JP7488568B2 - Drug Feeder - Google Patents

Description

This invention relates to a drug feeder that automatically supplies granular solid drugs such as tablets and ampoules in order to automate the dispensing process in hospitals, pharmacies, etc. More specifically, this invention relates to a drug feeder that randomly stores a large number of drugs of the same shape and aligns them with a rotating body to sequentially feed and discharge the drugs one by one, and more specifically, this invention relates to an enhanced width regulation function when aligning drugs.

[Background Art 1] (See Patent Document 1)
A practical drug feeder of the alignment supply type that conveys tablets or the like (medicines) of the same shape while aligning them in a row includes an outer annular rotor that can rotate around a vertical line, an inclined rotor that is mounted inside the annular rotor and can rotate around an inclined line inclined from the vertical, sealing the hollow inside the annular rotor, and a regulating member that aligns solid medicines carried from above the inclined rotor to the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor as the annular rotor rotates.

Among them, the parts that are useful for understanding the configuration and problems of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings (see FIG. 8).
8A and 8B show almost the entire structure of the drug feeder 10, with (a) being a plan view and (b) being a longitudinal sectional front view.

The drug feeder 10 is a double rotation type, and is equipped with a peripheral wall 11 located at the top of the housing, with a circular hollow cut out in the center, an annular rotor 20 installed with its upper end loosely fitted into the inner peripheral wall surface 11a, i.e., the inner peripheral wall surface of the hollow peripheral wall 11, or installed directly below the hollow peripheral wall 11, an inclined rotor 30 installed within the hollow peripheral rotor 20, a bearing mechanism 40 that supports both the inner inclined rotor 30 and the outer annular rotor 20 so that they can rotate about their axes, a rotation drive mechanism 50 that drives the rotation of these, and a sorting member 60 and a regulating mechanism 70 provided on the upper side of the peripheral wall 11.

Moreover, the support mechanism 40 keeps the annular rotor 20 in a state where it can rotate around a vertical line, and the inclined rotor 30 in a state where it can rotate around an inclined line inclined from the vertical. The inner inclined rotor 30 and the outer annular rotor 20 form a rotating container 20+30 of a double rotation type drug feeder, with the inclined rotor 30 blocking the hollow of the annular rotor 20 with a small gap that does not allow the drug to pass but allows rotation. The inclined rotor 30 rotates to lift the drug and the sorting member 60 sorts the drug from above the peripheral part 33 of the inclined rotor 30 to the upper peripheral part 23 of the annular rotor 20, and the horizontal transport caused by the rotation of the annular rotor 20 and the alignment function of the regulating mechanism 70 align the drug on the upper peripheral part 23 and transport it to the drop discharge port 14. Each part will be explained below.

The annular rotating body 20 consists of a lower part 21, the hollow diameter of which becomes larger towards the top, and an upper part 22, the hollow diameter of which becomes smaller towards the top.The inclined rotating body 30 is placed into the hollow space, and then the two parts 21, 22 are integrated by connecting them with bolts or the like, and together with the inclined rotating body 30, they form a rotating container 20+30.
The upper surface of the inclined rotor 30 becomes the inner bottom of the rotating container 20+30, and in the illustrated example, a central protrusion 31 is formed in the center of the central portion 32 of the upper surface. In addition, the upper surface of the peripheral portion 33 of the inclined rotor 30 is processed into a gentle sawtooth wave shape all around, which is useful for scooping up medicine, and is inclined outward so that the scooped up medicine can be smoothly sent to the upper end peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotor 20 by rolling due to the inclination.

The support mechanism 40 is made up of a plurality of members 41 to 43 disposed in various locations, including several passive members 41, mainly composed of radial bearings, and rotation transmission members 42, 43, mainly composed of ring-shaped or annular bodies, such as hard rubber O-rings.
The rotation drive mechanism 50 comprises a rotation drive member 51 arranged below the rotating containers 20+30 and a rotation drive motor 54 which rotates the rotation drive member 51 about its axis, and is configured to rotate the annular rotating body 20 about its axis at a relatively high speed through friction transmission via rotation transmission members 42, 43 of different diameters, and to rotate the inclined rotating body 30 about its axis at a relatively low speed.

The sorting member 60 is mainly made of a thin rod extending from the base end 61 of the swing fulcrum to the tip end 62 of the swing end. The base end 61 is supported by the support part 63 above the peripheral wall 11 or the annular rotor 20, and the tip 62 can swing up and down around it. The part near the tip 62 is slightly bent, and in the normal state, the tip 62 is lightly placed on the peripheral part 33 of the inclined rotor 30 by its own weight in a diagonally downward state. Therefore, most of the medicines that are carried while remaining on the peripheral part 33 without sliding down from the peripheral part 33 to the upper end peripheral part 23 of the annular rotor 20 come into contact with the tip 62 and are returned to the center part 32 of the inclined rotor 30 by the force of the reaction. However, if this does not happen smoothly, the tip 62 will swing and escape upward to avoid damage to the medicine.

The regulating mechanism 70 comprises a first regulating member 71 which is installed further ahead of the sorting member 60 based on the rotational direction of the upper end peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 20, a second regulating member 72 which is installed further ahead of the first regulating member 71, a link mechanism 73 which is connected to both the first regulating member 71 and the second regulating member 72 via a pin-shaped rotation-permitting shaft member or the like, and a mold storage area 74 which can contain sample drugs.
Both the first regulating member 71 and the second regulating member 72 have their oscillating centers located on the peripheral wall 11 side and their oscillating ends located on the upper end peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 20, thereby narrowing the width of the drug transport path above the upper end peripheral portion 23 from the outer periphery side.

The first and second restricting members 71 and 72 can both be swung to variably adjust the narrowing amount of the drug transport path width above the upper peripheral edge 23, but because both restricting members 71 and 72 swung simultaneously and similarly in response to the longitudinal movement of the link mechanism 73, the adjustment amount of the narrowing amount of the drug transport path width by both restricting members 71 and 72 is linked. Furthermore, when a sample drug is stored in the mold storage area 74 and the link mechanism 73 is moved toward it, the link mechanism 73 advances in the longitudinal direction and is stopped by abutting its tip against the sample drug, and at that time, the swiveling end of the first restricting member 71 and the swiveling end of the second restricting member 72 both narrow the drug transport path width above the upper peripheral edge 23 to the equivalent of one drug in accordance with the sample drug.

Further ahead of the regulating mechanism 70, a drop discharge port 14 is formed in the peripheral wall 11, which penetrates it vertically, and a discharge guide 13 is also provided on the peripheral wall 11 to send the medicine on the upper peripheral edge 23 of the annular rotor 20 there by the rotation of the annular rotor 20. At the tip of this discharge guide 13, a transport surface guide 12 is formed, which extends downward and forward to form the most distal end, to prevent the medicine from undesirably falling toward the inclined rotor 30 in reaction to contacting the discharge guide 13.

Furthermore, although not shown in the figure, a controller for controlling the operation of the rotary drive motor 54 and a power supply for supplying operating power thereto are also provided inside the same housing or outside the housing. Also, a photosensor or the like for detecting the falling of medicines at the drop discharge port 14 is also provided, and the detection signal is sent to the controller and the tablet counter.
The rotation control of the controller starts at a low speed, detects the discharge of the first medicine, and then switches to a high speed when it detects the discharge of a predetermined number of medicines. In addition, the controller calculates the remaining number from the total number of medicines discharged and the number of medicines already discharged, and also slows down the rotation speed when the remaining number reaches a predetermined number, or reverses the rotation to prevent undesired excessive dropping after the medicines have been discharged.

The following describes the operation of the drug feeder 10. Before the drug feeder 10 can be used to sequentially deliver a large number of drugs, the width of the drug transport path must be restricted and the drugs must be randomly fed.
The task of regulating the width of the drug transport path is accomplished by the simple procedure of the worker selecting an appropriate drug from a number of drugs to be used as the drug for the mold, placing it in the mold storage area 74, and then adjusting the position of the link mechanism 73 so that one end of the link mechanism 73 abuts against it.

When this operation is performed, both the first regulating member 71 and the second regulating member 72 swing in conjunction with the link mechanism 73, and their swinging ends narrow the width of the drug transport path above the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 20 at two points to a position corresponding to the diameter of the mold drug.
In addition, random addition of medicines can be achieved by an operator literally randomly adding a large number of medicines into the rotating containers 20 + 30 from the upper opening of the annular rotating body 20 .
In this way, the randomly contained medicines that have been added will naturally gather on the lower part of the upper surface of the inclined rotating body 30.

Now that the drug feeder 10 is ready for automatic operation, the rotation drive motor 54 will rotate at an appropriate speed under the control of the controller when the drug feeder 10 is operated, for example, in a simple continuous delivery mode. This causes the rotation drive member 51 to rotate on its axis, and the rotational motion is transmitted to the annular rotor 20 by friction transmission via the large diameter external rotary transmission member 42, and is also transmitted to the inclined rotor 30 by friction transmission via the small diameter external rotary transmission member 43. The large diameter external rotary transmission member 42 and the small diameter external rotary transmission member 43 rotate on their axes in the same direction, but the large diameter external rotary transmission member 42 rotates faster than the small diameter external rotary transmission member 43.

When the inclined rotor 30 rotates on its axis, the randomly contained drugs that have accumulated on the inner bottom of the rotating container 20+30 and that have come above the peripheral portion 33 of the inclined rotor 30 are scooped up from a low position to a high position by the circulating motion of the sawtooth peripheral portion 33.
Thus, most of the medicine transported to a point where the peripheral portion 33 is higher than the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 20 slides or rolls due to the inclination of the peripheral portion 33 and transfers onto the upper peripheral portion 23 .

In contrast, any drugs remaining on the peripheral portion 33 of the inclined rotor 30 because the upper end peripheral portion 23 is clogged with other preceding drugs or because it did not happen to slide or roll are carried to the tip 62 of the sorting member 60 by the further axial rotation of the inclined rotor 30, where they abut against the tip 62 and are moved in the opposite direction to the upper end peripheral portion 23 by the reaction of this abutment, so that they slide down the central portion 32 of the inclined rotor 30 along the inclined surface.
In this way, the excess medicine returns to the randomly contained medicine, so that the medicine transport path above the upper peripheral portion 23 is narrowed to some extent, and medicine is delivered at a frequency close to the appropriate amount.

Because the annular rotor 20 rotates on its axis at a higher speed than the inclined rotor 30, the drugs on the upper rim 23 will be dispersed to some extent when transferred from the rim 33 depending on the difference in rotation speed, but if the drugs are small, some may be lined up vertically, while others may be lined up horizontally or diagonally. When these drugs are carried to the first restricting member 71 by the axial rotation of the annular rotor 20, the drugs in a line pass through as they are, but for the drugs lined up horizontally, the drugs on the inside are pushed out from above the upper rim 23 due to interference with the first restricting member 71 and fall onto the inclined rotor 30, returning to the randomly contained drugs, eliminating the horizontal alignment.

However, when there are many medicines lined up side by side, some of the medicines may slip through the tip of the first restricting member 71 by pushing against each other. In such a case, some of the medicines that have passed through the first restricting member 71 may remain in a diagonal horizontal arrangement. In any case, the medicines that have passed through the first restricting member 71 are then transported to the second restricting member 72 by the axial rotation of the annular rotor 20, where they are forced into a similar alignment again. Therefore, even if a diagonal horizontal arrangement remains, it is only slight and the degree of diagonal horizontal arrangement is only slight, so the diagonal horizontal arrangement is quickly and sufficiently eliminated by the second restriction.

The aligned drugs, which have thus cleared the double restrictions and are aligned in a row, are transported one after another to the discharge guide 13 by the circulating motion of the upper peripheral edge 23 accompanying the axial rotation of the annular rotor 20, and come into contact with the outer side surface of the discharge guide 13, which intersects obliquely with the drug transport path above the upper peripheral edge 23.
Then, most of the aligned medicines immediately move along the contact side surface of the discharge guide 13 and are sent in a line to the drop discharge port 14.

Of course, depending on the contact conditions, it is possible that some of the aligned medicines may occasionally be repelled slightly toward the inner circumference, but even when such a situation arises, the conveying surface guide 12 prevents the aligned medicines from falling onto the annular rotating body 20 or from becoming pinched in the oblique intersection between the upper end peripheral portion 23 and the discharge guide 13.
In this way, all the aligned medicines are sent in a single line without waste to the drop discharge port 14. Since the medicines sent to the drop discharge port 14 are accelerated by gravity and fall faster, the distance between the preceding and succeeding medicines increases, so that the falling medicines can be detected by a photosensor or the like installed at a position where the distance is sufficient, and thus the medicines can be counted accurately.

This type of drug feeder is based on a double rotation type drug feeder, that is, the rotating container is doubled inside and outside, and the solid drugs are transported from the inner inclined rotor to the upper peripheral edge of the outer annular rotor by their rotation, and the solid drugs are further aligned with a regulating member. This not only eliminates the need to provide a fixed flow straightening guide inside the rotor, but also expands the range of compatibility with drugs of various shapes and sizes.

In addition, in this type of drug feeder, in order to align the solid drugs in a stable position in a row on the upper periphery of the annular rotor, two regulating mechanisms that regulate the width of the drugs are installed in front of and behind the regulating mechanisms, and a sorting member that regulates the height of the drugs is placed in front of the regulating mechanisms, and these properly perform the alignment function. However, as mentioned above, the tip of the sorting member swings upward when the reaction force from the drug is strong to prevent damage to the drug, etc., so it cannot be said that the height regulation is always performed reliably, but the height regulation by the sorting member is a kind of preprocessing to reduce the burden of width regulation by the regulating mechanism, so it does not cause any practical inconvenience.

[Background Art 2] (see Patent Documents 2 to 4)
On the other hand, as the range of compatibility expands as described above, there is an increasing demand for compatibility not only with drugs of different shapes and sizes, but also with drugs made of different materials, such as not only harder drugs but also drugs with brittle surfaces and drugs that are spherical or spindle-shaped, which make them easy to roll.
Accordingly, in order to handle fragile medicines or medicines that tend to roll, it is necessary to make the sorting members more delicate and diverse, so as to soften the contact between the medicine and the sorting members in order to avoid or suppress damage to the medicines or excessive rolling.

However, such measures tend to weaken the height-regulating function of the sorting members, so it is desirable to go beyond simply making them finer, and to take measures that maintain or even strengthen the height-regulating function even when the contact between the medicines and the sorting members is reduced.
Therefore, a further technical challenge was to realize a drug feeder that follows the dual rotation type drug feeder and further maintains the height regulation function when arranging drugs, while allowing the sorting member to gently contact the drugs.

To solve such technical problems, a drug feeder has been developed that includes an outer annular rotor that can rotate around a vertical line, an inclined rotor that is mounted inside the annular rotor and can rotate around an inclined line inclined from the vertical line, and blocks the hollow of the annular rotor, and a sorting member and a regulating member that align solid drugs that are carried from the inclined rotor to the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor by the rotation of the inclined rotor when the annular rotor rotates, the regulating member regulates the width of the drugs above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the sorting member has a hanging member that hangs down above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor and can be deformed when its lower end is pressed sideways, and the hanging member is made of a plurality of loosely connected spheres.

Among these, the parts that are useful for understanding the problems and the like of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to drawings relating to a medicine feeder 100 which is an improvement over the medicine feeder 10 already described (see Figs. 9 to 11).
FIG. 9 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the overall configuration of the medicine feeder 100. As shown in FIG.

Figure 10 shows the configuration of a regulating mechanism 700 which is an improved version of the previously described regulating mechanism 70, where (a) is a plan view of the regulating mechanism 700 when the mold agent 5a is placed in the mold storage area 74, and (b) is a plan view and an end view of a first regulating member 710 which has the same shape as the second regulating member 720.
Figure 11 shows the configuration of a sorting mechanism 600, which is an improvement over the sorting mechanism 60 already described, in which (a) is an external oblique view of the sorting mechanism 600 and the portion in which it is installed, (b) is a front view of a first sorting member 610 of the sorting mechanism 600, and (c) is a front view of a second sorting member 620 of the sorting mechanism 600.

The drug feeder 100 differs from the drug feeder 10 described above (see FIG. 9) in that the rotation drive mechanism 50 is equipped with two rotation drive motors 54a, 54b, allowing the rotation of the annular rotor 20 and the inclined rotor 30 to be controlled separately; the annular rotor 20 is a single, bowl-shaped unit that allows the inclined rotor 30 to be inserted and removed without having to be disassembled into upper and lower parts; an inclined rotor attachment detection means 55 has been added to detect the attachment and detachment of the inclined rotor 30; and a drug drop detection means 56 is clearly indicated below the drop discharge port 14.

Further, the regulating mechanism 70 has been modified to become the regulating mechanism 700, and the sorting member 60 has been modified to become the sorting mechanism 600. Here, among these differences, the regulating mechanism 700 and the sorting mechanism 600, which are closely related to the subject matter of the present invention, will be described in detail.
In particular, the restriction mechanism 700 is a central part to which the present invention is applied.

The regulating mechanism 700 (see FIG. 10(a)) is a successor to the previously described regulating mechanism 70, and generally retains the mold storage area 74 for setting the mold agent 5a and the link mechanism 73 for linking the regulating members 71, 72. However, the first regulating member 71 and the second regulating member 72 have been improved to become the first regulating member 710 and the second regulating member 720, respectively.
Since the first and second regulating members 710, 720 have the same shape, only one of them, 710, will be described in detail (see Figure 10 (b)). Like the first regulating member 71 already described, the first regulating member 710 has its oscillating center at the left end in the figure located on the peripheral wall 11 side, and its oscillating end at the right end in the figure located above the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 20, and exerts a lateral width regulating function of narrowing the width of the drug transport path above the upper peripheral portion 23 from the outer periphery side in response to the longitudinal advancement and retreat of the link mechanism 73.

Moreover, the first restricting member 710 (see FIG. 10(b)) has a modified inner peripheral side surface, and the inner peripheral side surface is formed with not only a lower stage portion 711 that follows the inner peripheral side surface portion of the already-described first restricting member 71 and performs a width restricting function, but also an upper stage portion 712 that was not present in the already-described first restricting member 71. The upper stage portion 712 protrudes more inward than the lower stage portion 711, and an inclined surface is formed between the upper stage portion 712 and the lower stage portion 711. Therefore, in the first restricting member 710, in addition to the lower stage portion 711 performing a strict width restricting function according to the state of the link mechanism 73, the upper stage portion 712 performs a gentle height restriction.
Although a detailed description will be omitted, the second restricting member 720 is similar.

The sorting mechanism 600 (see Figure 11 (a)) comprises a first sorting member 610 arranged upstream of the regulating mechanism 700 in the drug transport path of the upper peripheral portion 230 of the annular rotating body 200, similar to the sorting member 60 already described, and a second sorting member 620 arranged in a position parallel to the regulating mechanism 700 in the above-mentioned drug transport path, unlike the sorting member 60, and these multiple members are used to perform a sorting function in multiple stages.
Like the sorting member 60 described above, both members 610 and 620 are attached to the upper plate portion of the peripheral wall 11 which includes the discharge guide 13 and supports the regulating mechanism 700 .

The first sorting member 610 (see Figures 11 (a) and (b)) comprises a short support member 611 whose vertical position can be adjusted using a manual screw mechanism, and a front-stage hanging object 612 (first type of hanging object) attached to a portion near the tip of the short support member 611 and which moves up and down in conjunction with the support member 611.
The front-stage hanging object 612 (see FIG. 11(b)) is a chain-like structure made by loosely connecting multiple large balls 613 (two spheres in the figure), and can be easily and inexpensively realized if a commercially available ball chain or the like is sufficient. In the first sorting member 610, the two front-stage hanging objects 612 hang down side by side from the support member 611 above the drug transport path of the upper end peripheral portion 230, and the vertical positions of the front-stage hanging objects 612 are usually adjusted so that the bottom ends of the front-stage hanging objects 612 are slightly higher than the height of the drugs.

The second sorting member 620 (see Figures 11 (a) and (c)) comprises a longer support member 621 whose vertical position can also be manually adjusted, a middle hanging object 622 and a rear hanging object 632 (both of which are type 1 hanging objects) attached to a portion near the tip of the support member 621 and move up and down accompanying the support member 621, and a manual adjustment mechanism 650 which adjusts the vertical position of the support member 621.
The middle hanging object 622 (see FIG. 11(c)) is made up of a number of medium balls 623 (three spheres in the figure) loosely connected to form a chain, but the medium balls 623 are smaller and the number of connected balls has increased.
The rear hanging object 632 is also made up of multiple small balls 633 (seven in the front and six in the back in the illustration) loosely connected to form a chain, with the small balls 633 becoming even smaller and the number of connected balls increasing.

The manual adjustment mechanism 650 is configured such that when the support member 621 is manually raised to widen the gap between it and the lower limit setting mechanism 651, a mold agent 5b (different from the mold agent 5a in Figure 10(a) placed in the mold storage area 74 described above but one of the same shape agents) is placed on the lower limit setting mechanism 651, and then the support member 621 is manually lowered until it lightly touches the mold agent 5b, the vertical position of the support member 621 comes to a position corresponding to the mold agent 5b.
A scale member 652 is attached to the lower limit setting mechanism 651 (see FIG. 11(c)), and the scale indicates the distance between the lower limit setting mechanism 651 and the support member 621, and thus the size of the mold agent 5b, and further indicates the regulated height by the second sorting member 620 adjusted by the manual adjustment mechanism 650. In addition, since the mold agent 5a is measured and displayed in conjunction with the vertical position adjustment of the support member 621, it also serves as a guide for adjusting the first sorting member 610.

Furthermore, the positional relationship and role sharing between the front-stage hanging object 612, the middle-stage hanging object 622, and the rear-stage hanging object 632 will be described.
Both of the front-stage hanging objects 612 hang down above the drug delivery path at the upper end rim 230, but are aligned in the transverse direction of the drug delivery path, which is the radial direction of the upper end rim 230. The position of the lower end of the front-stage hanging object 612 depends on the adjustment policy and cannot be generalized, but it is usually made slightly higher than the drug so that if drugs overlap on the drug delivery path, they will interfere with the drug above. The large ball 613 is heavy and efficiently resolves drug overlaps, but the large ball 613 at the lower end, which is the free end, escapes due to deformation of the connecting part just above, so the impact on the drug is minimal.

When the drug is spherical, it tends to roll and its position is often unstable, but when the drug is located in a desirable position, such as the center, in the transverse direction of the drug transport path, the drug slips through between the front-stage hanging objects 612 arranged side by side. When the drug is slightly shifted to the side from the center, the drug and the front-stage hanging object 612 that is shifted slightly interfere with each other, and the drug is brought to the center (for drugs that tend to roll, this is the widened portion of the groove 231 on the upper end peripheral portion 230 of the annular rotor 200 described above). In contrast, when the drug is significantly shifted from the center, some drugs are brought to the center depending on how they are hit, but many drugs are pushed out from the top of the upper end peripheral portion 230 and return to the top of the inclined rotor 300.

The two middle hanging objects 622 have support members 621 that straddle the regulating mechanism 700, and each middle hanging object 622 hangs down above the drug transport path of the upper end peripheral portion 230 and is located next to the regulating mechanism 700 (particularly the second regulating member 720) to form a side-by-side hanging object.
Furthermore, all of the middle hanging objects 622 are located above the drug delivery path of the upper end peripheral portion 230, and are arranged obliquely with respect to the drug delivery path.

Furthermore, in the standard setting of the relationship between the support member 621 and the manual adjustment mechanism 650, the lower end position of the middle hanging member 622 is set slightly lower than the drug on the drug delivery path.
Therefore, in addition to the function of eliminating overlapping drugs on the drug transport path by having the middle ball 623 interfere with the drug above, if the drugs are overlapping, the middle hanging object 622 also functions to enhance the drug alignment function on the drug transport path by determining whether to return a drug that happens to be on the inner side of the drug transport path, for example, if it is isolated alone or lined up diagonally, to the center of the drug transport path or to the inclined rotor 300.

Of the two rear hanging objects 632 (see Figure 11 (a)), one (the six-piece at the back in the figure) hangs down above the inner side of the drug transport path of the upper end peripheral portion 230, and the other (the seven-piece at the front in the figure) moves away from the top of the drug transport path of the upper end peripheral portion 230 and hangs down above the outer side of the inclined rotor 300, and are lined up in the transverse direction of the drug transport path.
Furthermore, by adjusting the height of the support member 621 by the manual adjustment mechanism 650, the lower end position of one of the rear-stage hanging objects 632 is made slightly lower than the lower end position of the above-mentioned middle-stage hanging object 622, and the lower end position of the other rear-stage hanging object 632 is made even lower.
Therefore, the first sorting member 610 having the large balls 613 lined up as described above, the middle hanging object 622 having the medium balls 623 lined up, and the rear hanging object 632 having the small balls 633 lined up have their bottom ends positioned in order of large and small balls.

Furthermore (see FIG. 11(a)), at least the rear hanging object 632 on the inner circumference side (the seven-piece object in the front in the figure) uses a magnetic material such as iron for the material of the small balls 633. In response to this, an attraction member 640 made of a permanent magnet or the like is attached by fitting or the like to a portion of the second regulating member 720 close to the rear hanging object 632. And, because this attraction force adds to the component force of gravity, the rear hanging object 632 exerts a gentle but effective reaction force on the medicine that comes into contact with it from above the medicine transport path. As a result, the medicine that was away from the second regulating member 720 approaches the second regulating member 720, strengthening the function of the second regulating member 720. Such a rear hanging object 632 places more importance on strengthening the width regulation of the medicine by the second regulating member 720 than on its own function of regulating the height of the medicine.

JP 2018-108277 A Patent No. 6736075 Patent Application No. 2020-012192 (Application) Patent Application No. 2020-012231 (Application)

In this type of drug feeder, there is no longer a need to provide a fixed flow straightening guide within the rotor, and the range of uses for drugs of various shapes and sizes is expanded (see Background Art 1 and Patent Document 1). In addition (see Background Art 2 and Patent Documents 2 to 4), the downstream regulating mechanism that regulates the width of the drug is given the function of regulating the height, and the height regulating function of the sorting member located upstream is relaxed, so that solid drugs can be smoothly aligned in a row on the drug transport path at the upper periphery of the annular rotor, from hard and durable drugs to brittle drugs, and even from plate-shaped drugs that are difficult to roll to spherical or spindle-shaped drugs that roll easily.

However, after using the device over an extended period of time with various medicines of different shapes and materials, it was found that, although rare, a so-called multi-tiered medicine, in which multiple medicines are stacked one on top of the other, would remain in a difficult-to-dissolve state and escape the height restriction of the sorting member at the front stage, reach the restriction mechanism at the rear stage, and not be disintegrated by the height restriction function of the restriction mechanism. Furthermore, when the width restriction function of the restriction mechanism caused the medicine to drop from the medicine transport path of the annular rotor onto the inner inclined rotor for a long time, this could trigger a large number of subsequent medicines to remain on the medicine transport path of the annular rotor.

Furthermore, it was also discovered that, although it is rare, in cases where the properties of the drug's surface do not allow good sliding between the contact surfaces of the drugs, even in situations where multiple drugs are not stacked on top of each other, the drugs may be arranged in a zigzag pattern rather than in a neat line on the upper periphery of the annular rotor, causing the center of gravity to move off the upper periphery of the annular rotor and remain on the drug transport path of the annular rotor for an undesirably long time, even though the drug would normally fall quickly to the inner circumference and transfer to the inclined rotor.

Furthermore, if such a situation, which could be described as a drug jam, occurs, the frequency of drug transport from the regulating mechanism to the drop discharge port will decrease, causing the sequential discharge function of the drugs to be impaired more than expected, reducing processing capacity to an undesirable level, and even causing an undesirable timeout in drug discharge detection, which may lead to a mistaken determination that all drugs in the feeder have been discharged and the feeder is empty.
Therefore, the technical challenge is to make the width-regulating function of the regulating mechanism useful for resolving drug congestion in a simple manner without damaging even fragile drugs.

The drug feeder of the present invention (Solution 1) has been invented to solve such problems,
a control unit for controlling the rotation of the annular rotor; and a medicine drop detection unit for detecting medicines that have been carried to a drop discharge port by the annular rotor and dropped, the control unit being configured to control the height of the medicines above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor and the medicine drop detection unit being configured to control the height of the medicines above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor and the medicine drop detection unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control ... width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor,
The control unit is configured so that the regulating member increases or decreases the amount of regulating the width in response to the control of the control unit, and the control unit controls the regulating member to increase the width when the drug detection interval by the drug drop detection means reaches a set value of a congestion interval which is larger than a normal interval.
The medicine detection interval includes the time interval from the start of rotation of the annular rotating body to the detection of a medicine by the medicine drop detection means, and the time interval from one medicine detection to the next medicine detection by the medicine drop detection means.

The drug feeder of the present invention (Solution 2) is the drug feeder of Solution 1, characterized in that when the control unit controls the regulating member to expand the width and then the drug drop detection means detects drug drop, the control unit accordingly controls the regulating member to return the width to the state before expansion.

Furthermore, the drug feeder of the present invention (Solution 3) is the drug feeder of Solutions 1 and 2 above, characterized in that the control unit is adapted to increase the width in stages.

The drug feeder of the present invention (Solution 4) is the drug feeder of Solutions 1 to 3 above, characterized in that it is provided with a measuring mechanism for clamping the drug and measuring its dimensions, and a drive member for moving the movable part of the measuring mechanism, the regulating member is adapted to be linked to the movable part of the measuring mechanism, and the control unit controls the drive member to obtain dimensional data of the drug placed on the measuring mechanism and to cause the regulating member to regulate the width based on the dimensional data.

In such a drug feeder of the present invention (Solution 1, 2), the drug detection interval for drugs that are transported to the drop discharge port by the annular rotor and dropped is a known normal time interval (time interval under normal conditions) or a time close to that interval under normal drug discharge operation. However, when it reaches a longer congestion interval (time interval under congestion), it is determined that an undesirable drug congestion state has likely occurred in the drug transport path at the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, and the regulating member is activated to widen the width of the drug transport path, temporarily relaxing the restriction on the drug passing beside the regulating member.

In this way, when a drug jam occurs in which many drugs are stuck at the regulating member and lined up in the transport direction, this is detected and the drug at the front of the jam is made to move forward more easily. A slight movement of the drug at the front reduces the pressure between the following drugs, changing the state of the drugs, which helps to eliminate the drug jam. Moreover, this can be easily implemented by slightly additionally operating the regulating member, and since the pressure between the undesired drugs is reduced, there is no risk of damage to the drug even if it is fragile.
Therefore, according to the present invention, the width-regulating function of the regulating mechanism can be made to be useful for resolving drug congestion in a simple manner to the extent that even fragile drugs are not damaged.

In addition, in the drug feeder of the present invention (Solution 3), the width of the drug transport path is reduced, or in other words, the width of the drug transport path is expanded in stages, rather than continuously. This allows the restricted drugs to move laterally intermittently, reducing friction between the drugs as they move and reducing the pressure between the drugs. The drugs are aligned between movements, reducing the impact on the drugs and eliminating drug congestion naturally and efficiently.

Furthermore, in the drug feeder of the present invention (Solution 4), the regulating member and the movable part of the measuring mechanism are linked so that the regulating member also operates when the drive member moves the movable part. This not only allows the control unit to obtain dimensional data of the drug placed on the measuring mechanism, but also allows the control unit to temporarily relax the width of the drug transport path based on that dimensional data by controlling the drive member. This means that the number of drive members required is less than the number of functions and therefore the number of movable parts, and the drug used for measuring can be removed from the measuring mechanism after measuring and transferred onto the inclined rotor, allowing the drug to be used for automatic dispensing without waste. Furthermore, the measuring mechanism can be simplified by obtaining or calculating dimensional data from the amount of movement of the drive member.

1A and 1B are external perspective views of a drug feeder structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1C is an external perspective view of a mold storage area that also serves as a measuring mechanism. 11A to 11D are plan views of the main parts showing the interlocking state between the mold storage area and the regulating mechanism. FIG. 2A is an external perspective view of a sorting mechanism and its peripheral parts, and FIG. 2B is an external perspective view of only the sorting mechanism. 1 is a plan view, a front view, a right side view, a back view, and a left side view of a single middle hanging object. 1 is a plan view, a front view, a right side view, a rear view, and a left side view of multiple parallel middle-level hanging objects. 1A shows the operating state of the drug feeder, where (a) is an external oblique view of the sorting mechanism sorting the drugs, and (b) is an external oblique view showing the sorting situation by the oblique abutment surface of the middle hanging object of the sorting mechanism. 13A and 13B show the swinging state of the middle hanging object sorting the medicines, with FIG. 13A being a plan view and FIG. 1A and 1B show a main structure of the medicine feeder described in the Background Art 1 section, in which FIG. FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional front view showing a main structure of the medicine feeder described in the Background Art 2 section. 1A and 1B show the structure of the regulating mechanism of the medicine feeder, in which FIG. 1A is a plan view of a mold medicine placed in a mold storage area, and FIG. 1B is a plan view and an end view of a first regulating member. 1A is a perspective view of the sorting mechanism and a portion where the sorting mechanism is installed, FIG. 1B is a front view of a first sorting member, and FIG. 1C is a front view of a second sorting member.

In addition to strengthening the width-regulating function of the regulating mechanism in a simple manner to the extent that even fragile drugs are not damaged, a further technical challenge is to adequately restore the height-regulating function of the sorting member in a simple manner to the extent that even fragile drugs are not damaged, so an embodiment for solving this problem will also be described.
[Embodiment 1]
The drug feeder of the first embodiment is the drug feeder of the above-mentioned solution means, wherein the sorting member has a hanging member hanging down above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, thereby regulating the height of the drugs above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor;
The pendant is provided in the form of a first type pendant and a second type pendant having different shapes, the first type pendant being deformable when its lower end is pushed laterally, and the second type pendant is loosely supported at its upper end and can swing without being deformed when its lower end is pushed laterally.

In the medicine feeder of the first embodiment, as the hanging objects for gently eliminating overlapping of medicines, not only the first type hanging objects that can be deformed when the lower end is pushed sideways like the hanging objects 612, 622, and 632 described above, but also the second type hanging objects that are loosely supported at the upper end and can swing without being deformed when the lower end is pushed sideways are provided, and both are used in combination. When the medicine conveyed by the annular rotor comes into contact with either hanging object, a reaction force is applied to the contacting medicine to eliminate the overlapping, but since the means for generating the reaction force and therefore the action mode are different for deformation and swinging, a more diverse and higher overlap eliminating effect can be expected than when the same action mode is repeated. In addition, since the end that comes into contact with the medicine escapes sideways due to swinging, excessive reaction force is less likely to be generated than in the case of escaping upward.
Therefore, according to this embodiment, the height regulating function of the sorting member can be adequately restored in a simple manner to the extent that even fragile medicines are not damaged.

[Embodiment 2]
The drug feeder of embodiment 2 is the drug feeder of embodiment 1 described above, characterized in that the first type of hanging object and the second type of hanging object are positioned at different circumferential positions of the annular rotating body.

In the drug feeder of embodiment 2, the first type of hanging objects and the second type of hanging objects are distributed around the circumference of the annular rotor, so that not only can all of the hanging objects be effortlessly positioned on the drug transport path, but also, by applying multiple different types of actions, i.e., different types of "overlapping drug loosening actions" with a time lag, it is possible to easily avoid undesirable situations in which the two actions cancel each other out.

[Embodiment 3]
The drug feeder of embodiment 3 is the drug feeder of embodiments 1 and 2, characterized in that the second type hanging object is plate-shaped in its entirety or in a portion including a part of its lower end, and a longitudinal straight line of the lower end face of this plate-shaped portion and a circumferential straight line of the upper end peripheral portion of the annular rotor maintain a "twist position straight line" relationship, so that the direction of transport of the drug transported by the annular rotor and coming into contact with the second type hanging object is directed toward the inner circumference of the annular rotor.

In the drug feeder of embodiment 3, at least the lower end of the second-type hanging object is shaped like a plate, and the longitudinal direction of the lower end of this plate-like portion is tilted with respect to the drug transport direction directly below, while the range over which the tilt varies due to the oscillation of the second-type hanging object is limited. This simple method allows the transport direction of a drug transported on top of another drug to be changed to the inner circumference of the annular rotor by contact with the second-type hanging object, thereby enhancing the loosening action of overlapping drugs and the return action of excess drugs even with this simple configuration.

[Embodiment 4]
The drug feeder of embodiment 4 is the drug feeder of embodiments 1 to 3, characterized in that the second type of hanging object is made up of a plurality of separable members arranged in parallel.

In the drug feeder of embodiment 4, multiple separable components are arranged side by side to form a second type of hanging object, and since the multiple components may shift slightly or come into contact with each other finely when they come into contact with the drug, the peak of the reaction force against the drug tends to decrease even if the total amount is the same, so that the loosening action of the overlapping drugs can be strengthened while suppressing undesirable impacts on the drug, etc.

[Embodiment 5]
The drug feeder of embodiment 5 is a drug feeder of embodiments 1 to 3 above, characterized in that the second type of hanging object consists of multiple plates of the same shape arranged side by side in a separable state.

In the drug feeder of embodiment 5, the side-by-side arrangement of multiple separable components provides the same effect as embodiment 4, and the manufacturing burden is reduced by standardizing the plate shape, and the side-by-side arrangement of multiple plate materials of the same shape makes it easy to achieve a dense arrangement.

A specific embodiment for carrying out such a drug feeder of the present invention will be described below with reference to Example 1.
Example 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 7 embodies not only the above-mentioned solutions 1 to 3 (claims 1 to 3 as originally filed) but also all of the above-mentioned embodiments 1 to 5.
In addition, in order to simplify the illustrations, parts and components already described in the Background Art section and parts for which equivalents are sufficient have been omitted, and only parts and components necessary for explaining the invention and related parts have been illustrated.
In addition, for those points that overlap with those described in the Background of the Invention section, repeated explanations will be omitted, and the following explanation will focus on the differences from the prior art.

A specific configuration of a drug feeder according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1A and 1B show the main structure of a drug feeder 1100 with a transparent top cover removed, in which (a) is an external perspective view, and (b) and (c) are external perspective views of a mold storage area 1740 which also serves as a measuring mechanism.
2A to 2D are all plan views showing the interlocking state between the movable clamping portion 1742 of the mold storage area 1740 and the link mechanism 73 of the regulating mechanism 1700. FIG.

3A is an external perspective view of the sorting mechanism 1600 and its peripheral parts, and FIG. 3B is an external perspective view of only the sorting mechanism 1600. In FIG.
In addition, Figure 4 is a plan view, front view, right side view, back view, and left side view of a single middle-stage hanging object 1623, and Figure 5 is a plan view, front view, right side view, back view, and left side view of a middle-stage hanging object 1622, which is made up of two middle-stage hanging objects 1623, 1623 arranged side by side.

The drug feeder 1100 (see Figs. 1 and 3) inherits the overall general components from the previously described drug feeders 10, 100 (see Figs. 8 and 9) in a manner that maintains the required functions while being appropriately improved (see Figs. 1(a) and 3(a)), and includes a peripheral wall 11 inherited from the previously described housing, an outer annular rotor 1020 that is similar to the previously described annular rotor 20 and can rotate around a vertical line, and an inclined rotor 1030 that is similar to the previously described inclined rotor 30 and is mounted inside the annular rotor 1020 in a state that allows it to rotate around an inclined line inclined from the vertical line, and closes the hollow of the annular rotor 1020.

The drug feeder 1100 (see Figures 1(a) and 3(a)) also includes a regulating mechanism 1700 (see Figure 2) and a sorting mechanism 1600 (see Figure 3(b)) for aligning solid drugs that have been carried up from above the inclined rotor 1030 to above the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotor 1020 by the rotation of the inclined rotor 1030 as the annular rotor 1020 rotates.
The sorting mechanism 1600 is an improvement of the previously described sorting mechanism 600, and the regulating mechanism 1700 is an improvement of the previously described regulating mechanism 700. The controller 1800 that controls their operation has also been enhanced in function (see FIG. 1(a)).

First, the regulating mechanism 1700 (see the dotted pattern in Figure 1(a)) has a basic structure similar to the previously described regulating mechanism 700, which is equipped with a link mechanism 73, a first regulating member 710, a second regulating member 720, and a spring (see Figure 10). It regulates the width of the drug transport path above the upper peripheral edge 23 of the annular rotor 1020 and also regulates the final height of the drug. However, by linking with the motorized mold storage area 1740, the width of the regulated object can be electrically adjusted.

Specifically, the mold storage area 1740 (see the dotted pattern portion in FIG. 1(a) and (b) and (c)) comprises a fixed clamping portion 1741 (stationary portion), a clamping portion 1742 (movable portion) that can move forward and backward relative to the clamping portion 1741, a placement portion 1743 (transmission portion) that moves together with the clamping portion 1742, and an oblong hole portion 1744 (guiding portion). It is equipped with a fixed insertion portion 1745 (guide portion) that regulates the position, and a spring (not shown) that biases the placement portion 1743 in a direction that causes the clamping portion 1742 to abut against the clamping portion 1741. In the free state, the clamping portion 1741 and the clamping portion 1742 abut against each other (see FIG. 1(c)), and when the clamping portion 1742 or the placement portion 1743 is pushed in a direction against the spring bias, the clamping portion 1742 moves away from the clamping portion 1741 (see FIG. 1(b)).

Motor 1750 (drive member) is arranged under the control of controller 1800 in the same manner as rotary drive motors 54a and 54b (see FIG. 1(a)). A swinging member 1751 (transmission unit) swings in response to the rotation of motor 1750 (see FIG. 1(b)). Origin detection member 1752 is also arranged to detect swinging member 1751 located at the origin (see FIG. 1(c)). When motor 1750 is operated in a predetermined direction, the gap between both clamping parts 1741 and 1742 widens. When motor 1750 is rotated in the reverse direction or set to the free state, the gap between both clamping parts 1741 and 1742 narrows and both clamping parts 1741 and 1742 come into contact with each other. This state is detected by origin detection member 1752, and the detection signal is sent to controller 1800.

Such a mold storage area 1740 functions as a measuring mechanism for clamping and measuring the dimensions of a drug under the control of a controller 1800 consisting of, for example, a microprocessor, and also functions as a mechanism for increasing or decreasing the amount of regulation of the width of the drug transport path.
The function as a measuring mechanism (see Figure 2) is embodied by moving the clamping portion 1742 with a fingertip or the like to separate the clamping portions 1741 and 1742, and then placing the drug 5a between them and freeing the clamping portion 1742, so that the distance between the two members 1741, 1742 matches the dimensions of the drug 5a, and this distance is measured (Figures 2(a) and (b)).

The measurement may be performed by attaching an electronic measuring device, but in this example, the controller 1800 obtains the rotation phase data of the motor 1750 and converts it into distance, which is inexpensive. For example, the motor 1750 is operated with a driving force weaker than the spring force of the mounting portion 1743 to lightly abut the oscillating member 1751 against the mounting portion 1743, and when the oscillating member 1751 stops, the rotation phase data of the motor 1750 is obtained, thereby obtaining the desired data. In addition, the controller 1800 is also configured to obtain and store measurements such as the width of the drug 5a (see FIG. 2(a)), the thickness of the drug 5a (see FIG. 2(b)), and the length of the drug 5a (not shown).

In this way, the controller 1800 can control the motor 1750 to obtain dimensional data of the drug 5a placed in the mold storage area 1740, which also serves as a measuring mechanism. In addition, when the drug 5a is removed from the mold storage area 1740 after measuring (see FIG. 2(c)), the clamping portion 1742 moves to the clamping portion 1741 due to the spring force. However, by controlling the motor 1750 to operate with a driving force stronger than the spring force, the clamping portion 1742 can be moved to a position corresponding to the width of the drug 5a or to another position even without the drug 5a (see FIG. 2(d)).

Since the support part of the clamping part 1742 or the rear end part of the placement part 1743 is connected to the front end part of the link mechanism 73, when the clamping part 1742 is moved by the control of the controller 1800 and the drive of the motor 1750, the link mechanism 73 advances and retreats in the longitudinal direction in conjunction with the movement of the clamping part 1742. As described above, the width of the drug transport path regulated by the first and second regulating members 710 and 720, i.e., the width allowed for the drug moving on the upper end peripheral part 23 of the annular rotating body 1020, is expanded and contracted from the outer periphery side. Therefore, the increase and decrease of the regulated amount of the width for the drug on the upper end peripheral part 23 can be performed under the control of the controller 1800 even when there is no drug 5a in the mold storage area 1740. Therefore, even the drug 5a placed in the mold storage area 1740 to determine the regulated width of the width for the drug on the upper end peripheral part 23 by the first and second regulating members 710 and 720 can be immediately and efficiently dispensed.

Next, the sorting mechanism 1600 (see the dotted pattern portion in Figure 3(a) and Figure 3(b)) is intended to gently regulate the height at which the medicine above the upper peripheral edge 23 of the annular rotor 1020 can pass, without being strict, as some leakage is acceptable, and is provided with three types of hanging objects hanging down above the upper peripheral edge 23 of the annular rotor 1020: the previously mentioned front hanging object 612 which has large balls 613 lined up vertically and can be bent freely, the middle hanging object 1622 which has two plate-shaped middle hanging objects 1623 lined up horizontally, which will be described in detail later, and the rear hanging object 632 which has small balls 633 lined up vertically and can be bent freely. These 612, 1622, and 632 are arranged in that order from upstream to downstream of the upper end periphery 23, and while all are located above the upper end periphery 23 (drug delivery path), they are at different circumferential positions of the annular rotor 1020.

The support member 1611 that suspends and holds the multiple front-stage hanging objects 612 is short, while the support member 1621 that suspends and holds the middle-stage hanging objects 1622 and the rear-stage hanging objects 632 is long and straddles the regulating mechanism 1700, but since both members 1611, 1621 are made from a single piece or are fastened together, the first sorting member 1610 including the support member 1611 and the second sorting member 1620 including the support member 1621 are also integrated.
Therefore, when the controller 1800 operates the motor 1630 (see Figures 1(a) and 3(a)), the drive causes the lifting screw 1640 to rotate about its axis, and in response, the integrated support members 1611 and 1621 rise and fall, so that the lower end positions of the three hanging objects 612, 1622, and 632 can be automatically adjusted up and down all at once.

In addition, all three hanging parts can be removed together when not needed, making them easy to attach and remove.
Furthermore, as already mentioned, when the drug transported by the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 1020 collides with the lower ends of 612, 632 and is pushed sideways, the front stage hanging object 612 and the rear stage hanging object 632, which are connected by balls that can be bent freely, are curved overall in order to hold back the colliding drug while mitigating the impact, and can be said to be a second type of hanging object that easily deforms more greatly toward the lower end.

In contrast, the middle hanging object 1623, which consists of a vertically elongated plate-like body and is difficult to deform, has its upper end 1623a hooked loosely into the through hole 1621a of the support member 1621 and is loosely suspended, so that it can be said to be a single type of hanging object that can swing without deforming when its lower end is pushed sideways.
In addition, middle stage hanging material 1622, which is two (or more) of these middle stage hanging materials 1623 arranged side by side in a dense but easily separable state, can be said to be a second type of hanging material with multiple items arranged in parallel, and its deformation condition and therefore its action on releasing the overlapping of multiple drugs are different from those of front stage hanging material 612 and rear stage hanging material 632.

Furthermore, to explain the holding state of the middle hanging object 1622 by the support member 1621 (see Figures 3(b), 4, and 5), the rocking motion of the lower end is allowed to be relatively large in order to reduce impact, but as for the so-called rotational rotation around the virtual vertical axis, in order to prevent the direction of the oblique contact surface 1623d of the lower end 1623c of the front lower end 1623c that is the subject of drug contact from changing excessively when it is pressed by the contacting drug, for example, the gap between the upper end 1623a of the middle hanging object 1623 and the through hole 1621a is formed in a moderately restricted slit shape, so that the swing range of the above-mentioned rotational rotation is kept small.

A typical configuration example of the middle hanging object 1623 (see Figure 4) comprises a vertically long flat plate portion 1623e, an upper end portion 1623a that protrudes slightly from the upper end of the vertically long flat plate portion 1623e, a central portion 1623b that protrudes from the center of the vertically long flat plate portion 1623e in the same direction as the upper end portion 1623a, and a lower end portion 1623c that protrudes longer from the lower end of the vertically long flat plate portion 1623e. The vertically long flat plate portion 1623e, the upper end portion 1623a, and the central portion 1623b belong to a single plane. In contrast, the lower end portion 1623c protrudes to the same side of both sides of the vertically long flat plate portion 1623d as the upper end portion 1623a and the central portion 1623b, but not in exactly the same direction, but tilted to the side by about 30 degrees.

The middle hanging object 1622 (see FIG. 5) is made by stacking two of the middle hanging objects 1623 described above, and when the upper ends are attached to the support member 1621, the two pieces are mostly overlapping each other, and hang down above the upper peripheral edge 23 of the annular rotating body 1020, and one of the lower ends 1623c of the two middle hanging objects 1623 becomes the oblique abutment surface 1623d that abuts against the drug 5. In this hanging state, the straight line that overlaps with the lower side of the oblique abutment surface 1623d (the straight line in the longitudinal direction of the lower end surface of the plate-shaped portion) and the straight line in the circumferential direction of the upper peripheral edge 23 of the annular rotating body 1020 maintain the relationship of "straight lines at the twist position" that appear to intersect when viewed from above and below, but appear to be separated when viewed from the side.

The controller 1800 (control unit) is composed of a microprocessor, etc., as described above, and operates the mold storage area 1740 using the width value (dimension data) of the drug measured in the mold storage area 1740 to set the drug transport path width (the width of the drug transport path) above the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotor 1020 to an appropriate width, such as to match the width of the drug, or to an approximate width calculated by multiplying a specified coefficient, or to a width slightly narrower than that, and this is one of the initial setting processes before starting to discharge the drug. During the drug discharge operation, the rotation speed control and drug discharge detection, as described above, are also performed.

In addition, since the procedure of this controller 1800 is not complicated, it will not be illustrated in a flow chart, but it will also detect the next drug congestion and reduce the width of the drug transport path (widen the width of the drug transport path) as necessary even during the drug discharge operation.
Among these, detection of drug congestion is performed based on a detection signal from the drug drop detection means 56, and if the time interval relating to the detection timing of the drug dropped from the drop discharge port 14 does not reach the preset congestion time interval, it is determined that "drug congestion has not occurred," and if the time interval reaches the congestion time interval, it is determined that "drug congestion has occurred." Here, the congestion time interval is a preset time interval value determined in advance by adding an increment to prevent erroneous judgment to a known normal time interval in a test run, etc.

In addition, the expansion of the width of the drug transport path is achieved by relaxing the restrictions on the width of the drug above the drug transport path. Specifically, the distance at which the tips of the lower parts 711, 721 (see FIG. 10) of the first and second restricting members 710, 720 penetrate from the outer periphery to the inner periphery just above the upper end peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotor 1020 is reduced to widen the width of the drug transport path. In this drug feeder 1100 (see FIG. 1), this is usually done when the mold storage area 1740 is empty (see FIGS. 2(c) and (d)), but when the controller 1800 operates the motor 1750, the clamping portion 1742 of the restricting mechanism 1700 advances and retreats, and the link mechanism 73 and the first and second restricting members 710, 720 respond accordingly, allowing the motor 1750 to be used for measuring.

Furthermore, the controller 1800 can increase the width in stages, rather than monotonically. The number of stages, the amount of increase per stage, and the time for each stage can be specified by initial setting or modification of parameters.
As an example, if the number of stages is set to four, the increase amount for each stage is set to a uniform 5%, and the time for each stage is set to a uniform 3 seconds, when the controller 1800 detects the occurrence of a drug congestion, it will first relax the width restriction by 5% after 3 seconds have elapsed, thereby widening the width of the drug transport path at the relevant location to 105% of the original width, and then after another 3 seconds have elapsed, it will relax the width restriction by a further 5% to widen the width of the drug transport path at the relevant location to 110% of the original width.

After another 3 seconds, the width restriction is relaxed by another 5% to increase the width of the drug delivery path at the corresponding location to 115% of the original width, and after another 3 seconds, the width restriction is relaxed by another 5% to increase the width of the drug delivery path at the corresponding location to 120% of the original width. In order to prevent the drugs from being lined up in an undesirable state, a restriction is imposed such that the width of the drug delivery path is limited to less than 1.5 times the width of the drug even when the restriction is relaxed to the maximum.
In addition, when the drug drop detection means 56 detects drug discharge from the drop discharge port 14 at any point during the process of deregulating the width restriction, the controller 1800 returns the first and second regulating members 710, 720 to their original set positions and ends the deregulation of the width, but when further time has passed and a timeout occurs, it determines that the drug feeder 1100 has become empty.

The manner of use and operation of the drug feeder 1100 of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.
1(b) and (c) are external oblique views showing the operating state of the mold storage area 1740, and FIGS. 2(a) to (d) are plan views showing the interlocking state between the movable clamping portion 1742 of the mold storage area 1740 and the link mechanism 73 of the regulating mechanism 1700.

Figure 6 also shows the operating state of the drug feeder 1100, particularly the operating state of the sorting mechanism 1600, where (a) is an external perspective view of the sorting mechanism 1600 sorting drugs 5b and 5c that have arrived at the middle hanging object 1622, and (b) is an external perspective view showing the sorting state by the oblique abutment surface 1623d of the middle hanging object 1622 of the sorting mechanism 1600. Furthermore, Figure 7 shows the swinging state of the middle hanging object 1622 sorting drugs 5b and 5c, where (a) is a plan view and (b) is a front view.

Before using drug feeder 1100 for dispensing medicine, it is necessary to have controller 1800 store at least the width and thickness of the drug shape data. If the data has been entered in advance, this can be omitted, but if not, measurements must be taken and the data set.
Measurements may be taken with a separate device and the dimensional values may be manually entered into drug feeder 1100, but with drug feeder 1100, if drug 5a is placed sideways in mold storage area 1740 (see FIG. 2(a)) and operated in width measurement mode, the drug width measurements and data entry are performed automatically. If drug 5a is placed vertically in mold storage area 1740 (see FIG. 2(b)) and operated in thickness measurement mode, the drug thickness measurements and data entry are performed automatically. Thereafter, drug 5a can be removed from mold storage area 1740 and placed in rotating container 20+30 to be included in the drug preparation (see FIG. 2(c)).

When the drug feeder 1100 is operated in the preparation mode, the controller 1800 operates the motor 1630 of the sorting mechanism 1600 based on the drug thickness data, and the sorting mechanism 1600 rises and falls accordingly, thereby adjusting the height of the sorting mechanism 1600, and thus the front hanging member 612, the middle hanging member 1622, and the rear hanging member 632, to match the thickness of the drug. The controller 1800 operates the motor 1750 of the regulating mechanism 1700 based on the drug width data, and the regulating mechanism 1700 operates accordingly to swing the first and second regulating members 710, 720, thereby adjusting the width of the corresponding portion of the drug transport path above the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotor 1020 to match the width of the drug.

Then, the required number or more of drugs 5 are loaded into the drug feeder 1100, specifically onto the inclined rotor 1030 surrounded by the annular rotor 1020, and then the drug feeder 1100 is operated in dispensing mode. The drugs 5 are lifted up by the inclined rotor 1030 one after another and transferred onto the upper end peripheral portion 23 (drug transport path) of the annular rotor 1020 (see FIG. 6(a)), and as the annular rotor 1020 rotates, they attempt to slip under the front-stage hanging object 612, the middle-stage hanging object 1623, and the rear-stage hanging object 632, in that order.

At that time, the drug 5 placed alone on the upper end peripheral portion 23 without overlapping hardly interferes with the front and rear hanging objects 612, 632, and even if it does interfere, it only moves slightly above the upper end peripheral portion 23, and passes underneath the intermediate middle hanging object 1623 without interfering at all with them.
In contrast, in the case of drugs 5b, 5c stacked one on top of the other (see Figure 6 (a)), the upper drug 5b may come into contact with the front-stage hanging object 612 and the reaction force may break the overlap; however, the impact of the front-stage hanging object 612, which may deform when its lower end is pushed sideways, is weak so as not to damage the drug 5, and so the overlap may remain intact.

Then, when the drugs 5b, 5c that have passed through the front-stage hanging object 612 while still stacked one above the other are carried to the middle-stage hanging object 1622 (see Figure 6), the upper drug 5b abuts against the oblique abutment surface 1623d of the lower end portion 1623c of the middle-stage hanging object 1622, and is prevented from moving straight forward by the reaction force, so that it moves along the oblique abutment surface 1623d of the lower end portion 1623c and the surface of the vertically elongated flat plate portion 1623e.
In this way, the direction of movement of the upper drug 5b is directed toward the inner circumference of the annular rotating body 1020, so that the upper drug 5b advances inward from the upper end peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 1020 and often falls onto the inclined rotating body 1030 (see the dotted line in Figure 6 (b)).

The lower drug 5b often passes under the middle hanging object 1622, but may also fall from the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 1020 along with the drug 5c.
The middle hanging object 1622 does not deform even when its lower end is pushed sideways, so its ability to separate overlapping drugs 5b, 5c is superior to the other hanging objects 612, 632. However, in order to avoid damaging the drugs, the impact when it comes into contact with the drug and the subsequent pressure are mitigated by oscillating, so in rare cases, drugs 5b, 5c may pass through while still overlapping, pushing aside middle hanging object 1622.

In this case, a gentle overlap loosening action is applied by the rear hanging object 632, and only if the overlapping of the drugs 5b, 5c does not collapse, the aforementioned rear regulating mechanism 700 not only gently regulates the height of the overlapping drugs 5b, 5c, but also regulates the width of the drug transport path at the upper peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotating body 1020 from the outer periphery.
As a result, the overlapping of the drugs 5b, 5c is eliminated, or the drugs 5b, 5c are forcibly moved from above the upper end peripheral portion 23 of the annular rotor 1020 to above the inclined rotor 1030 while still overlapping, so that the overlapping drugs are not sent from the drug transport path to the drop discharge port 14.

Furthermore, the operation of the set of middle hanging objects 1622 consisting of two middle hanging objects 1623 arranged closely together (see FIG. 7) is such that the abutment interference portion is inclined with respect to the direction of travel of the overlapping drugs 5b, 5c by the annular rotor 1020 (see the two-dot chain line). In detail, the oblique abutment surface 1623d (abutment surface and front half tracing surface) of the middle hanging object 1622 is inclined at an angle of θ1, while the vertically elongated flat portion 1623e (back half tracing surface) of the middle hanging object 1622 is inclined at an angle of only θ2. Since the angle θ1 is greater than the angle θ2 (θ1>θ2), a strong breaking force acts on the front half of the overlapping drugs 5b, 5c that abut against the middle hanging object 1622, and in the back half, the force expelling the drug 5b from the top of the annular rotor 1020 onto the inclined rotor 1030 is strengthened, increasing the rate at which the overlapping drugs are removed from the drug transport path.

Furthermore, although the multiple middle-stage hanging objects 1623, 1623 that make up the middle-stage hanging object 1622 are in close contact with each other in the free state (see Figures 3(b) and 5), these 1623, 1623 are separable. Therefore, when the drug 5b abuts against the oblique abutment surface 1623d (see Figure 7), the upper end 1623a hardly moves while the lower end 1623c (1623d) oscillates. At the same time, minute sliding and separation are also repeated, so that the impact at the time of abutment and the subsequent frictional force are reduced or mitigated.
In this way, the overlapping of the medicines 5b, 5c is easily eliminated with a high degree of certainty, and the medicines 5 are dropped and discharged one by one from the drop discharge port 14.

However, if a drug jam occurs at the first restricting member 710 or the second restricting member 720 during such sequential drug discharge, even if this is rare, the drug drop detection means 56 will stop detecting the fallen drug. When the controller 1800 detects the resulting timeout, the controller 1800 controls the above-mentioned drug transport path to reduce its width, so that even drug jams that previously could not be quickly cleared are often cleared before the timeout. This means that with this drug feeder 1100, there is a high probability that all contained drug will be automatically discharged without remaining behind.

[others]
In the above embodiment, the amount of lateral relaxation of the drug transport route during drug congestion is increased by 5% up to four times, but the number of repetitions is not limited to four, and may be more or less than that. The amount of adjustment per time is also not limited to 5%, and may be more or less than that. The method of increase is also not limited to a monotonous increase, and may be repeated, for example, by increasing by 6% and then decreasing by 3%, in order to strengthen the shaking of the drug queue in congestion while suppressing the total amount of relaxation.

In the above embodiment, the timing for randomly feeding a large number of drugs 5 into the drug feeder 1100 was after both the height adjustment for the sorting mechanism 1600 and the width adjustment for the regulating mechanism 1700, but that order is not essential, and feeding a large number of drugs into the drug feeder 1100, the height adjustment for the sorting mechanism 1600, and the width adjustment for the regulating mechanism 1700 may be performed in any order as long as they are performed before the drug feeder 1100 is operated in the dispensing mode.

In the above embodiment, in the sorting mechanism 1600, only the support member 1621 of the second sorting member 1620 is a straddling sorting member, and the support member 1611 of the first sorting member 1610 is not a straddling sorting member, but this is not essential, and the support member 1611 of the first sorting member 1610 may also be a straddling sorting member.

The drug feeder of the present invention may be used to replace some or all of the many rotating alignment plate type drug feeders installed in a tablet packaging machine, may be installed in a tablet divider that has only one or a small number of drug feeders, and may even be installed in a tablet counter (drug counter) that counts the number of drugs dispensed sequentially in a device that fills medicine bottles with medicines such as tablets.

5, 5a, 5b Drugs,
10...medicinal feeder,
11...peripheral wall, 11a...inner peripheral wall surface (hollow inner wall surface of the peripheral wall),
12: conveying surface guide; 13: discharge guide; 14: drop discharge port;
20: Annular rotating body, 21: Lower portion, 22: Upper portion, 23: Upper end peripheral portion (drug delivery path),
30... inclined rotating body, 31... central protrusion, 32... central portion, 33... peripheral portion,
20+30...rotating container,
40: Support mechanism, 41: Passive member,
42...Large diameter outer rotating transmission member, 43...Small diameter outer rotating transmission member,
50...rotation drive mechanism, 51...rotation drive member,
54...rotation drive motor, 54a, 54b...rotation drive motors,
55: inclined rotor attachment detection means, 56: medicine drop detection means,
60: sorting member, 61: base end, 62: tip end (drug contact portion), 63: support portion,
70: Restriction mechanism, 71: First restriction member, 72: Second restriction member,
73... link mechanism, 74... mold storage area,
100...medicinal feeder,
600...Sorting mechanism,
610: first sorting member; 611: support member;
612 ... front hanging object (first type hanging object), 613 ... large ball,
620: second sorting member (straddling sorting member), 621: support member (straddling portion),
622... Middle hanging object (side-by-side hanging object, first type hanging object), 623... Middle ball,
632 ... Rear hanging object (side-by-side hanging object, first type hanging object), 633 ... Small ball,
640: attracting member; 650: manual adjustment mechanism;
651: Lower limit setting mechanism; 652: Scale member;
700...Regulatory organization,
710: first restricting member; 711: lower portion; 712: upper portion;
720: second restricting member; 721: lower portion;
1100...medicinal feeder,
1020... annular rotor, 1030... inclined rotor,
1600...Sorting mechanism,
1610: first sorting member; 1611: support member;
1620: second sorting member (straddling sorting member),
1621...support member (straddle portion), 1621a...through hole (swing permission indication portion),
1622... Middle hanging object (multiple hanging objects of the second type arranged in parallel),
1623... Middle hanging object (single type 2 hanging object),
1623a...upper end portion, 1623b...center portion, 1623c...lower end portion,
1623d... oblique abutment surface, 1623e... vertically elongated flat plate portion,
1630...motor, 1640...lifting screw,
1700...Regulatory organization,
1740…Mold storage area (measuring mechanism),
1741 ... clamping part (stationary part), 1742 ... clamping part (movable part),
1743: Placement portion (transmission portion), 1744: Long hole portion (guiding portion),
1745: Insertion portion (guide portion), 1750: Motor (driving member),
1751: Oscillating member (transmission part), 1752: Origin detection member,
1800: Controller (control unit)

Claims (4)

a control unit for controlling the rotation of the annular rotor; and a medicine drop detection unit for detecting medicines that have been carried to a drop discharge port by the annular rotor and dropped, the control unit being configured to control the height of the medicines above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor and the medicine drop detection unit being configured to control the height of the medicines above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor and the medicine drop detection unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control ... width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor, the control unit being configured to control the width of a medicine transport path above the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor,
A drug feeder characterized in that the regulating member is adapted to increase or decrease the amount of regulation of the lateral width in response to the control of the control unit for a drive member associated with the regulating member , and the control unit is adapted to control the drive member associated with the regulating member to increase the lateral width when the drug detection interval by the drug drop detection means reaches a set value of a congestion interval that is greater than a normal interval. The drug feeder according to claim 1, characterized in that, when the drug drop detection means detects drug drop after the control unit controls the regulating member to increase the width, the control unit accordingly controls the regulating member to return the width to the state before it was increased. The drug feeder according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control unit increases the width in stages. 4. A drug feeder as described in any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a measuring mechanism is provided for clamping a drug and measuring its dimensions, the driving member is adapted to move a movable part of the measuring mechanism, the regulating member is adapted to work in conjunction with the movable part of the measuring mechanism, and the control unit controls the driving member to obtain dimensional data of the drug placed on the measuring mechanism and to cause the regulating member to regulate the lateral width based on the dimensional data.

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