JP2020005823A - Tablet coating device, and tablet coating method - Google Patents

Abstract

To efficiently coat a tablet with a coating material.SOLUTION: A tablet coating device 100 forms a film of a coating material on a surface of a tablet, and comprises tablet transfer parts 11, 12, and 13 capable of transferring the tablet, a tablet shape recognition unit for recognizing the shape of the tablet, a discharge pattern calculation unit for calculating a discharge pattern on the basis of the shape of the tablet recognized by the tablet shape recognition unit, and discharge parts 71, 21, and 31 for discharging the coating material to the tablet on the basis of the discharge pattern calculated by the discharge pattern calculation unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a tablet coating apparatus for forming a coating film on a tablet and a tablet coating method.

  Tablets are widely coated to form a film such as sugar coating on the surface to mask the bitterness and smell of the drug and to protect it from moisture and oxygen in the atmosphere and effectively prevent decomposition and deterioration. ing.

  Patent Literature 1 describes a configuration in which a coating liquid is continuously ejected from an inkjet nozzle to a surface of a tablet conveyed by a belt conveyor to perform a coating process, and then the tablet is discharged to a tablet discharge unit. .

Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-048924

  However, since the coating liquid described in Patent Literature 1 ejects the coating liquid onto a belt conveyor other than the tablet surface, there is a problem that the coating liquid is used unnecessarily and coating efficiency is poor.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and efficiently coat a tablet with a coating material.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a tablet coating device for forming a film of a coating material on the tablet surface,
A tablet transport unit capable of transporting tablets,
A tablet shape recognition unit that recognizes the shape of the tablet,
A discharge pattern calculation unit that calculates a discharge pattern based on the shape of the tablet recognized by the tablet shape recognition unit, and a discharge unit that discharges the coating material onto the tablet based on the discharge pattern calculated by the discharge pattern calculation unit. And a tablet coating device characterized by comprising:

With this configuration, the tablet can be efficiently coated with the coating material.

The tablet transport section may be configured to transport the tablet while holding the tablet on the side peripheral surface of the disk.

With this configuration, since the positional shift of the conveyed tablet is small and unnecessary discharge of the coating material can be reduced, the tablet can be efficiently coated with the coating material.

The discharge pattern calculation unit may be configured to calculate the dark and light discharge pattern according to the position of the tablet surface.

With this configuration, the coating material can be thickly applied to the tablet surface at a position where the coating material tends to be thin.

The ejection section may be provided at a position where the coating material can be ejected with emphasis on a side peripheral surface corner of the tablet.

According to this configuration, it is possible to mainly coat the side peripheral surface corners of the tablets that are liable to be rubbed against each other.

Further, in order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a tablet coating method for forming a film of a coating material on a tablet surface, a tablet conveying step of conveying a tablet, a tablet shape recognition step of recognizing the shape of the tablet, An ejection pattern calculation step of calculating an ejection pattern based on the shape of the tablet recognized in the tablet shape recognition step; and an ejection step of ejecting the coating material onto the tablet based on the ejection pattern calculated in the ejection pattern calculation step. And a tablet coating method characterized by comprising:

With this configuration, the tablet can be efficiently coated with the coating material.

The tablet transporting step may be configured to transport the tablet while holding the tablet on the side peripheral surface of the disk.

With this configuration, since the positional shift of the conveyed tablet is small and unnecessary discharge of the coating material can be reduced, the tablet can be efficiently coated with the coating material.

The discharge pattern calculation step may be configured to calculate the dark and light discharge pattern according to the position of the tablet surface.

With this configuration, the coating material can be thickly applied to the tablet surface at a position where the coating material tends to be thin.

In the discharging step, the coating material may be discharged to the corners of the peripheral surface of the tablet.

With this configuration, it is possible to mainly coat the side peripheral surface corners of the tablet which is easily worn when the tablets rub against each other.

According to the tablet coating apparatus and tablet coating method of the present invention, a coating material can be efficiently coated on tablets.

It is a figure explaining the tablet coating device in Example 1 of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the imaging part which picturizes the tablet side in Example 1 of the present invention, and is the figure seen from the side. It is a figure explaining the imaging part which picturizes the tablet side in Example 1 of the present invention, and is the figure seen from the front. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a control configuration of the tablet coating device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a coating material is discharged to a tablet side surface according to the first embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from the side. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a coating material is discharged to a side surface of the tablet in Example 1 of the present invention, and is a diagram viewed from the front. It is a figure explaining the tablet coating device in Example 2 of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a control configuration according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a coating material is discharged to a tablet side surface according to the second embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from the side. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a coating material is discharged to the side surface of the tablet according to the second embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from the front.

  First Embodiment A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a tablet coating apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an imaging unit that images a tablet side surface according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram viewed from the side. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an imaging unit that captures an image of a tablet side surface according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram viewed from the front. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a control configuration of the tablet coating apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the coating material is discharged to the tablet side surface according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram viewed from the side surface. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the coating material is discharged to the side surface of the tablet according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram viewed from the front.

(Tablet coating equipment)
As shown in FIG. 1, the tablet coating apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a disk 11, a disk 12, a disk 13, a parts feeder 14, a tablet input unit 15, an ejection unit 21, an ejection unit 31, an imaging unit 41, It comprises an imaging section 51, an imaging section 61, a discharge section 71, a storage box 17, and the like. Here, the disk 11, the disk 12, and the disk 13 constitute a tablet transporting unit, and transport the tablet T while sucking and holding the tablet T by one of a plurality of suction holes provided on a side peripheral surface thereof. The imaging unit 61 is provided with a prism 62, and is configured to be able to capture a plurality of side images of one tablet T. The ejection unit 71 includes a plurality of ejection units 71A, 71B, 71C, and 71D, and can eject the coating material on the entire side surface (side peripheral surface) of the tablet T.

  The disk 11 is provided with its main surface vertical, the disk 12 is provided vertically so as to be perpendicular to the disk 11 and the sides are close to each other, and the disk 13 is provided so as to be perpendicular to the disk 12 and so that the sides are close to each other. It is provided in. The disk 11, disk 12, and disk 13 are provided with a plurality of suction holes on the side surface circumference, and the tablets T are individually sucked and held in one suction hole to prevent a positional shift at the time of delivery and transfer of tablets. I have.

  The tablet T often has a dividing line K on either the first main surface M1 or the second main surface M2. The dividing line K (see FIG. 3) is a groove provided on the main surface (first main surface M1 or second main surface M2) of the tablet so as to be easily broken when the tablet is divided. In many cases, the dividing line K has one groove provided linearly from one end to the other end of the tablet T so that the tablet T can be divided into halves. Some tablets T are provided with grooves so that they can be divided into quarters. Here, the circumferential surface that connects the two main surfaces, the first main surface M1 and the second main surface M2, of the tablet T is referred to as a side surface S. The tablets T include deformed tablets whose shape as viewed from the first main surface M1 or the second main surface M2 is oval or oval in addition to circular.

  An imaging unit 61 is provided at a position on the disk 12 where the tablet T is transported. The imaging unit 61 is configured by a CMOS sensor, and captures an image of the tablet T being transported by using an electronic shutter and a strobe so that the image is not blurred. In the first embodiment, four side images of the tablet T are captured via the prism 62.

  A configuration in which the image capturing unit 61 captures a side image of the tablet T by the prism 62 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the prism 62 is arranged so that the tablet T sucked and held on the disk 12 passes through the concave portion 63. At this time, the main surface of the tablet T sucked and held on the disk 12 is a first main surface M1, and the main surface facing the imaging unit 61 side is a second main surface M2. In the tablet T passing through the concave portion 63, a prism 62 is configured so that side images are captured from four places. Light from the tablet T repeats refraction in the prism 62 and enters the imaging unit 61. Image on the CMOS sensor (see FIGS. 2 and 3). Then, based on the captured side image, the tablet shape recognition unit 81 recognizes the shape of the side surface of the tablet T as described below.

  When the shape of the tablet side surface S is recognized by the tablet shape recognition unit 81, the information is input to the ejection pattern calculation unit 91, and the ejection pattern of the coating material on the tablet side surface S is calculated (see FIG. 4). The calculated ejection pattern is input to the ejection unit 71, and ejects the coating material onto the side surface S of the tablet T adsorbed on the disk 12. The discharge pattern calculation section 91 calculates the respective discharge patterns discharged from the four discharge sections 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D and outputs the calculation to each discharge section. The discharge unit 71 is configured to discharge the coating material from the four discharge units 71A, 71B, 71C, and 71D on the side of the tablet T, as shown in FIGS. The coating material can be discharged over the entire area.

  Here, the tablet shape recognition unit 81 and the ejection pattern calculation unit 91 are configured by a personal computer, and can operate the known image processing software to recognize the shape of the tablet and calculate the ejection pattern based on the recognition. .

  As the ejection pattern, an arbitrary one such as an ejection range, an ejection amount, and the number of ejections can be calculated. The ejection pattern may be calculated so as to uniformly form a film having the same thickness on the surface within the shape of the tablet T, or the shaded ejection pattern may be calculated according to the position of the tablet surface. . For example, if the ejection pattern is calculated so that the coating material on the tablet surface is likely to be ejected a plurality of times at a position where the coating material tends to be thin, it is possible to prevent the film from peeling and exposing the drug surface of the tablet T. In particular, since the tablet T is likely to come into contact with and rub against the side corners of the tablet T, the tablet T is discharged a plurality of times to thicken the coating material on the side corners of the tablet T, or the discharge amount of the coating material is increased. The ejection pattern may be calculated. When designating the ejection amount or the number of ejections, the location, the ejection amount, the number of ejections, and the like may be instructed to the ejection pattern calculation unit in advance.

  In addition, by calculating and coating the ejection pattern so that the coating is not applied to a part of the tablet T, when the tablet T is taken, the drug component gradually dissolves from only the uncoated part. It is possible to have the nature.

  Conventionally, in order to provide sustained release, a method of irradiating a laser beam to the coated tablet T to destroy a part of the coating film was also performed. By performing the coating by calculating the ejection pattern so as not to apply the coating, one step of laser light irradiation can be reduced.

  Furthermore, in order to coat a plurality of colors with different colors for each position of the tablet T, the position where one color is coated is calculated, for example, an ejection pattern in which only the upper half is coated, and the position where another color is coated are calculated. For example, it is also possible to calculate an ejection pattern for only the lower half. In this case, a new discharge unit may be provided in addition to the discharge unit 71, the discharge unit 21 and the discharge unit 31, which will be described later, so as to discharge other colors. Thereby, the type of the tablet T and the visibility of the drug taker can be improved.

  The ejection unit 71, and the ejection units 21 and 31 described below, each include an inkjet head, and can eject the coating material from a plurality of nozzles arranged in a line in a direction orthogonal to the rotation direction of the disk. By discharging the coating material in synchronization with the moving speed of the disk 12, the coating material can be discharged two-dimensionally. The ejection pattern calculated by the ejection pattern calculation unit 91 according to the shape of the side surface S of the tablet T is input to the ejection unit 71.

  It is desirable that the coating material is melted by heating so that it can be discharged at a high temperature, and that the fluidity is easily ensured. On the other hand, when cooled to room temperature, it is required that the coated surfaces do not adhere when they come into contact with each other because a certain degree of hardness is obtained. For this reason, a wax having a melting point or freezing point of 55 ° C. or higher (for example, carnauba wax, beeswax, beeswax, hardened oil, paraffin, stearic acid, stearyl alcohol, etc.) or the like is preferably used for the coating material. It is preferable to use a low-melting wax which can be used in the present invention and has a quick drying property.

  In such a wax coating, since the tablet T is hardly disintegrated by wax application, even a tablet which is easily disintegrated needs a thin coating layer, and the tablet coating apparatus 100 is suitable for forming such a thin coating layer. When the tablet T is to be colored, the coating material may contain a coloring agent, a fat or oil for adding the coloring agent, a wax-dispersed carrier (such as glycerin or propylene glycol), or a wax base material (such as carnauba wax). Is also good.

  Further, as a coating material, a resin material having a melting point, a freezing point or a softening point of 55 ° C. or higher (polyethylene glycols, polyoxyethylene, polyoxypropylene glycols, rosin, hydrogenated rosin glycerin ester, ester gum, vinyl acetate resin) Etc.) can also be used. In this case, in the case of a resin-based coating material such as hydrogenated rosin glycerin ester, the coating layer needs to be thickened to some extent because it is insoluble in water but has slightly poor impact resistance. For this reason, in the case of the resin system, the ejection section 71, the ejection section 21, and the ejection section 31 are instructed to perform a thick ejection pattern (for example, to eject a plurality of pieces to the same location or increase the ejection amount). This can make the coating layer thicker.

  In the first embodiment, the prism 62 is used to capture the side image of the tablet T. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be appropriately changed. For example, it may be configured using a half mirror or a mirror, or may be configured to directly capture a side image using a plurality of imaging units. Further, the imaging unit 61 is configured by a CMOS sensor, but is not necessarily limited to this, and can be appropriately changed. For example, it may be constituted by a CCD sensor or a line sensor.

  In the first embodiment, four side images are captured. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be appropriately changed. For example, there may be three or two locations, or five or more locations, but it is desirable to be configured to capture a lateral image in the widest possible angle range.

  Furthermore, in the first embodiment, the imaging unit 61 is provided at a position on the disk 12 where the tablet T is transported. However, the imaging unit 61 is not necessarily limited to this and can be appropriately changed. For example, the imaging unit 61 may be provided at a position on the disk 13 where the tablet T is transported, or the imaging unit 61 may be provided at a position on the disk 11 where the tablet T is transported. .

  In the first embodiment, the tablet shape recognizing unit 81 and the ejection pattern calculating unit 91 are configured by a personal computer. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be appropriately changed. For example, an arbitrary control circuit may be used.

  An imaging unit 41, an imaging unit 51, an ejection unit 21, and an ejection unit 31 are arranged at positions on the disk 11 where the tablet T is transported (see FIG. 1). The imaging unit 41 and the imaging unit 51 face each other and are arranged so as to sandwich the tablet T. The imaging unit 41 captures an image of the first main surface M1 and the imaging unit 51 captures an image of the second main surface M2. The image captured by the imaging unit 41 and the image captured by the imaging unit 51 are input to the tablet shape recognition unit 81, and are viewed from the first main surface M1 of the tablet T and viewed from the second main surface M2 of the tablet T. Recognize the shape. Then, each recognized shape data is input to the ejection pattern calculation unit 91, and the ejection pattern for ejecting the coating material is calculated.

  The discharge unit 21 and the discharge unit 31 face each other and are arranged so as to sandwich the tablet T. The discharge unit 21 discharges to the first main surface M1, and the discharge unit 31 discharges to the second main surface M2. I do. Each of the ejection unit 21 and the ejection unit 31 is configured by an inkjet head, and discharges a coating material from a nozzle in synchronization with the movement of the tablet T, so that the entire surface of the first main surface M1 and the second main surface M2 of the tablet T is formed. A film of the coating material can be formed uniformly.

  A storage box 17 is provided at the transport end of the tablet T on the disk 11, and the coated tablet T can be stored by releasing the suction of the suction hole.

  Here, in the first embodiment, since the tablet transport unit is constituted by the disk 11, the disk 12, and the disk 13, the tablet T is firmly sucked and held by the suction holes of the disk to be transported. The displacement is small, and the coating material can be accurately discharged for shape recognition of each tablet T, and the waste of the coating material can be minimized.

  In the first embodiment, the imaging unit 41 and the imaging unit 51 are provided so as to image both the first main surface M1 and the second main surface M2 of the tablet T. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It can be changed as appropriate. For example, either the imaging unit 41 or the imaging unit 51 may be provided to image the first main surface M1 or the second main surface M2 of the tablet T. In that case, the shape of the main surface on which the image has been captured may be recognized by the tablet shape recognition unit 81, and the shape of the main surface whose shape is not imaged may be the same as the shape of the main surface whose image has been captured.

  In the first embodiment, the imaging unit 61, the imaging unit 41, and the imaging unit 51 perform imaging of the side surface S, the first main surface M1, and the second main surface M2 of the tablet T, and recognize the respective shapes. Although configured as described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and can be appropriately changed. For example, the tablet shape recognition unit may be configured so that a three-dimensional shape is imaged by an imaging unit such as a laser scan, and the three-dimensional shape is recognized collectively.

(Tablet coating method)
The operation of the tablet coating apparatus 100 (tablet coating method) will be described. First, when the tablet T is loaded into the parts feeder 14 from the tablet loading section 15, the tablets T are gradually aligned in the horizontal direction by the vibration or rotation of the parts feeder 14. At the final end of the parts feeder 14, the aligned tablets T are suctioned on the side surface S thereof by one of the suction holes provided on the circumference of the side surface of the disk 13 in one of the adjacent suction holes.

  The tablets T sucked and held in the suction holes on the side circumference of the disk 13 are conveyed and moved closer to the disk 12 as the disk 13 rotates counterclockwise. Then, the tablet T that has moved close to the disk 12 starts suctioning to the suction hole close to the disk 12, releases the suction of the suction hole of the disk 13, and moves one main surface of the tablet T to the disk 12. Is adsorbed to the adsorption hole. At this time, the main surface held by suction is defined as a first main surface M1, and the opposite main surface is defined as a second main surface M2.

  The tablet T approaches the imaging unit 61 by rotating the disk 12 clockwise. When the tablet T is rotated to a position where it can be imaged by the imaging unit 61, the tablet T is detected by a sensor (not shown), and the imaging unit 61 executes an imaging process to capture a side image of the tablet T viewed from the side S direction. I do. At this time, since the main surface of the tablet T is suctioned to the suction holes on the peripheral surface on the disk 12 side, an image of the entire circumference of the side surface S can be captured. The imaging unit 61 is configured to take images of the four side surfaces S of the tablet T with a CMOS sensor using the prism 62, and takes an image of the tablet T being transported and moved using an electronic shutter and a strobe so that the image is not blurred.

  From the four side images captured by the imaging unit 61, side images of substantially the entire circumference are obtained, and these images are input to the tablet shape recognition unit 81, and the tablet shape recognition process is executed. As described above, in the tablet shape recognition process using the side images, the shape of substantially the entire periphery of the side surface S of the tablet T is recognized. Recognition of the shape based on the side image can be detected using known image processing software. Specifically, the boundary of the tablet T may be detected by obtaining the boundary using the boundary detection method, or software for calculating the moment of the white area may be used because the tablet T is imaged white and the background is black. The shape of the side surface S can be recognized using any image processing software. When the shape of the side surface S of the tablet T is recognized in the tablet shape recognition step, the data is input to the discharge pattern calculation section 91 to execute the discharge pattern calculation step, and the discharge section 71 calculates a pattern for discharging the coating material. In the first embodiment, a discharge pattern for discharging the coating material so as to uniformly coat the entire surface of the entire periphery of the side surface S of the tablet T is calculated.

  The tablet T for which the imaging process has been completed is transported and moved to a position where the discharge unit 71 can discharge the coating material. When the ejection section 71 conveys and moves the tablet T to a position where the coating material can be ejected, the tablet T is detected by a sensor (not shown), and the ejection of the coating material is started. By this time, the tablet shape recognition step and the ejection pattern calculation step have been completed. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the ejection unit 71 is configured with ejection units 71A, 71B, 71C, and 71D so as to be able to eject the coating material from four sides of the tablet T. The coating material is uniformly discharged only from the discharge sections 71A, 71B, 71C, and 71D to the entire side surface of the tablet T based on the discharge pattern calculated in the discharge pattern calculation step.

  Next, the tablet T comes close to the disk 11 by rotating the vertically standing disk 12 clockwise as shown in FIG. Then, the tablet T that has moved closer to the disk 11 starts suctioning to the suction hole close to the disk 11, releases the suction of the suction hole in the disk 12, and moves the side surface S of the tablet T to the side of the disk 11. Adsorb and hold in the suction hole. At this time, the tablet T has a first main surface M1 on the near side and a second main surface M2 on the back side in FIG. The tablet T sucked and held on the disk 11 is conveyed and moved counterclockwise as the disk 11 rotates.

  When the tablet T is rotated to a position where it can be imaged by the imaging unit 41 and the imaging unit 51, the tablet T is detected by a sensor (not shown), an imaging process is performed, and the imaging unit 41 images the first main surface M1 of the tablet T. Then, the imaging section 51 images the second main surface M2 of the tablet T. Each of the imaging unit 41 and the imaging unit 51 is configured by a CMOS sensor, and captures an image of the tablet T being transported by using an electronic shutter and a strobe so that the image is not blurred.

  Then, the image of the first main surface M1 and the image of the second main surface M2 of the tablet T captured by the imaging unit 41 and the imaging unit 51 are input to the tablet shape recognition unit 81, and the tablet shape recognition step is performed. In the tablet shape recognition step, the shape of the first main surface M1 of the tablet T is recognized by the image of the first main surface M1, and the shape of the second main surface M2 of the tablet T is recognized by the image of the second main surface M2. . Shape recognition based on the image of the first main surface M1 and the image of the second main surface M2 can be detected by using known image processing software. Specifically, the boundary of the tablet T may be detected by obtaining the boundary using the boundary detection method, or software for calculating the moment of the white area may be used because the tablet T is imaged white and the background is black. The shape of each main surface can be recognized using any image processing software.

  When the shapes of the first main surface M1 and the second main surface M2 of the tablet T are recognized in the tablet shape recognition step, the data is input to the discharge pattern calculation unit 91 to execute the discharge pattern calculation step, and the discharge units 21 and 31 are processed. Calculates the pattern for discharging the coating material. In the first embodiment, an ejection pattern for ejecting the coating material so as to uniformly coat the entire surface of the first main surface M1 and the second main surface M2 of the tablet T is calculated.

  Then, based on the ejection pattern calculated in the ejection pattern calculation step, the ejection units 21 and 31 execute the ejection step, and eject the coating material onto the tablet T in synchronization with the movement of the disk 11, and the first main surface M1 And forming a film of the coating material on the second main surface M2.

  As described above, when the ejection of the coating material by the ejection unit 71 (71A, 71B, 71C, 71D), the ejection unit 21, and the ejection unit 31 is completed, the first main surface M1, the second main surface M2, In addition, the coating material is uniformly coated on the entire side surface to form a film.

  Here, the ejection pattern is calculated by recognizing the side S shape of the tablet T based on the side image, and the main surface shape of the tablet T is recognized based on the images of the first main surface M1 and the second main surface M2. By calculating the ejection pattern, the coating material is ejected from the ejection unit 71, the ejection unit 21, and the ejection unit 31 based on these ejection patterns, so that the entire surface of the tablet T can be coated and other portions can be coated. In this case, the tablet T can be efficiently coated with the coating material without discharging the extra coating material.

  After the ejection step, the tablets T are transported to a position where they can be put into the storage box 17, and are released into the storage box 17 by releasing the suction holes of the disk 11.

  In the first embodiment, each of the imaging unit 41, the imaging unit 51, and the imaging unit 61 is configured by a CMOS sensor. However, the configuration is not necessarily limited to this, and can be appropriately changed. For example, it may be constituted by a CCD sensor, may be constituted by an image pickup tube, or may be constituted by a line sensor. Further, instead of using the electronic shutter or the strobe to image the tablet T being rotated and conveyed, the tablet T may be stopped and imaged each time.

  Further, in the first embodiment, the coating material is discharged according to the discharge pattern calculated based on the shape recognition of the tablet T to form a film on the surface of the tablet T, so that the coating material is not wasted. The present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and can be appropriately changed. For example, the configuration may be such that the film thickness of the formed film is measured and the tablet T having the insufficient film thickness is discharged, or the coating material is applied again to the portion where the film thickness is insufficient.

Thus, in Example 1, a tablet coating apparatus for forming a coating of a coating material on a tablet surface is provided.
A tablet transport unit capable of transporting tablets,
A tablet shape recognition unit that recognizes the shape of the tablet,
A discharge pattern calculation unit that calculates a discharge pattern based on the shape of the tablet recognized by the tablet shape recognition unit, and a discharge unit that discharges the coating material onto the tablet based on the discharge pattern calculated by the discharge pattern calculation unit. The coating material can efficiently coat the tablet with the tablet coating apparatus characterized by having the following.

Further, a tablet coating method for forming a film of a coating material on the tablet surface,
A tablet transporting step of transporting tablets,
A tablet shape recognition process for recognizing the shape of the tablet,
A discharge pattern calculation step of calculating a discharge pattern based on the shape of the tablet recognized in the tablet shape recognition step, and a discharge step of discharging the coating material onto the tablet based on the discharge pattern calculated in the discharge pattern calculation step. The coating material can be efficiently coated on the tablet by the tablet coating method comprising:

  Example 2 of the present invention differs from Example 1 in that the coating material can be discharged to the side corners of the tablet with emphasis on the side surface of the tablet. Second Embodiment A second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a tablet coating apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a control configuration of the tablet coating device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the coating material is discharged to the tablet side surface according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram viewed from the side surface. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the coating material is discharged to the side surface of the tablet in Example 2 of the present invention, and is a diagram viewed from the front.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the tablet coating apparatus 200 according to the second embodiment has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment, but differs from the first embodiment in that the disk 12 has a discharge unit 171. I have.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the ejection unit 171 is configured to eject the coating material onto the tablet T based on the ejection pattern calculated by the ejection pattern calculation unit 91. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the discharge unit 171 is provided at a position where the coating material can be discharged with emphasis on a side peripheral corner (side S corner) of the tablet T. That is, the discharge unit 171 includes eight discharge units of discharge units 171A, 171B, 171C, 171D, 172A, 172B, 172C, and 172D.

  The discharge units 171A, 171B, 171C, and 171D are provided at oblique positions with respect to the tablet T so that the coating material can be discharged with focus on one side peripheral surface corner of the tablet T, and the discharge units 172A, 172B, 172C and 172D are provided at an oblique position with respect to the tablet T so that the coating material can be discharged with emphasis on the other side peripheral surface corner of the tablet T. Each of the ejection units 171A, 171B, 171C, 171D, 172A, 172B, 172C, and 172D is composed of an inkjet head, and has nozzles arranged in a row in a direction orthogonal to the rotation direction of the disk 12. In the ejection step, the coating material can be coated on the tablet T two-dimensionally by ejecting the coating material from these nozzles in synchronization with the rotational movement of the disk 12.

  Also in the second embodiment, an arbitrary ejection pattern can be calculated. The ejection pattern may be calculated so that a film of the same thickness is uniformly formed on the surface of the tablet T, or the ejection pattern having light and shade may be calculated according to the position of the tablet surface. In the second embodiment, the ejection unit is provided at a position where the coating material can be ejected with emphasis on the side peripheral surface corners of the tablet T. However, the coating material on the side peripheral surface corners of the tablet T is further concentrated. For this purpose, the discharge pattern may be calculated so as to discharge a plurality of times.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, the ejection unit is provided at a position oblique to the tablet T, which is a position where the coating material can be ejected, with emphasis on the side peripheral surface corners of the tablet. The coating material can be discharged mainly at the side peripheral corners (side S corners) of the tablet, and the tablet is coated with emphasis on the side peripheral corners of the tablet which are easily worn when the tablets rub against each other. be able to.

  Further, in the discharging step, the coating material is mainly discharged onto the side peripheral surface corners of the tablet, so that the tablet is easily coated on the side peripheral surface corners that are easily worn when the tablets rub against each other. can do.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The tablet coating apparatus and tablet coating method according to the present invention can be widely applied to the field of coating a coating material.

11: disk 12: disk 13: disk 14: parts feeder
15: Tablet input unit 17: Storage box 21: Discharge unit 31: Discharge unit
41: imaging unit 51: imaging unit
61: imaging unit 62: prism 63: concave
71: Discharge unit 171: Discharge unit
81: tablet shape recognition unit 91: ejection pattern calculation unit
100: Tablet coating device 200: Tablet coating device
T: tablet K: score line M1: first main surface M2: second main surface

Claims (8)

A tablet coating apparatus for forming a coating of a coating material on a tablet surface,
A tablet transport unit capable of transporting tablets,
A tablet shape recognition unit that recognizes the shape of the tablet,
An ejection pattern calculation unit that calculates an ejection pattern based on the shape of the tablet recognized by the tablet shape recognition unit,
A tablet coating apparatus comprising: a discharge unit configured to discharge the coating material to tablets based on the discharge pattern calculated by the discharge pattern calculation unit.   The tablet coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tablet transport unit transports the tablet while holding the tablet on a side peripheral surface of a disk.   3. The tablet coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge pattern calculation unit calculates the dark and light discharge pattern according to a position on a tablet surface. 4.   The tablet coating apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the discharge unit is provided at a position where the coating material can be discharged with emphasis on a side peripheral surface corner of the tablet. A tablet coating method for forming a film of a coating material on a tablet surface,
A tablet transporting step of transporting tablets,
A tablet shape recognition process for recognizing the shape of the tablet,
A discharge pattern calculation step of calculating a discharge pattern based on the shape of the tablet recognized in the tablet shape recognition step, and a discharge step of discharging the coating material onto the tablet based on the discharge pattern calculated in the discharge pattern calculation step. A tablet coating method comprising:   The tablet coating method according to claim 5, wherein the tablet transporting step transports the tablet while holding the tablet on a side peripheral surface of a disk.   7. The tablet coating method according to claim 5, wherein the discharge pattern calculating step calculates the light and shaded discharge pattern according to a position on a tablet surface.   The tablet coating method according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein, in the discharging step, the coating material is discharged to corner portions of the side peripheral surface of the tablet.

Images