JP4173184B2 - PTP package appearance inspection equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an appearance inspection apparatus for a PTP packaged product.

  One of product packaging forms such as tablets and capsules is called a PTP (Press Through Package) package. As illustrated in FIG. 8, this PTP packaged product has a tablet 83 stored in a concave pocket portion 82 formed on a transparent packaging sheet 81, and an opaque cover such as an aluminum foil covering the opening surface side of the pocket portion. The film 84 is sealed. In general, the PTP package 80 is subjected to an appearance inspection of the tablet 83 and the packaging sheet 81 before being sealed with the opaque cover film 84.

  Conventionally, as an appearance inspection apparatus for the PTP packaged product, for example, the one described in Patent Document 1 is known. The sheet packaging inspection apparatus described in Patent Document 1 illuminates a PTP packaging sheet with a green (G) light source from above, and receives reflected light from the packaging sheet by the green light source to receive a reflected light image (G And a means for illuminating with a red (R) light source from the lower side and receiving the transmitted light of the packaging sheet from the red light source and outputting it as a transmitted light image (R image). The defect of the packaging sheet is detected using the reflected light image (G image) and the transmitted light image (R image).

  On the other hand, although it is not an inspection apparatus for PTP packaged goods, the defect inspection apparatus for plate-shaped foodstuffs, such as a wafer, is shown by patent document 2. FIG. The defect inspection apparatus described in Patent Document 2 illuminates the surface of the wafer with green (G) component light to obtain a reflected light image (G image), and the back surface of the wafer with red (R) component light. Illuminate from the side to obtain the transmitted light image (R image), detect defects on the wafer surface from the reflected light image (G image), and detect defects on the back or inside of the wafer from the transmitted light image (R image) It is what you do.

Japanese Patent No. 3216874 (full text, all figures) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-99786 (full text, full diagram)

  In the case of the sheet packaging inspection apparatus described in Patent Document 1, since the defect of the PTP package product is detected using two reflected light images (G images) and transmitted light images (R images), only the reflected images are detected. High detection accuracy can be obtained as compared with the image using the image and the image using only the transmitted light image. However, the apparatus described in Patent Document 1 still has the following problems to be improved.

As shown in FIG. 8, the pocket side wall 82a of the pocket portion 82 that accommodates the tablet 83 is not a complete vertical wall, but is an inclined surface or a curved surface that is inclined at a desired angle. It is not a perfectly smooth surface. Thus, for example, when illuminated with the illumination light L ₁ from the upper side in order to obtain a reflected light image, the illumination light L ₁ undergoes irregular reflection at the portion of the pocket side wall 82a, resulting in an incomplete reflection light. Also, when illuminated from below by illumination light L ₂ in order to obtain a transmitted light image, the illumination light L ₂ is caused to scatter the part of the pocket side wall 82a, resulting in an incomplete transmission light. As a result, for example, when small dust m or the like adheres to the outer peripheral surface of the pocket side wall 82a or the tablet 83, it may not be detected by either the reflected light image or the transmitted light image.

  On the other hand, even in the case of the food defect inspection apparatus described in Patent Document 2, since it is the same image input method as the sheet packaging inspection apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the same applies even when applied to the appearance inspection of PTP packaged products. Cause problems.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and PTP that can reliably detect defects such as dust adhering to the pocket side wall and the outer peripheral surface of the inspection object, which have been difficult to detect in the past. It is an object of the present invention to provide a package appearance inspection apparatus.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following means.
In other words, the present invention is such that the inspection object is accommodated in the pocket portion of the transparent packaging sheet. A conveying means that conveys a sheet for use, and located at an inspection point set in the conveying path, is disposed on the lower side of the packaging sheet, and is substantially symmetrical with respect to the center wavelength of the red color that reaches the green region. A red light illuminating means for illuminating the packaging sheet with red light having an emission wavelength characteristic composed of a Gaussian distribution curve, and disposed on the upper side of the packaging sheet at the inspection point, with the blue center wavelength at the center. Blue light illuminating means for illuminating the packaging sheet with blue light having an emission wavelength characteristic comprising a substantially symmetrical Gaussian distribution curve with a base reaching a green region, and the inspection poi An imaging means having a spectral sensitivity characteristic only in a green region for imaging the packaging sheet that is located on the upper side of the packaging sheet and is simultaneously illuminated by the red light illumination means and the blue light illumination means, An imaging means that is located on the upper side of the packaging sheet located at the inspection point and has a spectral sensitivity characteristic only in a red region that images the packaging sheet illuminated simultaneously by the red light illumination means and the blue light illumination means, An imaging means located at the inspection point and disposed above the packaging sheet, and having spectral sensitivity characteristics only in a blue region for imaging the packaging sheet illuminated simultaneously by the red light illumination means and the blue light illumination means; , three green component outputted from the imaging device, the red component, the image to detect an abnormal appearance separately PTP packaged products from three image data of blue component It is characterized in that a management device.

According to the present invention , the packaging sheet illuminated simultaneously by the red light illuminating means and the blue light illuminating means is imaged by the imaging means having spectral sensitivity characteristics in the green region, and the image data of the green component is taken from the captured green component image data. Since defects are detected, it is possible to reliably detect defects such as dust adhering to the pocket side wall and the outer peripheral surface of the inspection object, which were difficult to detect in the past, and to inspect the appearance of PTP packaged products. Detection accuracy can be increased.

Further, it is possible to reliably detect defects such as dust adhering on the pocket side walls and the object to be inspected outer peripheral surface which has heretofore been difficult to detect from the image data of the green component, the object to be inspected from the reflection image of the blue component surface defects, also from transmitted light image of the red component of the object periphery chipping or defects such as dust on the packaging sheet can be detected Runode, once with one appearance inspection device A complete appearance inspection of the PTP package can be performed by imaging.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described, but before that, reference embodiments necessary for understanding the present invention will be described first.
1 to 4 show an appearance inspection apparatus according to the above reference embodiment, FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of the entire apparatus, FIG. 2 is a schematic enlarged view of a pocket portion of a PTP packaged product in FIG. 3 is a spectral characteristic diagram of the illumination means and the imaging means in FIG. 1 , and FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view of an output image of the imaging means in FIG.

  In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 80 denotes a PTP packaged product in which the opening surface of the pocket portion is not sealed with a cover film, and a tablet 83 is accommodated in the pocket portion 82 of the packaging sheet 81. Although illustration is omitted, the entire packaging sheet 81 is continuous in a strip shape until the final separation and cutting step, and is conveyed at a constant speed by a conveying means such as a conveyor (not shown).

  An inspection point for performing an appearance inspection is set at an appropriate position on the conveyance path, and the packaging sheet 81 is red (R) below the packaging sheet 81 at the inspection point. The red light illumination means 1 comprised by red LED for illuminating with the light of an area | region (refer Fig.3 (a)) is arrange | positioned. Although not shown in the figure, a diffuser plate or the like is disposed in front of the red LED, and uniform red light with no unevenness is obtained.

  On the other hand, located above the inspection point, the packaging sheet 81 is formed on the upper side with a blue LED for illuminating the packaging sheet 81 with light in a blue (B) region (see FIG. 3A). The blue light illumination means 2 is arranged. Although not shown in the figure, a diffusion plate or the like is disposed in front of the blue LED, and uniform blue light without unevenness is obtained.

Further, the tablet 83 of the packaging sheet 81 and its peripheral portion that are simultaneously illuminated by the red light illumination means 1 and the blue light illumination means 2 are located above the packaging sheet 81 at the inspection point. An image pickup means 3 for picking up images is arranged. The image pickup means 3 is a CCD camera using, for example, a green light receiving element _3G having a green filter disposed on the light receiving surface of the CCD as the image pickup means, and as shown in the light receiving sensitivity characteristic of FIG. G) An image signal (luminance signal) is output in response to only light in the region.

As the image pickup means 3, a dedicated CCD camera having only the green light receiving element _3G may be manufactured and used. In the simplest case, a known RGB three primary color type CCD camera is used, and this RGB camera is used. Only the G (green) signal of the three primary color type CCD camera may be extracted.

  The image processing apparatus 4 uses the image data of the green component output from the image pickup means 3 to make an abnormality in the appearance of the PTP packaged product, in particular, dust m adhering to the outer peripheral surface of the pocket side wall 82a or the tablet 83 (see FIG. 2). ) And the like with high accuracy, and is usually composed of a microcomputer and a processing program incorporated therein.

Next, the operation of the appearance inspection apparatus according to the reference embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the emission wavelength characteristic of blue (B) light emitted from the blue light illuminating means 2 disposed on the upper side of the packaging sheet 81 has a blue center wavelength λ ₁ (about 460 nm). It is a Gaussian distribution curve that is almost symmetrical about the center. Further, the emission wavelength characteristic of the red (R) light emitted from the red light illumination means 1 disposed on the lower side of the packaging sheet 81 has a red center wavelength λ ₃ (about 670 nm) as shown in FIG. ) Is a symmetric Gaussian distribution curve. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3B, the spectral sensitivity characteristic of the green light receiving element _3G of the imaging means 3 is a Gaussian distribution curve that is substantially symmetrical with respect to the green center wavelength λ ₂ (about 540 nm). Yes.

As can be seen from FIGS. 3A and 3B, a part of the short wavelength side of the left half of the emission wavelength characteristic of red (R) light is a part of the right half of the spectral sensitivity characteristic of the green light receiving element _3G . It overlaps with part of the longer wavelength side. For this reason, when the packaging sheet 81 is illuminated from below by the red (R) light of the red light illuminating means 1, a part of the red (B) transmitted light is emitted from the imaging means 3 as shown in FIG. Light is received by the green light receiving element _3G .

On the other hand, a part of the longer wavelength side of the right half of the emission wavelength characteristic of blue (B) light overlaps a part of the shorter wavelength side of the left half of the spectral sensitivity characteristic of the green light receiving element _3G . . For this reason, when the packaging sheet 81 is illuminated from above by the blue (B) light of the blue light illuminating means 2, as shown in FIG. It is received by the _G.

  Since the red (R) component image (= luminance signal) obtained by the red transmitted light is a transmitted light image, as shown in FIG. The surrounding portion of the packaging sheet 81 appears white and bright. When small dust m (see FIG. 2) or the like adheres to the pocket side wall 82a of the pocket portion 82 or the outer peripheral surface of the tablet 83, red transmitted light scatters at the portion of the pocket side wall 82a that is inclined or curved. The attached dust m is blurred, and it is difficult to reliably detect the dust m from the red (R) component image of FIG.

  On the other hand, since the blue (B) component image (= luminance signal) obtained by the blue reflected light is a reflected light image, only the portion of the tablet 83 appears white and bright as shown in FIG. The surrounding portion of the packaging sheet 81 appears as black or dark gray. When small dust m (see FIG. 2) or the like adheres to the pocket side wall 82a of the pocket portion 82 or the outer peripheral surface of the tablet 83, the blue reflected light is irregularly reflected at the inclined or curved portion of the pocket side wall 82a. The adhering dust m is blurred, and it is difficult to directly detect from the blue (B) component image of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3C, the green light receiving element _3G of the image pickup means 3 simultaneously receives a part of the red (R) component and a part of the blue (B) component. If the image of the red (R) component and the blue (B) component are separately illustrated, the image of the red (R) component is black as shown in FIG. The portion 81 is gray. In the image of the blue component (B), as shown in FIG. 4B, the part of the tablet 83 is gray and the part of the packaging sheet 81 is black. Since the output image (= luminance signal) of the green light receiving element _3G is a superposition of the images of FIG. 4 (a) and FIG. 4 (b), the entire screen as shown in FIG. 4 (c). Becomes gray, and there is almost no difference in luminance between the tablet 83 and the packaging sheet 81.

On the other hand, the dust m becomes an image that is nearly black due to the influence of the pocket side wall in each of the red (R) component image of FIG. 4A and the blue (B) component image of FIG. Although it is difficult to discriminate, the two images are superposed to produce a large luminance difference with the gray background, resulting in a dark and clear image without the influence of the pocket side wall, as shown in FIG. In addition, it can be clearly identified on the output image of the green light receiving element _3G .

The image processing device 4 receives green (G) component image data output from the green light receiving element 3 _G of the image pickup means 3 and performs necessary image processing such as binarization processing and edge extraction processing to generate dust m Is detected, and the detection result is output. In the production line of the PTP packaged product, the production line is controlled based on the detection result of the image processing device 4, the PTP packaged product determined to be defective is removed, and only the normal PTP packaged product is sent to the next process. Perform the necessary processing.

As described above , according to the above reference embodiment , it is possible to reliably detect defects such as dust adhering to the pocket side wall and the outer peripheral surface of the tablet, which has been difficult to detect in the past, and to inspect the PTP packaged product. Accuracy can be improved. The brightness (luminance) of the illumination light of the red light illumination means 1 and the blue light illumination means 2 is the outer peripheral surface of the pocket side wall 82a or the tablet 83 in the green (G) component image output from the green light receiving element _3G. It is desirable to adjust the brightness in advance using a sample PTP package or the like so that dust m adhering to can be identified most clearly.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This embodiment is configured using the above reference embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the appearance inspection apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram of the illumination means and the imaging means in FIG. spectral sensitivity characteristic diagram, Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an output image of the light receiving elements constituting the image pickup means in FIG.

In the appearance inspection apparatus having the same configuration as the reference embodiment (FIG. 1) , the above embodiment has a spectral sensitivity characteristic in the red (R) region in addition to the green light receiving element _3G in the imaging means 3. A red light receiving element 3 _R and a blue light receiving element 3 _B having spectral sensitivity characteristics are added to the blue (B) region, and the green (G) component, blue (B) component, red ( The appearance inspection of the PTP packaged product is performed using the three image data of component R).

  In the simplest case, the image pickup means 3 may be a known RGB three-primary color type CCD camera to extract each color signal. A dedicated CCD camera may be arranged for each of R, G, and B colors.

In the case of this embodiment, the spectral sensitivity characteristics of the blue light receiving element 3 _B , the green light receiving element 3 _G , and the red light receiving element 3 _R are as shown in FIG. 6B, with the center wavelengths λ ₁ , λ ₂ , It is a Gaussian distribution curve with λ ₃ as the center. On the other hand, the packaging sheet 81 is illuminated by the blue light illuminating means 2 from the upper side and illuminated by the red light illuminating means 1 from the lower side as in the case of the above-mentioned reference form (FIG. 6A). Spectral sensitivity characteristics).

Therefore, from the green light receiving element _3G , as in the case of the above-described reference embodiment , a part of the blue (B) component and a part of the red (R) component shown in FIG. A green (G) component image (= the same image as FIG. 4C) as shown in (a) is output. On the other hand, the blue light-receiving element 3 _B, is received reflected light of blue (B) shown in FIG. 6 (d), blue (B) component image as shown in FIG. 7 (b) is output. Further, the red light receiving element 3 _R, is received the transmitted light of the red (R) shown in FIG. 6 (e), red (R) component image as shown in FIG. 7 (c) is output.

  Each data (luminance signal) of the green (G) component image, the blue (B) component image, and the red (R) component image obtained as described above is sent to the image processing device 4, and these three image data The appearance inspection of the PTP packaged product is executed using

For example, from the green (G) component image of FIG. 7A output from the green light receiving element _{3G, the} dust m adhering to the pocket side wall 82a of the pocket portion 82 and the outer peripheral surface of the tablet 83 as described above. Are detected. From the blue (B) component image shown in FIG. 7 (b) that is output from the blue light receiving element 3 _B, such as dust or scratch adhering to the surface of the tablet 83 is detected. Moreover, the red (R) component image shown in FIG. 7 (c) output from the red light-receiving element 3 _R, dust adhering onto the outer periphery of the chip or packaging sheet 81 of the tablet 83 is detected. As a result, the appearance inspection of the PTP package 80 can be performed by one imaging using one appearance inspection apparatus.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the external appearance inspection apparatus which concerns on a reference form . It is a model enlarged view of the pocket part of the PTP packaged goods in FIG. 1, Comprising: (a) is sectional drawing, (b) is the top view. 1A and 1B show spectral characteristics of the illumination unit and the imaging unit in FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 1A shows emission wavelength characteristics of the blue light illumination unit and the red light illumination unit, and FIG. (C) is a spectral sensitivity characteristic diagram of an output image of the green light receiving element. FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an output image of a green light receiving element in FIG. 1 , where (a) is a diagram showing an image of a red (R) component received by the green light receiving element, and (b) is a blue light received by the green light receiving element. FIG. 4B is a diagram illustrating an image of the component (B), and FIG. 5C is a diagram illustrating an output image of the green light receiving element obtained by superimposing the images of the red (R) component and the blue (B) component. It is a figure which shows the structure of the external appearance inspection apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention . Shows the spectral characteristics of the illumination means and the imaging means in FIG. 5, (a) the emission wavelength characteristic diagram of the blue light illumination unit and the red light illumination means, (b) the blue light-green light-red light (C) is a spectral sensitivity characteristic diagram of an output image of a green light receiving element, (d) is a spectral sensitivity characteristic diagram of an output image of a blue light receiving element, and (e) is an output image of a red light receiving element. FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an output image of each light receiving element in FIG. 5, where (a) shows an output image of a green light receiving element, (b) shows an output image of a blue light receiving element, and (c) shows It is a figure which shows the output image of a red light receiving element. It is a model expanded sectional view of the pocket part in a PTP packaged product.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Red light illumination means 2 Blue light illumination means 3 Imaging means 3 _R red light receiving element 3 _G green light receiving element 3 _B blue light receiving element 4 Image processing apparatus 80 PTP package 81 Packaging sheet 82 Pocket part 82a Pocket side wall 83 Tablet (covered) Inspection item)
84 Cover film

Claims (1)

An appearance inspection apparatus for a PTP package product in which an inspection object is accommodated in a pocket portion of a transparent packaging sheet, and an opening surface of the pocket portion is sealed with an opaque cover film,
A conveying means for conveying a packaging sheet in a state before the inspection object is accommodated in the pocket portion and before the opening surface of the pocket portion is sealed with a cover film;
Located at the inspection point set in the transport path, it is placed below the packaging sheet, and has an emission wavelength characteristic consisting of a substantially symmetrical Gaussian distribution curve centered on the red center wavelength and reaching the green region at the bottom. Red light illumination means for illuminating the packaging sheet with red light;
Located at the inspection point and arranged above the packaging sheet, and for the packaging by the blue light having the emission wavelength characteristic consisting of a substantially symmetric Gaussian distribution curve centered on the blue center wavelength and reaching the green region. Blue light illumination means for illuminating the sheet;
An imaging means located at the inspection point and disposed above the packaging sheet and having spectral sensitivity characteristics only in a green region for imaging the packaging sheet illuminated simultaneously by the red light illumination means and the blue light illumination means; ,
An imaging means located at the inspection point and disposed above the packaging sheet and having spectral sensitivity characteristics only in a red region for imaging the packaging sheet illuminated simultaneously by the red light illumination means and the blue light illumination means; ,
An imaging means located at the inspection point and disposed above the packaging sheet, and having spectral sensitivity characteristics only in a blue region for imaging the packaging sheet illuminated simultaneously by the red light illumination means and the blue light illumination means; ,
An image inspection apparatus comprising: an image processing apparatus that detects an appearance abnormality of a PTP packaged product separately from three image data of a green component, a red component, and a blue component output from the three imaging units.

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