervals in the transport direction, and the guide portion is disposed to face the outer surface and can be deformed in a direction perpendicular to the outer surface. A plurality of contact portions are provided, the plurality of contact portions are arranged in the width direction, and each of the contact portions can be deformed independently of the other contact portions.

  2nd invention of this application is the conveying apparatus of 1st invention, Comprising: The number of the said conveyance row | line | columns and the number of the said contact parts are the same, and each of the said contact part is facing each of the said conveyance row | line | column. Arranged.

  3rd invention of this application is the conveying apparatus of 1st invention or 2nd invention, Comprising: The surface facing the said outer surface of the said guide part becomes short with the said outer surface as it goes downstream from an upstream. Including a guide surface.

  4th invention of this application is a conveying apparatus in any one of 1st invention thru | or 3rd invention, Comprising: The said supply part accommodates the said granular material inside, and has a several cavity part extended in an up-down direction, Each of the hollow portions is arranged such that a lower end portion faces the conveying row on the outer surface.

A fifth invention of the present application is the transfer device according to any one of the first to fourth inventions, wherein the transfer unit has a suction mechanism for sucking the gas inside the holding unit on the downstream side of the guide unit. Also have.

  6th invention of this application is the conveying apparatus in any one of 1st invention thru | or 5th invention, Comprising: The said granular material is a tablet.

  A seventh invention of the present application includes the transport device according to any one of the first to sixth inventions, and a printing unit that ejects ink droplets onto the surface of the granular material transported by the transport device. Device.

  According to the first to seventh inventions of the present application, since the plurality of contact portions move independently, the movement of the contact portion that contacts one granular material affects the movement of the contact portion that contacts another granular material. Not give. That is, it is suppressed that the attitude | position adjustment efficiency of a granular material falls due to the attitude | position of the granular material hold | maintained at the other holding | maintenance part. Thereby, the attitude | position of each granular material can be adjusted efficiently.

  In particular, according to the second invention of the present application, even when the inclination of the granular material held in a part of the holding parts is large, it is further suppressed that the posture adjustment efficiency of other granular materials is lowered.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the vicinity of a transport drum. It is a bottom view of a printing part. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating connections between a control unit and each unit in the printing apparatus. It is the fragmentary sectional view which showed the supply feeder, the guide part, and the conveyance drum notionally. It is the fragmentary sectional view which showed the supply feeder, the guide part, and the conveyance drum notionally. It is the figure which showed an example of the mode of adjustment of the attitude | position of the tablet by a contact part. It is the figure which showed an example of the mode of adjustment of the attitude | position of the tablet by a contact part. It is the fragmentary sectional view which showed notionally the supply feeder of the printing apparatus which concerns on a modification, a guide part, and a conveyance drum. It is the fragmentary sectional view which showed notionally the supply feeder of the printing apparatus which concerns on a modification, a guide part, and a conveyance drum. FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the vicinity of a conveyance drum of a printing apparatus according to a modification.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, a direction in which a plurality of granular materials are conveyed is referred to as a “conveyance direction”, a direction that is perpendicular to the conveyance direction and a horizontal direction is “width direction”, and is perpendicular to the conveyance direction and the width direction. This direction is referred to as the “height direction”.

<1. Configuration of printing device>
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printing apparatus 1 is an apparatus that prints an image such as a product name, a product code, a company name, and a logo on the surface of each tablet 9 while conveying a plurality of tablets 9 that are medicines. The tablet 9 may be an uncoated tablet (bare tablet) or a coated tablet such as a film-coated tablet (FC tablet). The tablet 9 may be a capsule including a hard capsule and a soft capsule. Moreover, the granular material to be transported in the present invention is not limited to tablets, and may be tablet confectionery such as ramune.

  As illustrated in FIG. 1, the printing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a supply mechanism 20, a transport mechanism 30, a printing unit 40, an inspection mechanism 50, and a control unit 10.

  The supply mechanism 20 includes a hopper 21, a rectilinear feeder 22, a rotary feeder 23, a supply feeder 24, and a guide unit 25 (see FIG. 2). The supply mechanism 20 is a mechanism for delivering the tablet 9 put into the apparatus to the transport mechanism 30.

  The hopper 21 is an input unit for receiving a large number of tablets 9 in the apparatus. The hopper 21 is disposed at the top of the casing 100 of the printing apparatus 1. The hopper 21 has an opening 211 located on the upper surface of the housing 100 and a funnel-shaped inclined surface 212 that gradually converges downward. The plurality of tablets 9 put into the opening 211 flows into the rectilinear feeder 22 along the inclined surface 212.

  The rectilinear feeder 22, the rotary feeder 23, and the supply feeder 24 are mechanisms that transport the plurality of tablets 9 put into the hopper 21 to the transport mechanism 30. The rectilinear feeder 22 has a flat vibration trough 221. The plurality of tablets 9 supplied from the hopper 21 to the vibration trough 221 are conveyed to the rotary feeder 23 side by the vibration of the vibration trough 221.

  The rotary feeder 23 has a disk-shaped rotary table 231. The plurality of tablets 9 that have dropped from the vibration trough 221 onto the upper surface of the turntable 231 are collected near the outer periphery of the turntable 231 by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the turntable 231.

  The supply feeder 24 is a supply unit that supplies one tablet 9 to each of the holding units 310 described later. FIG. 2 is a perspective view including part of the supply feeder 24, part of the transport drum 31 and part of the first transport conveyor 32. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the supply feeder 24 extends vertically downward from the outer peripheral portion of the turntable 231 to a transport drum 31 described later of the transport mechanism 30. As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of (eight in the example of FIG. 2) cavities 241 extending in the vertical direction are provided inside the supply feeder 24. Each of the plurality of tablets 9 transported to the outer peripheral portion of the turntable 231 is supplied to any one of the plurality of cavities 241 and falls vertically downward in the cavities 241. As described above, the plurality of tablets 9 are aligned and supplied to the plurality of transport rows by being distributedly supplied to the plurality of cavities 241. Then, the plurality of tablets 9 in each conveyance row are supplied to the conveyance drum 31 in order from the first one.

  The guide unit 25 is a mechanism for adjusting the posture of the tablet 9 supplied from the supply feeder 24 to a holding unit 310 (to be described later) of the transport drum 31. The detailed configuration of the guide unit 25 will be described later.

  The transport mechanism 30 includes a transport drum 31, a first transport conveyor 32, a second transport conveyor 33, and a carry-out conveyor 34.

  The transport drum 31 is a mechanism that delivers a plurality of tablets 9 from the supply feeder 24 to the first transport conveyor 32. The transport drum 31 has a substantially cylindrical outer surface 311. The conveyance drum 31 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIGS. 1 and 2 around the rotation axis extending in the width direction by power obtained from a motor not shown. As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of holding portions 310 are provided on the outer peripheral surface of the transport drum 31 at substantially equal intervals in the transport direction and the width direction. The plurality of holding portions 310 are arranged on the outer peripheral surface of the transport drum 31 at positions in the width direction corresponding to the hollow portions 241 of the supply feeder 24.

  Each of the holding portions 310 of the transport drum 31 is a recess provided on the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31. The holding unit 310 is recessed from the outer surface 311 of the conveyance drum 31 to the inside of the conveyance drum 31. A through hole 312 is provided at the bottom of the holding unit 310. In addition, a suction mechanism (not shown) is provided inside the transport drum 31. When the suction mechanism is operated, a negative pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure is generated in each of the plurality of holding portions 310 located on the downstream side of the guide portion 25 through the through hole 312. The holding unit 310 sucks and holds the tablets 9 supplied from the supply feeder 24 one by one with the negative pressure.

  Then, a positive pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure is applied to the holding unit 310 that has moved to a position facing the first conveyance conveyor 32 on the conveyance drum 31 to release the adsorption of the tablets 9. Thus, the transport drum 31 rotates while adsorbing and holding the plurality of tablets 9 supplied from the supply feeder 24, and delivers these tablets 9 to the first transport conveyor 32. When the tablets 9 are transferred from the transport drum 31 to the first transport conveyor 32, the surface of the tablet 9 that is sucked and held by the transport drum 31 is different from the surface of the tablet 9 that is sucked and held by the first transport conveyor 32. For this reason, the front and back of the tablet 9 are reversed while being held by the transport drum 31 and while being held by the first transport conveyor 32.

  The 1st conveyance conveyor 32 is a 1st conveyance part which has a pair of pulley 61, the conveyance belt 62, and a suction mechanism (not shown). The conveyor belt 62 is looped between the pair of pulleys 61. The conveyance belt 62 is disposed so that a part thereof is opposed to the outer peripheral surface of the conveyance drum 31. One of the pair of pulleys 61 rotates with power obtained from a motor (not shown). As a result, the transport belt 62 rotates in the direction of the arrow in FIGS. At this time, the other of the pair of pulleys 61 is driven to rotate as the conveyor belt 62 rotates.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of holding portions 310 are provided on the outer surface of the conveyance belt 62 at substantially equal intervals in the conveyance direction and the width direction. The holding unit 620 of the conveyance belt 62 is a concave portion provided on the outer surface of the conveyance belt 62, similarly to the holding unit 310 of the conveyance drum 31, and a through hole 621 is provided at the bottom thereof. The plurality of holding portions 620 of the conveyance belt 62 are arranged in the conveyance direction at the position in the width direction corresponding to each of the plurality of conveyance rows. The intervals in the conveyance direction and the width direction of the plurality of holding units 620 in the conveyance belt 62 are equal to the intervals in the conveyance direction and the width direction of the plurality of holding units 620 in the conveyance drum 31.

  Similar to the transport drum 31, the first transport conveyor 32 has a suction mechanism (not shown). The suction mechanism generates a negative pressure in the space inside the pulley 61 and the conveyor belt 62. When the suction mechanism is operated, a negative pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure is generated in each of the plurality of holding portions 620 through the through hole 621. The holding unit 620 sucks and holds the tablets 9 delivered from the transport drum 31 one by one with the negative pressure. Thereby, the 1st conveyance conveyor 32 conveys the some tablet 9 by adsorbing and holding the several tablet 9 in the state aligned in the conveyance direction and the width direction by applying a negative pressure to the some holding | maintenance part 620. FIG. Thus, the transport belt 62 serves as a holding unit that holds the tablet 9.

  A positive pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure is applied to the holding unit 620 that has moved to a position facing the second transport conveyor 33 on the first transport conveyor 32 to release the adsorption of the tablets 9. Thereby, the 1st conveyance conveyor 32 delivers the tablet 9 to the 2nd conveyance conveyor 33. FIG. When the tablets 9 are delivered from the first transport conveyor 32 to the second transport conveyor 33, the surface of the tablet 9 that the first transport conveyor 32 sucks and holds and the surface of the tablet 9 that the second transport conveyor 33 sucks and holds are formed. Different. For this reason, the front and back of the tablet 9 are reversed while being held by the first transfer conveyor 32 and while being held by the second transfer conveyor 33.

  The configuration of the second transport conveyor 33 is substantially the same as that of the first transport conveyor 32. Similar to the first conveyor 32, the second conveyor 33 includes a pair of pulleys 61, a conveyor belt 62, and a suction mechanism (not shown). Of the configuration of the second transfer conveyor 33, the description of the same configuration as the first transfer conveyor 32 is omitted.

  A chute 341 that connects the second conveyor 33 and the carry-out conveyor 34 is disposed below the second conveyor 33. A positive pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure is applied to the holding unit 620 that has moved to a position facing the chute 341 on the second transport conveyor 33 to release the adsorption of the tablets 9. Thereby, the second transport conveyor 33 drops the tablets 9 into the chute 341. Thereby, the tablet 9 is delivered from the second conveyor 33 to the carry-out conveyor 34 via the chute 341.

  The carry-out conveyor 34 is a mechanism for carrying out the plurality of tablets 9 after printing to the outside of the casing 100 of the printing apparatus 1. The upstream end of the carry-out conveyor 34 is located below the chute 341. The downstream end of the carry-out conveyor 34 is located outside the housing 100. The downstream end of the carry-out conveyor 34 is connected to, for example, a packaging device for packaging the tablet 9 after the printing process. For example, a belt conveyance mechanism is used for the carry-out conveyor 34. The plurality of tablets 9 delivered from the second transport conveyor 33 to the carry-out conveyor 34 are carried out of the casing 100 by the carry-out conveyor 34.

  As described above, the supply mechanism 20 and the transport mechanism 30 constitute a transport device for transporting the tablets 9.

  The printing unit 40 includes a first printing unit 41 and a second printing unit 42.

  The first printing unit 41 is a print processing unit for printing an image on one surface of the tablet 9. As shown in FIG. 1, the first printing unit 41 includes a head unit 410 having four heads 400. FIG. 3 is a bottom view of one head 400. In FIG. 3, each part of the conveyor belt 62 is indicated by a two-dot chain line. In FIG. 3, the plurality of tablets 9 held on the transport belt 62 are indicated by broken lines.

  Each of the four heads 400 included in the head unit 410 is an ink jet head that performs printing processing by ejecting ink droplets toward the surface of the tablet 9 that is transported by the transport mechanism 30. The four heads 400 eject ink droplets of different colors (for example, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). A multicolor image is recorded on the surface of the tablet 9 by superimposing single-color images formed by these colors. In addition, the edible ink manufactured with the raw material approved by the food hygiene law is used for the ink discharged from each head 400. FIG.

  As shown in an enlarged manner in FIG. 3, a plurality of nozzles 401 capable of ejecting ink droplets are provided on the lower surface of the head 400. In the present embodiment, a plurality of nozzles 401 are two-dimensionally arranged on the lower surface of the head 400 in the transport direction and the width direction. The nozzles 401 are arranged at different positions in the width direction. As described above, if the plurality of nozzles 401 are two-dimensionally arranged, the positions in the width direction of the nozzles 401 can be brought closer to each other. However, the plurality of nozzles 401 may be arranged in a line along the width direction.

  As a method for ejecting ink droplets from the nozzle 401, for example, a so-called piezo method is used in which a voltage is applied to a piezo element, which is a piezoelectric element, and the ink in the nozzle 401 is pressurized and ejected. The ink droplet ejection method may be a so-called thermal method in which the ink in the nozzle 401 is heated and expanded by energizing the heater.

  The second printing unit 42 is a processing unit for printing an image on the other surface of the tablet 9. Since the configuration of the second printing unit 42 is the same as that of the first printing unit 41, the description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the inspection mechanism 50 includes a first appearance inspection camera 51, a second appearance inspection camera 52, a first print inspection camera 53, a third appearance inspection camera 54, and a second print inspection camera 55. And a defective product collection unit 56.

  The first appearance inspection camera 51 is a camera that photographs the surface of the other side of the tablet 9 conveyed by the conveying drum 31. The second appearance inspection camera 52 is a camera that photographs the surface of one side of the tablet 9 conveyed by the first conveyance conveyor 32 on the upstream side of the first printing unit 41. The first appearance inspection camera 51 and the second appearance inspection camera 52 detect the presence / absence of the tablet 9 in each holding part 310, 620, the presence / absence of the shape defect of each tablet 9, the orientation of each tablet 9, and the like.

  The first print inspection camera 53 is a camera that photographs the surface of one side of the tablet 9 conveyed by the first conveyance conveyor 32 on the downstream side of the first printing unit 41. The first print inspection camera 53 detects the presence or absence of a printing process by the first printing unit 41.

  The third appearance inspection camera 54 is a camera that photographs the surface of the other side of the tablet 9 that is transported by the second transport conveyor 33 on the upstream side of the second printing unit 42. The third appearance inspection camera 54 detects the presence / absence of the tablet 9 in each holding portion 620 of the second transport conveyor 33, the presence / absence of the shape defect of each tablet 9, the orientation of each tablet 9, and the like.

  The second print inspection camera 55 is a camera that photographs the surface of the other side of the tablet 9 conveyed by the second conveyance conveyor 33 on the downstream side of the second printing unit 42. The second print inspection camera 55 detects the presence or absence of a printing process by the second printing unit 42.

  The defective product collection unit 56 collects the tablets 9 having the shape defect and the printing defect detected by the five cameras 51 to 55. The defective product collection unit 56 includes a pressurizing mechanism (not shown) and a collection box 561. The pressure mechanism releases the adsorption of the tablet 9 by blowing locally pressurized gas from the inside of the second transport conveyor 33 to the holding unit 620 that holds the tablet 9 in which the defect is detected. To do. Thereby, the tablet 9 in which the defect is detected is collected into the collection box 561.

  The control unit 10 is means for controlling the operation of each unit in the printing apparatus 1. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the connection between the control unit 10 and each unit in the printing apparatus 1. As conceptually shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 10 is configured by a computer having an arithmetic processing unit 101 such as a CPU, a memory 102 such as a RAM, and a storage unit 103 such as a hard disk drive. A computer program P and data D for executing printing processing are installed in the storage unit 103.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 10 includes a linear feeder 22, a rotary feeder 23, a transport drum 31 (including a motor and a suction mechanism), a first transport conveyor 32 (including a motor and a suction mechanism), and a second transport conveyor. 33 (including a motor and a suction mechanism), a carry-out conveyor 34, a head 400 of the first printing unit 41 and the second printing unit 42, a first appearance inspection camera 51, a second appearance inspection camera 52, a first print inspection camera 53, The third appearance inspection camera 54, the second print inspection camera 55, and the defective product collection unit 56 are connected to be communicable with each other.

  The control unit 10 temporarily reads the computer program P and data D stored in the storage unit 103 into the memory 102, and the arithmetic processing unit 101 performs arithmetic processing based on the computer program P, whereby each of the above-described units Control the operation. Thereby, the printing process with respect to the some tablet 9 advances.

<2. About the configuration of the feeder and guide section>
Next, detailed configurations of the supply feeder 24 and the guide unit 25 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 5, and 6. 5 and 6 are partial sectional views conceptually showing the supply feeder 24, the guide unit 25, and the transport drum 31. FIG. The guide unit 25 is a mechanism for adjusting the posture of the tablet 9 to the transport posture. A conveyance attitude | position means the attitude | position in which the transversal direction of the tablet 9 is arrange | positioned substantially perpendicular | vertical with respect to the outer surface 311 of the conveyance drum 31 which is an outer surface of a conveyance part. That is, in the transport posture, the length in the height direction of the tablet 9 is the smallest.

  As shown in FIGS. 2, 5, and 6, the cavity 241 of the supply feeder 24 extends in the vertical direction. Inside the hollow part 241, the tablet 9 is accommodated so that the short direction is along the height direction. That is, the tablet 9 is accommodated in the conveying posture inside the hollow portion 241.

  The lower end portion of the hollow portion 241 is disposed to face the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31. In the present embodiment, the lower end portion of the cavity portion 241 is disposed so as to face the highest position of the transport drum 31. The downstream side of the lower end portion of the supply feeder 24 is disposed above the upstream side of the lower end portion of the supply feeder 24. Accordingly, the distance D1 in the height direction between the upstream side of the lower end portion of the supply feeder 24 and the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31 is the height between the downstream side of the lower end portion of the supply feeder 24 and the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31. It is smaller than the distance D2 in the vertical direction.

  Further, the distance D2 is smaller than the height H in the conveying posture of the tablet 9. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, the tablet 9 disposed at the lower end of the supply feeder 24 is caught by the lower end of the supply feeder 24 and is not conveyed downstream unless it is accommodated in the holding unit 310. Here, the depth of the holding portion 310 is referred to as a depth D3. The distance obtained by adding the distance D2 and the depth D3 is larger than the height H of the tablet 9. For this reason, when the tablet 9 falls into the holding part 310, as shown in FIG. 6, since it can pass through the downstream side of the lower end part of the supply feeder 24, the tablet 9 is conveyed downstream. In this way, the tablets 9 that have fallen in the cavity 241 of the supply feeder 24 are supplied to the holding unit 310 one by one.

  The guide portion 25 includes a leaf spring member 70 and a plurality of (eight in the example of FIG. 2) resin members 80. The leaf spring member 70 is a plate-like member formed of a metal such as SUS. In addition, the leaf | plate spring member 70 may be formed with materials other than a metal. The leaf spring member 70 has a fixed portion 71 and a plurality (eight in the example of FIG. 2) movable portions 72. The fixing portion 71 is disposed along the side surface of the supply feeder 24. As shown in FIG. 2, the fixing portion 71 has a fixing hole 711 extending in the vertical direction. The fixing part 71 is fixed to the supply feeder 24 by a screw inserted into the fixing hole 711. The plurality of movable parts 72 are arranged in the width direction. Each of the movable portions 72 extends from the lower end portion of the fixed portion 71 along the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31.

  Each of the movable parts 72 is disposed at a position facing the conveyance row of the holding part 310. The movable portion 72 can be deformed in a direction (height direction) perpendicular to the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31. A resin member 80 is fixed to the surface of the movable portion 72 facing the transport drum 31. The movable portion 72 and the resin member constitute a contact portion 250 that is disposed to face the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31 and can be deformed in the height direction. With this structure, each contact portion 250 can move in the height direction independently of the other contact portions 250.

  The guide part 25 includes a leaf spring member 70 that is an elastic body. As long as the guide part 25 is an elastic member which can deform | transform in a height direction, it may replace with the leaf | plate spring member 70 and may use another member. As in the present embodiment, by using the leaf spring member 70 as an elastic body, the ease of deformation in the height direction can be freely adjusted only by changing the thickness of the leaf spring member 70. For this reason, it is preferable to use the leaf spring member 70 as the elastic body of the guide portion 25.

  In the present embodiment, the resin member 80 is disposed on the lower surface of the movable portion 72 of the leaf spring member 70. Thereby, it is prevented that the leaf | plate spring member 70 which is a metal contacts the tablet 9 directly. When the metal comes into contact with the tablet 9, depending on the components contained in the tablet 9, the surface of the tablet 9 may be altered or discolored. In this embodiment, by making the part which contacts the tablet 9 into the resin member 80, the quality change and discoloration of the tablet 9 can be suppressed.

  In addition, the resin member 80 of this embodiment is formed of polyoxymethylene (POM). Since polyoxymethylene is excellent in chemical resistance and solvent resistance, it is possible to suppress deterioration and discoloration of the tablet 9. Polyoxymethylene has high elasticity and elastic recovery rate. The resin material forming the resin member 80 may not be an elastic body.

  As described above, the guide portion 25 of the present embodiment has eight contact portions 250 configured by the movable portion 72 and the resin member 80, which is the same as the number of transport rows. Thereby, the contact part 250 which contacts the tablet 9 hold | maintained at one holding | maintenance part 310 does not contact the tablet 9 hold | maintained at the other holding | maintenance part 310. FIG. For this reason, the movement of the contact portion 250 that contacts one tablet 9 does not affect the movement of the contact portion 250 that contacts another tablet 9. Therefore, the adjustment of the posture of the tablet 9 by the contact portion 250 is not affected by the posture of the other tablets 9.

  7 and 8 are diagrams showing an example of how the posture of the tablet 9 is adjusted by the contact portion 250. FIG. The initial posture A1 of the tablet 91 in the example of FIG. 7 has a larger inclination with respect to the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31 than the initial posture A2 of the tablet 92 in the example of FIG. Here, the distance between the contact portion 250 disposed in the position P1 in contact with the tablet 91 in the initial posture A1 and the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31 is referred to as a distance D4. In addition, the distance between the contact portion 250 disposed at the position P2 in contact with the tablet 92 in the initial posture A2 and the surface 311 of the transport drum 31 is referred to as a distance D5. At this time, the distance D4 is larger than the distance D5.

  Here, it is assumed that one contact portion 250 faces both the holding portion 310 that holds the tablet 91 in the initial posture A1 and the holding portion 310 that holds the tablet 92 in the initial posture A2. In this case, the contact part 250 which contacted the tablet 91 is arrange | positioned in the position P1. Then, as indicated by a broken line in FIG. 8, the contact portion 250 disposed at the position P1 does not contact the tablet 92 in the initial posture A2.

  Thus, when the contact part 250 is common to a some conveyance row | line, if the tablet 9 hold | maintained at one holding | maintenance part 310 inclines largely, the attitude | position of the tablet 9 hold | maintained at the other holding | maintenance part 310 will be shown. May not be adjusted properly. By having the plurality of contact portions 250 in the guide portion 25, the posture adjustment efficiency of the tablet 9 is suppressed from being lowered due to the posture of the tablet 9 held by the other holding portion 310.

  In the present embodiment, in particular, the number of transport rows of tablets 9 and the number of contact portions 250 are the same. And each of the contact parts 250 is arrange | positioned facing each of a conveyance row | line | column. Thereby, it is suppressed more that the attitude | position adjustment efficiency of the tablet 9 falls due to the attitude | position of the tablet 9 hold | maintained at the other holding | maintenance part 310. FIG.

  Then, the shape of the contact part 250 is demonstrated. Of the contact portion 250, a surface facing the outer surface 311 of the transport drum 31 (that is, a surface that contacts the tablet 9) is a curved surface protruding toward the outer surface 311. As a result, the surface of the contact portion 250 that faces the outer surface 311 includes a guide surface 251 whose distance from the outer surface 311 becomes shorter from the upstream side toward the downstream side. By adopting such a shape, the posture of the tablet 9 can be adjusted efficiently. Further, on the downstream side of the guide surface 251, the distance between the contact portion 250 and the outer surface 311 becomes longer from the upstream side toward the downstream side. Thereby, when the tablet 9 is conveyed to the downstream side of the contact part 250 and leaves | separates from the contact part 250, it is suppressed that the tablet 9 moves.

  In the present embodiment, as described above, the suction mechanism provided inside the transport drum 31 sucks the gas inside the holding unit 310 on the downstream side of the guide unit 25. That is, at the position facing the guide portion 25, the suction within the holding portion 310 by the suction mechanism is not performed. When the suction in the holding unit 310 is performed by the suction mechanism, the posture of the tablet 9 is difficult to adjust. By not performing suction during posture adjustment in the guide portion 25, it is possible to suppress the posture adjustment efficiency of the tablet 9 from being lowered by the guide portion 25 due to suction.

<3. Modification>
As mentioned above, although main embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to said embodiment.

  FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view conceptually showing a supply feeder 24A, a guide unit 25A, and a transport drum 31A according to a modification. In the supply feeder 24A, the lower end portion of the hollow portion 241A is disposed to face the inclined surface of the transport drum 31A. Moreover, the tablet 9A is accommodated in the hollow portion 241A so that the short side direction is along the horizontal direction. That is, in the hollow portion 241A, the tablet 9A is accommodated in a posture that stands up substantially perpendicular to the conveying posture.

  Thereby, the tablet 9A can be supplied to the conveyance drum 31A in an upright posture. Therefore, the tablet 9A can be supplied to the transport drum 31A in a posture corresponding to the angle of the outer surface 311A of the transport drum 31A as compared with the case where the tablet 9A is supplied in the transport posture.

  In addition, in order to accommodate the tablet 9A in an upright position in the supply feeder 24A, the tablet 9A is not a round shape such as an elliptical sphere, but a flat shape such as a disk shape. It is preferable. This is because when the tablet 9A has a rounded shape, the tablet 9A is easily tilted by the weight of the upper tablet 9A even if the tablet 9A is housed in a standing posture.

  In said embodiment, although the supply feeder 24 supplied the tablet 9 in the highest position of the conveyance drum 31, this invention is not limited to this. As in the example of FIG. 9, the lower end portion of the hollow portion 241A may supply the tablet 9A on the inclined surface of the transport drum 31A.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram conceptually illustrating a supply feeder 24B, a guide unit 25B, and a transport drum 31B according to another modification. The guide portion 25B is arranged with a gap in the conveyance direction from the supply feeder 24B. Further, the guide portion 25B is fixed to the casing of the printing apparatus, not the supply feeder 24B.

  In the above-described embodiment, the supply feeder 24 and the guide unit 25 are arranged close to each other in the transport direction, but the present invention is not limited to this. As in the example of FIG. 10, the supply feeder 24 </ b> B and the guide portion 25 </ b> B may be arranged with a space therebetween.

  FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the vicinity of the conveyance drum 31C of a printing apparatus according to another modification. In this printing apparatus, the guide portion 25C has a large number of ribbon-like contact portions 250C arranged in the width direction. Thereby, the brush-shaped guide part 25C is comprised by the some contact part 250C. The contact portion 250C is formed of an elastic material such as rubber. Each of the contact portions 250C is disposed along the outer surface 311C of the transport drum 31C from the vicinity of the lower end of the supply feeder 24C to the downstream side in the transport direction.

  Thus, when the guide part 25C is brush-shaped, each contact part 250C can move independently. For this reason, the movement of the contact part 250C in contact with one tablet does not affect the movement of the contact part 250C in contact with another tablet. Therefore, even when the inclination of the tablets held in some of the holding portions is large, the posture adjustment efficiency of other tablets is suppressed from decreasing. As in the example of FIG. 11, the guide portion 25C may be brush-shaped.

  Further, in the printing apparatus 1 described above, the supply mechanism 20 supplies the tablet to the transport drum 31 that is a drum-shaped transport unit, but the present invention is not limited to this. The conveyance device of the present invention may be configured such that the supply unit supplies the tablet to the belt-shaped conveyance unit, and the guide unit adjusts the posture of the tablet on the downstream side.

  Further, in the printing apparatus 1 described above, one contact portion 250 is provided for one transport row, but the present invention is not limited to this. Even if the conveyance apparatus of this invention has a some contact part as a whole and each contact part is provided with respect to some (for example, two adjacent or 3 conveyance row | line | columns) of a some conveyance row | line | column. Good. In this case, the movement of the contact portion that contacts a certain tablet does not affect the movement of other contact portions. For this reason, even when the inclination of the tablets held in some of the holding portions is large, the posture adjustment efficiency of other tablets is not achieved in the transport row corresponding to the contact portion different from the contact portion that contacts the tablets. Is suppressed from decreasing. In the transport device of the present invention, two or more contact portions arranged in the width direction may be provided for one transport row. Even in this case, the movement of the contact portion in contact with one tablet does not affect the movement of the contact portion in contact with another tablet. Therefore, even when the inclination of the tablets held in some of the holding portions is large, the posture adjustment efficiency of other tablets is further suppressed from decreasing.

  The printing apparatus 1 is an apparatus that performs printing on both sides of the tablet 9 by the first printing unit 41 and the second printing unit 42. However, the tablet printing apparatus of the present invention may be an apparatus that performs printing on only one side of the tablet 9.

  Further, the detailed configuration of the printing apparatus 1 may be different from those in the drawings of the present application. Moreover, you may combine suitably each element which appeared in said embodiment and modification in the range which does not produce inconsistency.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printing device 9,9A Tablet 20 Supply mechanism 24,24A, 24B, 24C Supply feeder 25,25A, 25B, 25C Guide part 30 Conveyance mechanism 31,31A, 31B, 31C Conveyance drum 40 Printing part 62 Conveyor belt 241,241A Cavity Part 250, 250C Contact part 310 Holding part 311, 311A, 311C Outer surface

Claims (7)

A conveying device for conveying particulate matter,
A drum-like or belt-like transport unit that holds the granular material in a plurality of holding units recessed from the outer surface;
A supply unit for supplying the granular material to each of the holding units one by one;
On the downstream side of the supply unit, a guide unit that aligns the direction of the granular material,
Have
The plurality of holding units are arranged at intervals in the conveyance direction for each of a plurality of conveyance rows arranged in the width direction,
The guide portion is
A plurality of contact portions arranged facing the outer surface and deformable in a direction perpendicular to the outer surface;
The plurality of contact portions are arranged in the width direction,
Each of the contact portions can be deformed independently of the other contact portions. It is a conveying apparatus of Claim 1, Comprising:
The number of the conveyance rows and the number of the contact portions are the same,
A transport device in which each of the contact portions is disposed to face each of the transport rows. It is a conveying apparatus of Claim 1 or Claim 2, Comprising:
The surface of the guide portion facing the outer surface is
A conveying apparatus including a guide surface whose distance from the outer surface becomes shorter from the upstream side toward the downstream side. It is a conveying apparatus in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3, Comprising:
The supply unit
The granular material is accommodated therein, and has a plurality of cavities extending in the vertical direction,
Each of the hollow portions is a transport device in which a lower end portion is disposed to face the transport row on the outer surface. It is a conveying apparatus in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4, Comprising:
The transport unit is
The conveyance apparatus which further has the suction mechanism which attracts | sucks the gas inside the said holding | maintenance part in the downstream of the said guide part. It is a conveying apparatus in any one of Claim 1 thru | or 5, Comprising:
The said granular material is a conveying apparatus which is a tablet. A transport apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6;
A printing unit that ejects ink droplets onto the surface of the granular material conveyed by the conveying device;
Having a printing device.

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