JPH0236263B2 - JOZAIBUNKATSUKI - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Use: The present invention provides medicines to patients based on their medical records at hospitals, clinics, etc., where one tablet is further divided and administered according to the prescription at the time of dispensing. Regarding tablet splitting machines.

Background of the invention: When administering medication to patients at hospitals, clinics, clinics, etc., the tablets are divided and packaged, but if one tablet is too much for one dose, the tablets are divided and applied. It may be quantified. In this case, it is generally difficult to divide the tablet while holding it with the fingertips. Therefore, measures have been taken to divide the tablet into desired amounts using a device such as a nail clipper.

However, such methods have low work efficiency and are extremely difficult when dividing a large number of tablets or dividing tablets into quantities other than 1/2. It has drawbacks such as being crushed and becoming unusable before being divided into pieces. For this reason, it may be possible to divide the required amount of tablets in advance, but this is inconvenient in terms of drug storage, and depending on the type of drug, moisture may be absorbed from the fractured surface, making it impossible to administer the drug. Under these circumstances, there is a demand for a device that can easily divide tablets into desired amounts when necessary without direct manual intervention.

Problems to be Solved: In view of this situation, the present invention has been developed by supplying the required tablets one by one, cutting the tablets into two pieces at a predetermined ratio, and carrying out the following operations until they are delivered. , is done automatically, effortlessly and without waste.
The object of the present invention is to provide an automatic tablet dividing machine that can perform rational processing.

Structure of the invention: The present invention includes a conveyor for conveying tablets to be processed;
A guide mechanism that guides the tablets to the center of the conveyor is arranged in sequence from the tablet supply position to the moving side on the upper side of the conveyor, and a guide mechanism that can expand and contract in the width direction on the conveyor according to the diameter of the tablet and guides the tablets to be processed along the conveyor center line. A control mechanism for moving the tablets, a cutting mechanism for detecting the tablets guided by the guiding movement control mechanism and cutting them into pieces on the conveyor, a supply mechanism for supplying the tablets to be processed one by one, and an electrical system for sequentially operating these. The conveyor consists of a belt stretched across the required conveyance section, which is partitioned by a thin plate at the center of the width direction without protruding beyond the conveyance surface. It is equipped with guide pieces on both sides of the cutting position that allow the tablet to move to both sides when it is cut with a cutter and have a restoring function.

The tablet cutting mechanism of the present invention is such that a cutter made of a thin metal plate is pulled down at a predetermined time by an electromagnet, and the cutter is located directly above the partition plate of the conveyor, and the cutter and the partition plate are This system was designed to separate tablets moving on a conveyor.

The tablet feeding mechanism of the present invention is such that the tablets are taken out one by one when the feeding valve of the feeder containing the tablets is opened, and the feeding valve opening/closing portion of the feeder is intermittently controlled by a control command. Through this operation, tablets are sequentially fed onto the conveyor one by one.

Further, the guide mechanism controls the next guide movement control mechanism so that the tablets fed onto the conveyor by the feeding mechanism move onto the center line of the conveyor in a manner appropriate to increase the thickness in proportion to the diameter of the tablets. The pair of guide and control plates are connected by a cam mechanism so as to move up and down in conjunction with adjustment. The setting between the pair of guide control plates is performed by rotating a screw shaft using a knob provided on the outside of the machine body.

Embodiment: Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.As shown in FIGS. A shaft 6, which is installed between bearings fitted into both the fuselage frames 2 and 2', is erected.
The timing belt 8 is stretched over the required section using the toothed pulleys 7, 7' mounted on the conveyor 5.
are arranged. The belts 8 constituting this conveyor 5 are two belts of a suitable width, and are stretched around both pulleys 7 and 7' with a relatively thin partition plate 9 arranged on the center line of the conveyor 5 in the running direction. , the output shaft m of a deceleration motor M mounted on the base plate 1 is wound around a pulley 7'' attached to one shaft 6 and driven, and the conveyor 5 conveying surface 5' is moved from left to right in FIG. is designed to move while remaining horizontal.

At the top of such a conveyor 5, from the driven shaft 6' side to the drive shaft 6 side (this drive shaft 6 and driven shaft 6' may be reversed), a tablet feeding mechanism 10 and a guide mechanism 20 are installed. , a tablet guide movement control mechanism 30, and a cutting mechanism 40 are arranged in this order. A chute 3 connected to the discharge port 3 is provided directly below the pulley 7 on the drive shaft 6 side (see FIG. 2).

The tablet feeding mechanism 10 has a tablet feeder receiving seat 11 provided with a circular recess 11' at a position eccentric from the running center line of the conveyor 5, on horizontal members 4, 4 supported by the machine frames 2, 2'. A chute 12 is attached from an opening 11'' in a circular recess 11' of this support seat 11 toward the top of the conveyor 5. Shrouding plates 13 and 13' are arranged between the body frames 2 and 13' to prevent the tablets that have fallen from the chute 12 onto the conveyor 5 from scattering. The frame body 15 is attached to a frame body 15 connected to a movable iron core 14' so as to be moved forward and backward by a solenoid 14 on a seat plate 4' supported at a seat plate 2'.
5. A mallet piece 15' attached to the front end of the tablet feeder 1
One tablet is fed onto the chute 12 each time the valve operating piece 16' of No. 6 is hit once (not necessarily a hit, but may be a push/pull operation). Note that the tablet feeder 16 is a known hand-held type equipped with a rotary tablet feeding mechanism. Reference numeral 11a denotes a position regulating piece of the feeder 16, which is arranged so that the tablet ejection opening is aligned with the opening 11'' communicating with the chute 12.

The guide mechanism 20 is arranged between the tablet supply position and the guide movement control mechanism 30. This guide mechanism consists of a guide piece 2 formed in a V-shape in plan view.
1 is attached to the lower surface of the mounting bracket 22 disposed across the upper part of the conveyor 5 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and guide blocks 23, 23 are disposed at opposing inner positions of the frames 2, 2'. Guide hole 2
A pair of guide vertical shafts 24, 24 whose lower halves are guided and supported at 3' respectively, are fitted onto the respective vertical shafts 24, 24, and are inserted between the upper surface of the guide blocks 23, 23 and the lower surface of the mounting bracket 22. A vertical adjustment cam 26 is arranged so as to be constantly pushed up by an intervening coil spring 25 and is fixed to the upper surface of the guide piece fitting 22.
The pushing up force of the coiled spring 25 is regulated by the cam roller 26' that comes into contact with the conveyor 5 conveyance surface in synchronization with the diameter regulation of the tablets to be processed by the guide plates 31, 31 of the guide movement control mechanism 30. A distance t is set between 5' and the lower end of the guide piece 21.

The guide movement control mechanism 30, as shown in FIGS. 2, 4, and 6,
Two guide plates 31, 3 are placed in parallel at the upper position of
1 is connected to the two guide rods 32, 32 and 1 with a distance between them so that their lower end surfaces do not come into contact with the conveying surface 5'.
It is disposed so that it can be expanded or contracted in the width direction with the center line of travel of the conveyor 5 as a reference by means of a screw shaft 33. Guide rods 32, 32 supporting the pair of guide plates 31, 31 are installed in parallel between the frames 2, 2', and each frame 2, 2' and the guide plate 3
A coil spring 34 is interposed between 1 and 31. The screw shaft 33 for moving the guide plates 31, 31 has a right-hand thread 33' and a left-hand thread 33'', and a female thread piece 35, which is screwed into each of the threaded portions.
35' is fixed to the guide plates 31, 31,
One end of the screw shaft 33 projects outside the frame 2, and a knob 36 for rotating the screw shaft for adjustment is attached thereto. By aligning this adjustment knob 36 with the scale of the scale plate 37 attached to the side of the frame 2 (see FIG. 1), the guide plates 31, 3
The distance between the two is designed to be suitable for guiding the intended tablet. Incidentally, a cam roller 26' is protruded from the longitudinal end surface of one of the guide plates 31, and the dimension t between the lower end of the guide piece 21 of the guide mechanism 20 and the conveyor conveyance surface 5' is interlocked with the tablet guiding width. There is. In addition, each guide plate 31,
The base ends of movable guide plates 38 and 38' are pivotally attached to the rear end of the movable guide plate 31.
8' has a leaf spring 38'' attached to the outside of the free end, and the other movable guide plate 38 is connected with an iron core 39' by a pin so that it is pulled to a fixed position by a solenoid 39 attached to the side of the guide plate 31. It has a structure that allows you to set up traffic routes.

The cutting mechanism 40 passes through a guide hole 44' of a guide block 44 attached to the inner side of each frame 2, 2' at a position immediately before the terminal end of the conveyor 5, and cuts a lower end of the cutter 40 into a guide hole 44' of a guide block 44 attached to the inside of each frame 2, 2'. A support plate 42 is attached to the upper ends of two rods 41, 41 that are connected to the iron core 45' of each solenoid 45 via a connecting rod 45''.
A cutter 43 is attached directly above the partition plate 9 of the conveyor 5 via a hanging attachment piece 42' on the lower surface of the support plate 42, and a push-up coil spring 46, which is interposed between the rods 41, 41 by excitation of the solenoids 45, 45, The cutter 43 is configured to be pulled down against the thrust of the partition plate 9 until it comes into contact with the partition plate 9. The pair of movable guide plates 38 and 38' described above are located on both sides of the cutter 43.

Directly below the driving pulley 7 of the conveyor 5, a chute 3' for feeding divided tablets is provided toward the front side of the frame 2.

A photoelectric switch 47 is provided at an appropriate distance from the end of the conveyor 5 described above so that light can pass slightly above the conveyance surface 5' of the conveyor 5. The light is reflected by the shroud plate 13' disposed above the driven pulley 7' and received by the light receiving side, and when the tablet supplied with this projected light is interrupted, the cutting operation solenoid is activated after the elapse of time from the feeding point to the cutting position. 45,4
The cutter 43 is connected to an electric control mechanism so that the cutter 43 lowers by energizing the cutter 5 and divides the tablet. Also,
The solenoid 14 for operating the mallet piece 15' that strikes the valve operation piece 16' of the tablet feeder 16 is momentarily excited after a certain period of time, and the solenoid 39 for holding the position of the movable guide plate 38 is made to operate at the same time as activation. , each connected to an electrical control mechanism. The equipment constituting these electrical control mechanisms is housed in the space between the frames 2 and 2' and above the base plate 1.

In the apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, when the power is turned on and the motor M is started, the conveyor 5 is driven. Therefore, first, rotate the knob 36 according to the outer diameter dimension of the tablet to be divided, and use the scale 37' of the scale plate 37 attached to the front surface of the frame 2 to set the required dimension between the guide plates 31, 31. Set the width so that the tablet can move. At this time, if the threaded shaft 33 is rotated by the rotation of the knob 36, the female threaded piece 35, which is threaded into the right-hand threaded part 33' and the left-hand threaded part 33'', respectively.
35', the guide plates 31, 31 move equally. In connection with the movement of the guide plates 31, 31, the cam roller 2 attached to one guide plate 31
When the cam 26 is operated by the cam 6' and the tablet guide width is expanded, the position of the cam roller 26' that contacts the operating surface of the cam 26 moves to a lower position on the cam operating surface (from the conveyor transport surface 5'). The height up to the cam roller 26' is constant), and the force of the coil spring 25 acting on the mounting bracket 22 causes the cam 2 to move so that the cam operation surface follows the cam roller 26'.
6 and the fitting 22 are pushed up, and the guide piece 21 rises. Therefore, as the diameter of the tablet increases, the thickness also increases, and therefore the distance between the lower end of the guide piece 21 and the conveyor conveying surface 5' increases. Therefore,
When the distance between the guide plates 31, 31 is reduced, the distance between the lower end of the guide piece 21 and the conveyor conveyance surface 5' is also reduced.

Fill the tablet feeder 16 with the required tablets, and install the feeder 16 into the circular recess 11' of the receiving seat 11, aligning the feeder's opening with the opening 11'' to the chute 12. In this state, operate the valve of the feeder 16. The piece 16' is adjacent to the mallet piece 15' of the supply mechanism 10. The mallet piece 15' is intermittently moved back and forth by its operating solenoid 14 by an electrical control mechanism, and the valve operating piece 1
Press 6' one stroke. Then, feeder 1
One tablet falls from the chute 12 into the chute 12 and is fed into the supply section of the conveyor transport surface 5'. Since the supplied tablets are generally circular in shape, they roll down from the chute 12, so the shroud 13,
13', the tablets are placed on the conveyance surface 5' without flying out to the outside, and at this time, as the conveyor 5 advances, the tablets in an unstable state come into contact with the V-shaped guide piece 21 and are brought to the conveyor 5 conveyance surface. 5', and is sent to the next guide movement control mechanism 30 while passing under it.

The tablets placed on the conveying surface 5' at approximately the same position are
It is positioned and moves between the two guide plates 31, 31 that were previously set. As the tablet advances, the photoelectric switch 47 located at the rear of the conveyor 5 detects the tablet positioned by the guide piece 21, and at a timing that matches the preset transport speed of the conveyor 5, The solenoids 45, 45 of the cutting mechanism 40 are energized, and the cutter 43 is lowered. At this point, tablet A has been sent directly below cutter 43, so cutter 4
3, when the cutter 43 momentarily descends and comes into contact with the tablet A, the partition plate 9 disposed so as to divide the running center line of the conveyor 5
The tablet A is held between the tablet A and the cutter 43, and since the cutter 43, which descends instantaneously, is thin, a concentrated shearing force acts on the tablet A, dividing it. During this cutting, the movable guide plates 38 and 38' are arranged on both sides of the position, so even if the guide width increases by the thickness of the cutter 43, one of the movable guide plates 38' will be affected by the force of the spring 38''. The cutter 43 pushes up the coil spring 4 when the short-term energization and excitation to the solenoids 45 and 45 is cut off.
6, 46, it is returned to its original position. The divided tablet pieces are returned to the center line of the conveyor 5 and sent out by the restoring action of the expanded movable guide plates 38 and 38', and fall onto the discharge chute 3' from the conveying surface 5' at the pulley 7 position. It is then placed in advance on the front of the machine and sent out from the discharge port 3 onto a tray or the like. Since the target tablets are divided in this order, if a large number of tablets are placed in the feeder 16, the above operation can be repeated one after another to continuously divide the tablets. Note that if the dimensions of the tablet are set correctly, the tablet will be divided into approximately two equal parts. Therefore, by making the width of the guide plates 31, 31 wider than the diameter of the tablet, it is possible to divide the tablet into unequal parts. During operation, the cutter will not operate unless tablets are fed onto the conveyor.

It should be noted that, in accordance with the spirit of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, but may include modification of the structure of each mechanical part, incorporating a tablet feeder into a built-in structure, and changing means for confirming tablet supply (cutter operation). (command means), the adjustment of the guide plate pair as a tablet guide movement control mechanism can also be arbitrarily set, such as moving and positioning in stages using a separate operation method.

Effects of the invention: According to the present invention, if the dimensions (type, etc.) of the tablets to be processed are determined in advance and the guide section is set accordingly, the tablets can be loaded into the feeder and operated manually. The tablets are divided automatically without having to worry about them, which improves work efficiency, and since the tablets can be processed without touching the tablets, hygiene is well controlled. It has many advantages, such as being able to easily handle split processing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an embodiment of the tablet dividing machine of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the configuration, Fig. 3 is a plan view with the cover removed, Fig. 4 is a plan view showing the main parts from the conveyor and supply section to the delivery section, and Fig. 5 is the same as Fig. 4. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken from - in FIG. 4, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken from - in FIG. 4. 1... Base plate, 2, 2'... Frame, 3... Discharge port, 5... Conveyor, 5'... Conveyor surface, 6... Drive shaft, 6'... Driven shaft, 7, 7 ′...
Pulley, 8...belt, 9...partition plate, 10...
... Tablet supply mechanism, 11 ... Receiving seat, 12 ... Chute, 13, 13' ... Shrouding plate, 14 ... Solenoid for feeder operation, 15 ... Frame, 15'
...Mallet piece, 16...Tablet feeder, 16'...
Valve operating piece, 20... Guide mechanism, 21... Guide piece, 22... Mounting fittings, 23... Guide block, 23... Guide hole, 24... Guide vertical shaft, 25
...Wrong spring, 26...Vertical adjustment cam, 26'...
...Cam roller, 30...Guide movement control mechanism, 31
...Guide plate, 32...Guide rod, 33...Screw shaft, 34, 34'...Coil spring, 35, 35'...
... Female thread piece, 36 ... Adjustment knob, 37 ... Scale plate, 38, 38' ... Movable guide plate, 38'' ... Leaf spring, 39 ... Solenoid, 40 ... Cutting mechanism,
41... Rod, 42... Support plate, 42'... Mounting piece, 43... Cutter, 44... Guide block, 45... Solenoid, 45'... Iron core,
45″...Connecting rod, 46...Pushing coil spring,
47...Photoelectric switch, M...Deceleration motor, A...
…tablet.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A conveyor for conveying tablets to be processed, a guide mechanism arranged sequentially above the conveyor from a tablet supply position to a moving side and guiding the tablets onto the center line of the conveyor, and a conveyor for conveying tablets according to the diameter of the tablets. a guide movement control mechanism that can expand and contract in the width direction on the top and move the tablets to be processed on the center line of the conveyor; a cutting mechanism that divides the tablets on the conveyor; a supply mechanism that supplies the tablets to be processed one by one; and each of these parts. The conveyor consists of an electric control mechanism that operates the belts in a predetermined order.
A tablet dividing machine characterized in that the cutter of the cutting mechanism is configured to lower when a tablet being conveyed facing the partition plate is detected and reaches a dividing position to divide the tablet.