JP3239994U - Tablet conveying device - Google Patents

Abstract

A tablet conveying apparatus is provided that efficiently and reliably conveys tablets one by one. A tablet conveying device (4) has a conveying disk (24) having a mold hole (30) for accommodating a tablet (7), and a scraping blade (37) made of silicon rubber and arranged on the upper surface side of the conveying disk (24). Three scraping blades 37 ( 37 p , 37 q , 37 r ) are provided along the circumferential direction. One of the scraping blades 37 on the rearmost side (37r) is thicker than the other two on the front side (37p, 37q) and has greater bending rigidity. The upper surface of the carrier disk 24 is further provided with a protrusion 48 that interferes with the leading edge 37 a of the scraping blade 37 . [Selection drawing] Fig. 5

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a tablet conveying device for conveying and feeding tablets such as pharmaceuticals to subsequent devices and equipment, and more particularly to a tablet conveying device capable of conveying and feeding tablets one by one to the subsequent stage.

When manufacturing tablets such as pharmaceuticals and health foods, there are cases where a sampling inspection is performed to check the progress of processing by taking out the tablets during the manufacturing process as appropriate. For example, in the case of pharmaceutical tablets, coating treatment such as sugar coating may be applied to the surface of the uncoated tablet. The sampling inspection in this case is performed periodically during the coating process, taking out a certain amount of tablets as samples from the coating apparatus and measuring their weight.

As such a sampling device, the applicant of the present application has proposed a system such as Patent Document 1. There, tablets are taken out from a rotating coating pan during coating treatment, and while the tablets are counted by a counter, a fixed quantity (for example, 100 tablets) is fed to a weighing unit. Then, the amount of the coating film on the tablet surface is calculated from the sample weight, and the coating film thickness is calculated based on this to grasp the progress of the coating treatment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the tablet conveying device 51 used in the sampling system described above. As shown in FIG. 8, here, a tablet conveying device 51 having a disk-shaped conveying disk 52 is used as the counting section. The conveying disk 52 is rotationally driven by a motor and arranged at an angle within a cylindrical outer cover 53 . A mold hole 55 corresponding to the shape and size of the tablet 54 is formed through the conveying disk 52 near its outer periphery. A plurality of mold holes 55 are formed at regular intervals along the circumferential direction, and tablets 54 can be loaded and passed one by one. A non-rotating conveying table 56 is provided on the back side of the conveying disk 52 to support the tablet 54 from below so that the tablet 54 does not fall downward from the mold hole 55 .

A tablet discharge port 57 is provided corresponding to the mold hole 55 on the upper side of the transfer table 56 . The tablet 54 that has come to the upper side as the carrier disk 52 rotates drops from the die hole 55 into the tablet discharge port 57 . A sensor 58 for counting the number of falling tablets is provided below the tablet ejection port 57, and the tablets 54 are counted by the sensor 58 and sent to the subsequent stage (weighing section). In the weighing unit, the weight of a certain number of tablets 54 is measured to detect the progress of the coating process.

A tablet 54 taken out as a sample from the coating pan is fed to the tablet conveying device 51 . The tablet 54 is supplied to the lower side of the carrier disk 52, and placed on the lower side of the carrier disk 52 at a position approximately in the 6 o'clock direction of the clock (hereinafter, ** hours refer to the dial of the clock). A puddle is formed. Here, the term "lower side" refers to the lower half area of the conveying disk 52 which is inclined, and the term "upper side" refers to the upper half area.

The carrier disk 52 rotates, and the tablets 54 stirred in the tablet pool sequentially fit into the mold holes 55 as the disk rotates. The tablet 54 entering the mold hole 55 is continuously transported upward while being supported by the transport table 56 . At this time, a scraping blade 59 is provided between the lower side and the upper side of the conveying disk 52, and the tablets that do not enter the mold hole 55 and rise along the disk are removed by the scraping blade 59. be. In addition, the scraping blade 59 removes two tablets that are stuck in one mold hole 55, preventing the sensor 58 from counting two tablets falling at the same time as one tablet. The tablet 54 in the mold hole 55 drops into the tablet discharge port 57 on the upper side and is counted by the sensor 58 . Data detected by the sensor 58 are sent to a coating control device (not shown).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2022-29076 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 49-40050 JP-A-49-110495

However, in the tablet conveying apparatus as shown in FIG. 8, two or more tablets 54 may fit tightly and deeply into the mold hole 55 as shown in FIG. 9 (paired tablet). As mentioned above, the tablet conveying device 51 is provided with a scraping blade 59 which normally removes excess tablets 54 from the die cavity 55 . However, if a pair of tablets as shown in FIG. 9 occurs, there is a risk that the pair of tablets may reach the tablet discharge port 57 without scraping off the excess tablets.

In this way, if the paired tablets reach the tablet discharge port 57 while being fitted in the mold hole 55, the tablet may pass through the mold hole 55 without falling into the discharge port, and may continue to rotate as it is, and may not be collected. There is Conversely, if two tablets fall into the tablet discharge port 57 at the same time, there is a possibility that the sensor 58 will mistakenly recognize the two tablets as one, resulting in an erroneous counting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to efficiently and reliably convey and collect tablets one by one in a tablet conveying apparatus that conveys tablets one by one.

The tablet conveying device of the present invention comprises a rotatable conveying disk provided with a plurality of mold holes capable of accommodating tablets and arranged at an angle with respect to a horizontal plane, and a tablet scraper arranged on the upper surface side of the conveying disk. , wherein the blade member is formed of a material having flexibility, and is provided in plurality along the circumferential direction of the carrier disk.

In the tablet conveying apparatus of the present invention, by providing a plurality of blade members for scraping off tablets, tablets that do not enter the mold cavity and are lifted up on the conveying disk, or tablets that are stuck in one mold hole. etc. are effectively removed by a plurality of stages of blade members. As a result, it is possible to prevent the paired tablet from continuing to rotate while being fitted in the mold cavity and becoming unrecoverable, and the counting error in which two tablets fall from the mold cavity at the same time and are erroneously recognized as one.

In the tablet conveying device, the blade member may be provided so that the tip side of the blade member is in contact with the upper surface of the conveying disk. Further, the blade member may be provided in a state bent in the thickness direction so that the tip end side of the blade member slides on the upper surface of the carrier disk. Furthermore, the blade member may be made of silicon rubber.

Also, the bending rigidity of at least one of the plurality of blade members may be different. In that case, in order to remove the tablets missed on the front side, the blade member having high bending rigidity may be arranged on the rear side in the rotation direction of the conveying disk. The thickness may be thicker than the blade member on the front stage side. Furthermore, three blade members may be arranged along the circumferential direction of the carrier disk, and the flexural rigidity of the one on the rearmost stage side may be maximized. In this case, two of the blade members on the front side in the rotation direction may have the same bending rigidity, and one of the blade members on the rearmost side may have a higher bending rigidity than the two blade members on the front side. In addition, the bending rigidity of the blade member may be changed sequentially from the front stage side in the rotational direction, and the bending rigidity may be increased toward the rear stage side.

On the other hand, the upper surface of the carrier disk may be provided with a protrusion that interferes with the blade member and pushes the blade member upward. In this way, by providing the protrusion that interferes with the blade member on the upper surface of the conveying disk, even if the tip of the blade member is fitted in the dividing line of the tablet, the tip of the blade is flipped up by the protrusion and the blade is A tablet that is engaged with the tip can be released from the blade, and it is possible to avoid a situation in which the tablet stays in the tip of the blade and cannot be recovered.

Further, the protrusion may be caused to interfere with the end of the tip of the blade member on the center side of the carrier disk so as not to impair the original function of the blade member as much as possible. Further, the projections may be arranged between the die holes adjacent in the circumferential direction on the upper surface of the carrier disk, and the distance between the projections and the outer peripheral edge of the carrier disk is larger than the diameter of the tablet. A gap that is large enough to allow the tablet to pass may be provided. Additionally, the protrusion may be cylindrical.

The tablet conveying apparatus of the present invention is a tablet conveying apparatus having a conveying disk provided with a plurality of mold holes capable of accommodating tablets, and a blade member for scraping off the tablet disposed on the upper surface side of the conveying disk. Since a plurality of blade members are provided along the circumferential direction of the blade member, tablets that do not enter the mold cavity and are lifted up on the conveying disk, or two tablets that are stuck in one mold hole, are handled by multiple stages of blade members. can be effectively removed by As a result, it is possible to prevent the paired tablets from rotating while being fitted in the mold cavity and becoming unrecoverable, and the miscounting of two tablets falling from the mold cavity at the same time and erroneously recognizing them as one. .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is explanatory drawing which shows the whole structure of the tablet sampling system using the tablet conveying apparatus which is one embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an overview of the configuration of a weight measurement unit in the tablet sampling system of FIG. 1; BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the tablet conveying apparatus which is one embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the configuration of the periphery of the carrier disk and the mold hole in the tablet carrier device according to the present invention; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of a scraping blade; FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the arrangement of protrusions; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing how tablets are forcibly ejected, where (a) shows when air is turned off and (b) shows when air is turned on. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional tablet conveying device used in a sampling system; FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a problem in the tablet conveying device of FIG. 8;

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the overall configuration of a tablet sampling system 1 using a tablet conveying device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The tablet sampling system 1 is roughly composed of a sample extraction section 2 and a sample weight measurement section (hereinafter abbreviated as weight measurement section) 3 . A tablet conveying device 4 according to the present invention is arranged in the weighing section 3 of the tablet sampling system 1 of FIG.

The sample take-out unit 2 is arranged in the coating pan 6 of the pan coating apparatus 5 , takes out the tablets 7 from the pan using compressed air, and delivers them to the weight measurement unit 3 . The weight measuring section 3 measures the number and weight of the tablets 7 taken out by the sample taking out section 2 . Data obtained by the weight measurement unit 3 is sent to the coating control device 8 . The coating control device 8 calculates the coating film amount of the tablet 7 to calculate the coating film thickness, and grasps the progress of the coating.

The sample take-out part 2 is provided with a sample holding part 9 for temporarily storing the tablets 7 taken out from the coating pan 6 . The tablets 7 are sampled from the inside of the pan by a blow sampling system 11 using compressed air, and discharged from the pan coating apparatus 5 through the product discharge port 13 from the front opening 12 of the pan. The tablet 7 taken out of the device is temporarily held in the sample holding section 9 and then sent to the weight measuring section 3 .

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an overview of the configuration of the weight measuring section 3. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2 , the weight measuring section 3 includes a counting section 21 that counts the number of tablets 7 and a weighing section 22 that measures the weight of the tablets 7 . The counting section 21 and the weighing section 22 are accommodated in the housing 23 . The counting unit 21 is provided with a tablet conveying device 4 that conveys the tablets 7 one by one and counts the number of tablets. The tablets 7 are fed to the weighing section 22 after being counted by the tablet conveying device 4 . The measurement data of the counting section 21 and the weighing section 22 are sent to the coating control device 8 .

The coating control device 8 calculates the amount of the coating film on the tablet 7 from the number of tablets and the total weight, taking into account the weight of the uncoated tablet, and calculates the coating film thickness. As a result, the coating control device 8 grasps the progress of coating, and based on this, controls various coating conditions such as the amount of spray from the spray gun 14 arranged in the coating pan 6, the amount of air supplied, and the processing time. do.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the tablet conveying device 4. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the tablet conveying device 4 is provided with a disk-shaped conveying disk 24 which is arranged at an angle. The carrier disk 24 is formed to have a diameter of 260 mm and a thickness of about 3 mm, and is inclined 20° to 40° (here, 35°) with respect to the horizontal direction in accordance with tablet specifications. A carrier disk 24 is housed in a cylindrical outer cover 25 and is rotated at about 5 rpm by a reduction motor 27 having a gearbox 26, as shown in FIG.

The conveying disk 24 has a flat tablet conveying surface 28 and a flange wall 29 erected on the outer edge of the tablet conveying surface 28 along the circumferential direction. A flange wall 29 extends upward from the tablet conveying surface 28 at the outer periphery of the conveying disc 24 . A mold hole 30 (for example, D=φ8 mm) corresponding to the shape and size of the tablet 7 is formed through the periphery of the tablet conveying surface 28, for example, at a pitch diameter of about 240 mm. A plurality of mold holes 30 are formed at regular intervals along the circumferential direction, and tablets 7 can be loaded and passed one by one. A conveying table 31 that does not rotate is arranged on the back side of the conveying disk 24 and supports the tablet 7 from below so that the tablet 7 does not drop downward from the mold hole 30 .

A chamfered portion 32 is provided on the surface side of the mold hole 30 so that the tablet 7 can be easily introduced into the mold hole 30 so that the diameter of the chamfered portion 32 increases upward. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the vicinity of the peripheral edge of the carrier disk 24 and the mold hole 30 in the tablet carrier device 4. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the chamfered portion 32 has a chamfered dimension on the inner peripheral side 32a smaller than that on the outer peripheral side 32b (inner peripheral side: C0.4 mm, outer peripheral side: C1 mm). That is, the center O ₁ of the chamfered portion 32 is eccentric (the amount of eccentricity e) with respect to the hole portion 30a (the center O ₂ ) of the mold hole 30 . The outer edge 32c of the chamfered portion 32 is in contact with the outer edge 24a of the carrier disk 24. As shown in FIG.

In the chamfered portion 32, when the carrier disk 24 rotates and the die hole 30 moves upward, the chamfered portion 32a on the inner peripheral side becomes nearly horizontal because the carrier disk 24 is inclined. For this reason, a lightweight small-diameter tablet or a slippery lens-shaped tablet may be laterally displaced from the mold hole 30 and left on the chamfered portion 32a (boarding). On the other hand, in the tablet conveying device 4, since the chamfered portion 32a on the inner peripheral side is small and the space for the tablet 7 to ride on is narrow, the tablet is difficult to ride on and the phenomenon of the tablet on the box can be suppressed.

The mold hole 30 is provided at a position adjacent to the inner wall of the flange wall 29 and in contact with the outer edge 24 a of the carrier disk 24 . A tablet guide 33 attached to the inner circumference of the outer cover 25 is provided above the flange wall 29 . The tablet guide 33 is provided over the lower half circumference (5:00 to 9:30) of the outer peripheral cover 25 so as to cover the upper surface 29 a of the flange wall 29 . A lower inner peripheral edge 33 a of the tablet guide 33 protrudes toward the inner side of the disc (toward the center of the carrier disc 24 ) and protrudes beyond the upper inner peripheral edge 29 b of the flange wall 29 .

That is, the inner peripheral edge 33a at the lower end of the tablet guide extends from the flange wall 29 toward the center by about 0.5 mm, and an overhang portion 35 is formed above the mold hole 30 and above the chamfered portion 32. . As a result, the tablet 7 on the outer periphery of the carrier disk 24 is guided to the mold hole 30 by the tablet guide 33 and easily dropped. As a result, even if the tablets 7 temporarily roll on the outer periphery of the disk, they will surely fall into the mold holes 30 as the carrier disk 24 rotates, improving the loading rate of the tablets 7 into the mold holes 30. Tablets can be conveyed in a short time.

A loading chute 36 is provided above the lower side of the carrier disk 24 (see FIG. 2). It should be noted that the terms “lower side” and “upper side” here also refer to the upper and lower half areas of the carrier disk 24, as described above. The tablet 7 is fed from the sample holder 9 of the sample extractor 2 to the injection chute 36 . The tablets 7 sent from the charging chute 36 into the outer peripheral cover 25 gather on the lower side (6 o'clock position) on the carrier disk 24 to form a tablet pool. The tablets 7 on the conveying disk 24 are stirred in the tablet pool and sequentially fit into the mold cavities 30 as the disk rotates. The tablets 7 fitted in the mold holes 30 are continuously transported upward while being supported by the transport table 31 as the transport disc 24 rotates.

A tablet ejection port 38 is provided corresponding to the mold hole 30 at a predetermined position (for example, a position in the 2 o'clock direction slightly lower than the uppermost position on the upper side) of the transport table 31 . A counting sensor 39 for counting the number of falling tablets is provided below the tablet discharge port 38 . The tablet 7 that has come to the upper side as the carrier disk 24 rotates drops downward from the tablet discharge port 38 . The tablets 7 entering the tablet ejection port 38 are counted by the counting sensor 39 and then sent to the weighing section 22 . Data detected by the counting sensor 39 is sent to the coating control device 8 .

The weighing unit 22 is provided with a weighing box 41 having an open top. The weighing box 41 is arranged below the tablet ejection port 38 , and the tablet 7 ejected from the tablet ejection port 38 is accommodated in the weighing box 41 . A weight checker (weight measuring device) 42 is arranged under the weighing box 41 . A weight checker 42 measures the total weight of the tablets 7 contained in the weighing box 41 . Weighing data of the weight checker 42 is also sent to the coating control device 8 . A discharge chute 43 is provided below the weighing box 41, and the tablets 7 for which measurement has been completed are discharged from the discharge chute 43 into a discharge box 44 and collected.

Further, the tablet conveying device 4 is provided with a forced discharge port 45 formed by cutting the outer peripheral cover 25 . A forced discharge box 46 is attached to the outside of the forced discharge port 45 . After the weight measurement, the tablet conveying device 4 rotates the conveying disk 24 in the opposite direction to discharge the tablets 7 remaining in the device (surplus tablets) from the forced discharge port 45 to the forced discharge box 46 . Further, an air nozzle 47 is provided near the tablet pool in order to efficiently feed the tablets 7 from the tablet pool to the forced discharge port 45 when discharging the surplus tablets.

On the other hand, a scraping blade 37 (blade member, hereinafter abbreviated as blade 37) made of an elastic member such as silicon rubber is disposed between the lower side and the upper side of the conveying disk 24 . there is FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the blade 37. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, in the tablet conveying device according to the present invention, a plurality of blades 37 (three in the tablet conveying device 4: blades 37p, 37q, 37r) are provided along the circumferential direction. The blades 37 are fixed to the blade mounting portions 34 (34p to 34r) provided inside the outer peripheral cover 25, and three blades 37 are arranged above the carrier disk 24 in a curtain shape.

The blade mounting portion 34 is composed of a bracket 34a fixed to the inner wall portion 25a of the outer peripheral cover 25 and a plate 34c fixed to the bracket 34a with mounting screws 34b. The blade 37 is attached to the blade mounting portion 34 while being sandwiched between the bracket 34a and the plate 34c, and is fixed by mounting screws 34b. The tip edge 37a of the blade 37 is in contact with the upper surface of the carrier disk 24 in a state in which it is bent by about 2 mm in the thickness direction (disk rotation direction) from the free state. The leading end edge 37 a comes into sliding contact with the tablet conveying surface 28 while bending toward the downstream side (rotation advancing direction) as the conveying disk 24 rotates.

The three blades 37p, 37q, and 37r are positioned at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, and 12 o'clock, respectively. In this case, if the blade 37 is positioned before 9 o'clock, the tablet 7 may get on the blade 37 and not move upward. Also, if it is arranged beyond one o'clock, the tablet 7 scraped off by the blade 37 may drop into the forced discharge port 45 . Therefore, the position of the blade 37 is preferably from 9:00 to 1:00, and more preferably from 9:30 to 12:30.

In addition, if the blade 37 has a thick rubber thickness (strong stiffness), it is possible to use a lightweight small-diameter tablet, a lens-shaped tablet that is easy to scrape out, and a tablet that is fitted in the mold hole 30 but has a bad posture (for example, a tablet edge). (e.g., those floating on the edge of the mold hole 30) are unnecessarily ejected, and there is a risk that the recovery time of the tablets will rather take longer. Therefore, it is preferable that the thickness of the blade is about 1 mm (width 8 mm, elastic length 30 mm) and the tip edge 37a is shaped so as to gently stroke the disk upper surface. However, if the pair of tablets are too closely fitted to the diameter and depth of the mold hole 30, it may be difficult to scrape out the tablet 7 from the mold hole 30 with a soft blade. Therefore, it is preferable that a plurality of blades 37, preferably at least three blades, be provided between the tablet reservoir and the discharge port so that any one of the blades can scrape off the paired tablets.

However, even if a plurality of blades 37 are provided, the pair lock may pass through all of them. For this reason, it is preferable to increase the elasticity of the blade 37 on the rear stage side (increase the bending rigidity EI) so as to reliably scrape off the pair lock. In this case, the bending stiffness EI is EI = Young's modulus (E) × moment of inertia (I = bh ³ / 12), so increasing the thickness of the blade 37 has the greatest effect on elasticity . Therefore, in the tablet conveying device 4, the thickness of the last blade 37r is made thicker than the previous blades 37p and 37q (for example, 2 mm, which is twice the thickness of the other blades). there is In an experiment conducted by the inventors, this configuration enabled almost 100% of the paired locks to be scraped off.

Moreover, in the case of a tablet having a score line, there is a possibility that the tip of the blade 37 stays in the score line without being removed, and the tablet cannot be collected. That is, when the size and weight of the tablet are small and the tablet that has been fitted can be held by the tip of the blade, there is a risk that the tablet will be caught by the blade and stay as it is. Therefore, in the tablet conveying device 4 according to the present invention, a projecting portion 48 that interferes with the blade 37 is provided in the vicinity of the die hole of the conveying disk 24 so that the tip of the blade is flipped by the projecting portion 48 every time the disk makes one turn. , preventing retention of the tablet 7.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the protrusion 48. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, the tablet conveying surface 28 of the conveying disk 24 is provided with cylindrical boss-like protrusions 48 between the adjacent mold cavities 30 . The protrusion 48 has a diameter of about 2 to 5 mm and a height of about 3 to 6 mm, and is arranged inside the pitch circle of the mold hole 30 . Here, the projecting portion 48 is projected at a position where it interferes with the inner end portion of the leading edge 37a of the blade 37 (end portion on the center side of the carrier disk) so as not to impair the original function of the blade. As a result, the inner portion of the tip edge 37a of the blade 37 comes into contact with the protrusion 48 and is pushed upward each time the carrier disk 24 rotates once.

As described above, the blade 37 is in slidable contact with the carrier disk 24 in a bent state, and flows downstream (in the direction in which the rotation advances) as the disk rotates. When the conveying disk 24 rotates and the protrusion 48 comes into contact with the tip edge 37 a of the blade in this state, the tip edge 37 a rides on the protrusion 48 . When the protrusion 48 passes through the blade 37, the blade 37 returns to its original sliding contact state due to its own elasticity. Therefore, even if the dividing line 7a is fitted to the tip of the blade 37, the blade 37 is repelled by the protrusion 48 and the dividing line 7a is removed from the blade 37 when the disc makes one turn. As a result, the tablet 7 staying at the tip of the blade is released and moves again on the tablet conveying surface 28 as the conveying disk 24 rotates.

According to experiments conducted by the inventors, a protruding portion 48 having a diameter of 3 mm and a height of 3.7 mm is provided at a position 14 mm inward from the disc outer periphery in the middle of the adjacent mold holes 30, and has a diameter of 7.1 to 7.2 mm. When a round tablet was conveyed, it did not hinder normal conveyance, and the tablet retained at the tip of the blade 37 could be released satisfactorily (blade width 8 mm, elastic length 30 mm, blade plate thickness 1 mm x 2 blades). , 2 mm×1 sheet, deflection 2 mm (at rest), outer diameter of tablet conveying surface 260 mm).

A gap 49 larger than the diameter of the tablet 7 is provided between the protrusion 48 of the tablet conveying surface 28 and the flange wall 29 . The gap 49 is set to a dimension that allows the tablet 7 to pass through, and the tablet 7 is caught between the protrusion 48 and the flange wall 29 so that the tablet 7 is not blocked there. If the gap 49 is narrow, the tablet may be caught there and continue to rotate, making it impossible to recover the tablet. In addition, there is a possibility that a tablet caught in the gap 49 may be accompanied by a number of other tablets, go over the uppermost portion of the disk as it is, and fall into the forced discharge port 45 at the same time. Therefore, in the tablet conveying device 4, the gap 49 is set to a size that allows the tablet 7 to pass through, thereby solving these problems.

As described above, in the tablet conveying device 4 according to the present invention, the tablets 7 that do not enter the mold hole 30 and move up on the disc, and the tablets 7 that are stuck in one mold hole 30 in two are separated into three stages. It is reliably removed by blades 37p, 37q, 37r. As a result, the tablets 7 are aligned one by one in the mold hole 30, and only the tablets 7 in the mold hole 30 are conveyed one by one to the upper side. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the paired tablets from reaching the tablet discharge port 38 while being fitted in the mold hole 30, and the tablet 7 not falling from the mold hole 30 to the discharge port and continuing to rotate and becoming unrecoverable. In addition, it is possible to prevent the paired tablets from falling into the tablet ejection port 38 at the same time, and the counting sensor 39 to mistakenly recognize two tablets as one.

Furthermore, even if the edge 37a of the blade tip is fitted in the dividing line 7a of the tablet 7, the tip of the blade is flipped up by the protrusion 48, so that the tablet engaged with the tip of the blade can be reliably ejected without impairing the original function of the blade. can be released to As a result, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the tablet 7 stays while the dividing line 7a is fitted to the tip of the blade, and the tablet cannot be recovered.

In such a tablet sampling system 1, tablets 7 are sampled from the rotating coating pan 6 by the blow sampling system 11, and the sampling inspection is performed while the coating pan 6 is rotated forward. The tablets 7 thrown from the coating pan 6 toward the front opening 12 are taken out of the pan coating apparatus 5 through the product outlet 13 and temporarily stored in the sample holder 9 . The sample holder 9 waits until a certain amount of the tablets 7 is accumulated, and sends the tablets 7 to the weight measurement section 3 when the certain amount is accumulated.

The tablets 7 sent to the weight measuring unit 3 fall from the input chute 36 onto the transfer disk 24 of the tablet transfer device 4 and are transferred from the lower tablet pool to the upper side as the transfer disk 24 rotates. At this time, in the tablet conveying device 4, the tablets 7 are reliably moved one by one from the tablet pool to the upper side by arranging the mold holes 30 at the outer peripheral edge of the disk, providing the overhangs 35, and eccentrically structuring the mold holes 30. be transported.

On the other hand, as described above, if a pair of locks occurs and is fitted into the mold hole 30, there is a possibility that the single blade 37 cannot remove it. On the other hand, the tablet conveying device 4 adopts a multi-stage scraping structure in which a plurality of blades 37 are provided, so that the tablets 7 that are fitted in the mold holes 30 like paired tablets are also removed as appropriate. In particular, by increasing the flexural rigidity of the blade 37 on the rear stage side more than that on the front stage side, even if the pair lock is tightly fitted into the mold hole 30, it is reliably removed by the blade 37 on the rear stage. be.

The tablets 7 accommodated in the mold holes 30 one by one in this manner move upward and drop downward from the tablet discharge port 38 . After being counted by the counting sensor 39 , it is stored in the weighing box 41 of the weighing unit 22 . When the counting sensor 39 confirms that a predetermined number (for example, 100 tablets) of tablets 7 have been sent to the weighing unit 22, the conveying disk 24 is stopped and the tablet conveying device 4 is temporarily stopped. A weight checker 42 measures the weight of the tablets 7 housed in the weighing box 41 .

In this case, since the weight of the uncoated tablet 7 is known in advance, the amount of coating film on the surface of the tablet can be calculated by dividing the difference between the total weight of the tablet 7 and the total weight of the uncoated tablet by the number of tablets. As described above, the coating control device 8 grasps the number of tablets in the weighing box 41, calculates the amount of coating film from the measured value by the weight checker 42 and the number of tablets, and calculates the coating film thickness. Determine coating progress. After weight measurement, the tablets 7 are sent to the discharge box 44 via the discharge chute 43 and collected.

Further, after the weight measurement, the tablets 7 remaining in the tablet conveying device 4 are discharged to the forced discharge box 46 through the forced discharge port 45 . Here, the conventional tablet conveying device (see FIG. 8) is not provided with the forced discharge port 45 as in the tablet conveying device 4, and the surplus tablets are discharged in order as in the previous case. It was carried out in such a manner that the tablets were fitted into the mold cavity and dropped one by one from the tablet ejection port. For this reason, in the conventional device, it takes a certain amount of time to eject a tablet, and a defective tablet that cannot pass through the die cavity (for example, a twin tablet with two tablets attached to each other) cannot be ejected from the device. As a result, there is a problem that it is difficult to quickly eject excess tablets after transporting the tablets, and that twin tablets, cracks, and the like remain after the tablets are ejected.

Therefore, in the tablet conveying device 4, a forced discharge port 45 is provided between the tablet discharge port 38 of the outer peripheral cover 25 and the tablet pool, and after the tablets are conveyed, the conveying disc 24 is reversed to forcibly discharge surplus tablets from there. made it possible. In this case, the forcible discharge port 45 is arranged at a position where the tablets do not normally pass, that is, at a position of about 4 to 5 o'clock on the conveying disk 24 of the outer cover 25 during the regular discharge of the prescribed number of tablets. . Therefore, the tablets 7 are not introduced into the compulsory discharge port 45 during normal conveyance, and only the surplus tablets are discharged from the compulsory discharge port 45 as the conveying disc 24 is reversed.

Further, when discharging the surplus tablets, the air nozzle 47 is used to inject stirring air from the tablet pool toward the forced discharge port 45 to introduce the tablets 7 into the forced discharge port 45 . In this case, the agitating air is intermittently injected, for example, in the form of on 3 sec/off 3 sec, and when the air is off, the tablets are sent from the tablet reservoir to the front surface of the air nozzle 47 (Fig. 7(a)). Then, when the air is turned on, the tablets 7 accumulated in front of the air nozzle are sent to the forced discharge port 45 and discharged into the forced discharge box 46 as the carrier disk 24 rotates (same (b)). In other words, the tablets are transported by reversing the disk and the tablets are blown off to the forced discharge port 45 by air jet at appropriate timing, and the surplus tablets are efficiently discharged from the forced discharge port 45 . The tablet 7 fitted in the mold hole 30 is also ejected from the tablet ejection port 38 as the carrier disk 24 rotates (reverses).

According to experiments by the inventors, when a sample tablet (φ8; t4.5), which is a mixture of 100 regular tablets and 5 twin tablets, is discharged at a rotation speed of 5 rpm by reversing the conveying disk 24, stirring Without air, it took 25-30 seconds to eject them. However, without stirring air, the last tablet sometimes remained at the edge of the forced discharge port 45 and fell into the forced discharge box 46 and was not collected. On the other hand, when agitating air was intermittently injected (0.2 MPa; 3 m/sec: ON 3 sec/OFF 3 sec), all excess locks could be completely ejected in 20 to 25 seconds. If the agitating air is continuously injected, the tablets on the upstream side of the air nozzle 47 are not conveyed indefinitely and remain in the tablet pool, which rather hinders forced discharge. Therefore, from these experiments, it was found that the intermittent jetting of agitation air is effective for discharging surplus tablets.

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.
For example, the various numerical values in the above-described embodiment are examples, and the number, arrangement position, shape, size (thickness, width, elastic length, etc.), material, etc. can be set as appropriate. In addition, the configuration for changing the bending rigidity of the blade 37 is such that the thickness is increased sequentially from the front stage (for example, in the above configuration, 37p = 1 mm, 37q = 1.5 mm, 37r = 2 mm), and the rear stage has a plurality of blades. are made thicker with the same dimensions (37p=1 mm, 37q=2 mm, 37r=2 mm).

It should be noted that the width of the blade 37 can be increased in order to change the bending rigidity thereof. However, as described above, the thickness has a greater effect on the bending rigidity than the width, so it is more effective to change the thickness than the width. Also, it is possible to change the bending rigidity by changing the material, but the same material is advantageous in terms of cost, management, etc., and is therefore preferable.

Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, an example in which one protrusion 48 is provided on the surface of the carrier disk 24 is shown, but it is also possible to provide a plurality of protrusions 48 . However, if too many blades are installed, the original function of the blade (exclusion of pair locks from the mold hole 30) is impaired, so one to three blades are preferable.

In addition, the diameter and thickness of the carrier disk 24, the pitch circle diameter of the mold hole 30, the hole diameter of the mold hole 30, the chamfer dimension of the chamfered portion 32, the position and size of the projection 48, etc., vary depending on the type, shape, etc. of the tablet. It can be changed as appropriate. Moreover, the specifications of the coating device in which the tablet conveying device 4 is installed are not limited to the above-described forms.

The present invention can be applied not only to tablets such as medicines and health foods, but also to coating treatment of confectionery such as gum and chocolate, and other foods.

1 Tablet Sampling System 2 Sample Extractor 3 Weight Measuring Unit 4 Tablet Conveyor 5 Pan Coating Device 6 Coating Pan 7 Tablet 7a Secant Line 8 Coating Control Device 9 Sample Holder 11 Blow Sampling System 12 Pan Front Opening 13 Product Discharge Port 14 Spray Gun 21 Counting unit 22 Weighing unit 23 Case 24 Conveying disc 24a Outer edge 25 Outer peripheral cover 25a Inner wall 26 Gear box 27 Reduction motor 28 Tablet conveying surface 29 Flange wall 29a Upper surface 29b Upper inner peripheral edge 30 Mold hole 30a Hole 31 Conveying Table 32 Chamfered portion 32a Inner peripheral side 32b Outer peripheral side 32c Outer peripheral edge 33 Tablet guide 33a Lower end inner peripheral edge 34 Blade mounting portions 34p, 34q, 34r Blade mounting portion 34a Bracket 34b Mounting screw 34c Plate 35 Overhang portion 36 Input chute 37 Scraping off Blade (blade member)
37p, 37q, 37r Scraping blade 37a Tip edge 38 Tablet discharge port 39 Count sensor 41 Weighing box 42 Weight checker 43 Discharge chute 44 Discharge box 45 Forced discharge port 46 Forced discharge box 47 Air nozzle 48 Protrusion 49 Gap 51 Tablet conveying device 52 Transfer disk 53 Perimeter cover 54 Tablet 55 Mold hole 56 Transfer table 57 Tablet discharge port 58 Sensor 59 Scraping blade O _1. Chamfer center O _2. Hole center e. Chamfer center O ₁ and Hole center O ₂ Eccentricity

Claims (15)

a rotatable carrier disc arranged at an angle to a horizontal plane and having a plurality of mold cavities capable of accommodating tablets;
and a blade member for scraping off the tablet disposed on the upper surface side of the conveying disk, the tablet conveying device comprising:
The tablet conveying device, wherein the blade member is formed of a material having flexibility, and is provided in plurality along the circumferential direction of the conveying disk. The tablet conveying device according to claim 1,
The tablet conveying device, wherein the blade member is provided so that a tip side thereof is in contact with the upper surface of the conveying disk. In the tablet conveying device according to claim 2,
The tablet conveying device, wherein the blade member is bent in a thickness direction, and the tip end thereof is in sliding contact with the upper surface of the conveying disk. The tablet conveying device according to claim 1,
The tablet conveying device, wherein the blade member is made of silicone rubber. In the tablet conveying device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A tablet conveying device, wherein at least one of the plurality of blade members has a different flexural rigidity. In the tablet conveying device according to claim 5,
A tablet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the blade member having a large bending rigidity is arranged on the downstream side of the conveying disk in the rotational direction. In the tablet conveying device according to claim 6,
The tablet conveying device, wherein the plate thickness of the blade member on the rear stage side is thicker than that of the blade member on the front stage side. In the tablet conveying device according to claim 5,
A tablet conveying device, wherein three of said blade members are arranged along the circumferential direction of said conveying disk, and one of the blade members on the rearmost side has the highest bending rigidity. In the tablet conveying device according to claim 8,
The tablet conveying device, wherein two of the blade members on the front side in the rotation direction have the same bending rigidity, and one on the rearmost side has a higher bending rigidity than the two blade members on the front side. In the tablet conveying device according to claim 5,
The tablet conveying device, wherein the bending rigidity of the blade member changes sequentially from the front stage side in the rotational direction, and the bending rigidity increases toward the rear stage side. In the tablet conveying device according to claim 5,
A tablet conveying apparatus, wherein the conveying disk has a protrusion on its upper surface that interferes with the blade member and pushes the blade member upward. The tablet conveying device according to claim 11,
The tablet conveying device, wherein the protrusion interferes with the edge of the tip of the blade member on the center side of the conveying disk. The tablet conveying device according to claim 11,
A tablet conveying device, wherein the protrusions are arranged between the die holes adjacent in the circumferential direction on the upper surface of the conveying disk. The tablet conveying device according to claim 11,
A tablet conveying apparatus, wherein the protrusion is arranged with a gap larger than a diameter of the tablet through which the tablet can pass, between the protrusion and the outer peripheral edge of the conveying disk. The tablet conveying device according to claim 11,
A tablet conveying device, wherein the protrusion is cylindrical.

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