JPH066004Y2 - Quantitative drug supply device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to a fixed-quantity supply device for medicines such as tablets and capsules that continuously supplies medicines one by one to a packaging machine.

[Conventional technology]

As the prior art of the above-mentioned fixed amount supply device, a columnar rotor is incorporated inside a supply cylinder formed in the lower part of a supply container, a plurality of cutouts are formed in a flange provided on the outer periphery of the rotor, and a drug is inserted into the cutout. There is one in which the rotor is rotated to discharge from a supply port provided in the bottom plate of the supply cylinder (see Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 60-34620).

However, in the above-mentioned fixed amount supply device, the cutout portion provided in the rotor is located at the outer peripheral portion where the peripheral speed of the rotor is the fastest, and therefore when the medicine is supplied by the rotation of the rotor, the cutout portion is located above the supply port. It will pass in an instant. For this reason,
In some cases, the medicine may be caught between the cutout portion and the supply port, or the medicine in the cutout portion may not be discharged to the supply port.

Therefore, in the Japanese Patent Application No. 63-104805, the present applicant solves the above-mentioned inconveniences, and the medicines such as tablets and capsules filled in the supply container are supplied one by one to the supply port formed on the bottom plate of the container. I made sure that it could be made to flow in.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the upper surface of the bottom plate 3 of the container main body 2 having the openable / closable upper lid 1 is a tapered surface 4 which is inclined downwardly toward the center of the bottom plate 3.

A rotor 5 is provided above the bottom plate 3, and a shaft 6 provided on the lower surface of the rotor 5 is inserted into a cylindrical portion 7 provided at the center of the bottom plate 3 and is rotatably supported. The rotor 5 is moved to a second position by a motor 8 provided below the container body 2.
It is rotated in the direction of the arrow in the figure.

The upper surface of the rotor 5 is a tapered surface 9 that inclines with a downward slope toward the rotor outer periphery, and guides the medicine on the rotor 5 toward the rotor outer peripheral portion. The lower surface of the rotor 5 is
A tapered surface 10 that matches the tapered surface 4 of the bottom plate 3 is provided, and a groove 11 in the circumferential direction is provided in the middle of the tapered surface 10.

With the groove 11 as a boundary, on the outer peripheral portion of the tapered surface 10,
As shown in FIG. 3, groove-like drug entry passages 12 extending in the inclined direction of the tapered surface 10 are formed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the rotor 5. In order to allow the medicine to easily enter the medicine penetration passage 12, both side surfaces of the penetration passage 12 are tapered to widen the upper opening of the penetration passage 12, and on the ridges 13 between the adjacent medicine penetration passages 12. As shown in FIG. 4, the end face 14 is inclined with a downward slope toward the medicine intrusion passage 12 on the rear side in the rotation direction.

Further, with the groove 11 as a boundary, a plurality of pockets 1 having a size that allows one drug to enter the inner peripheral portion of the tapered surface 10 are provided.
5 are provided at positions extending from the respective drug intrusion paths 12. On the other hand, the pocket 15 is provided on the bottom plate 3 of the container body 2.
One supply port 16 is formed corresponding to the formation position of. The upper opening of the pocket 15, which is coincident with the supply port 16 by the rotation of the rotor 5, is covered by a thin-walled tongue 17, which ejects two or more drugs through the pocket 15 and into the supply port 16. Is prevented.

It should be noted that the tongue piece 17 is screwed to a base 18 that supports the container body 2, and the tip end thereof is inserted into the groove 11 on the lower surface of the rotor 5.

Now, when the medicine A is filled in the container main body 2 and the motor 8 is driven to rotate the rotor 5 to the arrow main body of FIG.
Moves along the tapered surface 4 of the bottom plate 3 to move to the drug entry path 12
It enters inside and enters the pocket 15 through the entry path 12.

Here, since the pocket 15 is provided in the inner diameter portion of the rotor 5 having a low peripheral speed, the pocket 15 is provided with the supply port 16
It will pass at a low speed over the position above. For this reason,
The drug A in the pocket 15 surely falls into the supply port 16 and the upper opening of the pocket 15 is covered by the tongue piece 17, so that the drug A is not continuously discharged to the supply port 16 and the pocket 15 is When is coincident with the supply port 16,
The medicine A in the pocket 15 is surely supplied one by one to the supply port 16
Emitted from.

However, the drug metering device is provided with a large supply port 16 for surely supplying the drugs A one by one and for increasing the supply speed. Therefore, the supply port 1
It is considered that the dropping posture and the dropping position of the medicine A discharged from 6 are not constant, and for example, even if a photodetector for confirming the discharge of the medicine A is provided at one place near the supply port 16, detection failure may occur. To be

In addition, the photodetector is provided with a drug A (mainly,
There is a problem that powder scattered from the tablet adheres, causing deterioration of function and detection error.

As one of the solutions to this problem, Shoukai 58-77480
There is a tablet drop detection device proposed in the publication.

This device responds to the rotating operation of the aligning table that rotates in the supply container, and the box containing the dropped tablets and the open / close plate provided in the box respond to the rotating operation of the aligning table. By providing a moving mechanism that slides and opens the opening and closing plate by the interposition of the tablet, and a sensor that detects the opening and closing of the opening and closing plate, the opening and closing plate is opened only when the tablet is pushed out from the inside of the box, and the sensor So that the tablets are detected by
Allows tablets to be detected without the use of photodetectors,
This is to prevent a detection error due to the powder, which tends to form tablets, from adhering to the photodetector.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, in the above tablet drop detection device, since the drug in the box is detected depending on whether the opening / closing plate is opened or closed,
There is a problem that it works due to the tablet fragments generated during the feeding, resulting in a detection error.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a fixed-quantity supply device for a drug, which enables detection of a tablet dropped at a predetermined position in any posture, and can also discriminate tablet fragments to reduce detection errors. It is to be.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned subject, in this invention, the Japanese Patent Application No.
In the fixed-quantity drug supply device of No. 104805, a supply path is continuously provided at a supply port, and a predetermined number of photodetectors are arranged in the supply path so that a photodetector for detecting a drug passing through the inside is arranged. Forming a part, adding the detection outputs of the respective photodetectors, and outputting the detection output according to the size of the drug passing through the supply path; and the peak of the detection voltage output by the addition circuit. Hold the value and from that voltage,
A reference voltage generating circuit for generating a reference voltage according to the size of the medicine for discriminating the fragment with the medicine passing through the supply path according to size, and a detection voltage of the adding circuit and a reference voltage of the reference voltage generating circuit. It is configured to include a detection circuit including a comparison circuit for comparing the above and the drug that passes through the supply path.

The above-mentioned required number is the number of photodetectors arranged in the supply path, and the medicine passing through the supply path can be detected without omission according to the size of the supply path and the directional characteristics of the photodetectors depending on the detection angle and the like. Moreover, it is appropriately determined by experience and experiment.

[Action]

In the fixed-quantity drug supply device configured as described above, the drug discharged from the supply container to the supply path by the rotation of the rotor traverses the photodetector and is detected by each photodetector.

At this time, the adder circuit outputs the detection voltage corresponding to the size of the medicine passing through the photodetector to the reference voltage generation circuit and the comparison circuit by adding the detection outputs outputted from the respective photodetectors.

The reference voltage generation circuit holds the pork value of the detection voltage output by the adder circuit, thereby holding the maximum value of the detection voltage of the drug that has passed through the supply path in various postures detected by the photodetector, and A reference voltage is generated from the held detection voltage.

That is, the maximum value, by arranging the photodetection section so that the drug crosses, the output detected when the drug crosses in a correct posture, that is, the size of the drug supplied by the fixed-quantity supply device is detected. Become.

Therefore, the reference voltage generation circuit can automatically detect the size of the medicine supplied by the fixed quantity supply device and create the reference voltage. Further, the level of the reference voltage can be automatically adjusted according to the drug size.

Therefore, the comparator circuit discriminates the medicine by comparing the reference voltage with the detection voltage of the adder circuit, so that the medicine can be accurately detected.

At this time, if the comparison circuit does not discriminate the drug, the one detected by the photodetector can be detected as a fragment.

Also, even if the drug powder is scattered and the photodetector is covered,
Since many photodetectors are provided, it is less likely that the whole photodetector will be covered.If a part of the photodetector is covered, the reference voltage will drop according to the state, so drug discrimination can be performed without any problems. It

If all the photodetectors are covered with the drug powder at this time and the output of the photodetectors is not output, neither the addition output nor the reference voltage output is output, so that no erroneous output occurs.

〔Example〕

 Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the opening 22 of the supply path 21 that is continuously provided in the supply port 16 in a detachable manner is such that
The introduction end 26 is provided so as to be larger and cover the lower portion of the supply port 16 to ensure that the medicine A is supplied to the supply passage 21.
Is discharged to. The inside of the supply path 21 has the same inclination as the discharging direction of the medicine A, and the medicine A is smoothly discharged from the discharging portion 27 to a fixed position outside the container 2.

Longitudinal windows 23 are provided on both sides in the middle of the supply path 21 at right angles to the dropping direction of the drug A, and one of the windows 23 has a photodetector 24 composed of a light receiving element and a light emitting element. A required number of light-receiving elements, such as photodiodes and phototransistors, are attached to the other, and a required number of light-emitting diodes, such as light-emitting diodes, are attached to the other, so that the supply path 21 cross section (V-V) is a detection range without exception. The detector 25 is formed.

Therefore, the medicine A crosses the photodetector 25 regardless of which position in the supply path 21 and in which posture the medicine A passes and is detected without omission.

Further, for example, a detection circuit 30 as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 5 is connected to the light detection section 25.

The detection circuit 30 includes an adder circuit 31, a half-wave rectifier circuit 3
2, the reference voltage generating circuit 33 and the comparator 34. Specifically, it is shown in the circuit example of FIG. 6 (in FIG. 6, the same parts as in FIG. is there).

The adder circuit 31 is formed by connecting in parallel a differentiating circuit composed of a capacitor C ₁ and a resistor R ₂ provided for each photodetector 24, and connects each photodetector 24 of the photodetection unit 25 with the drug A. When is crossed, the detection signals are added at the addition point S and output.

Therefore, this output signal outputs an output having a different detection level according to the detection posture of the drug A of the photodetector 24.

This added output is output to the half-wave rectifier circuit 32.

The half-wave rectifier circuit 32 outputs only the positive signal of the output signal to the reference voltage generating circuit 33 and the comparator 34 at the next stage by the diode D ₂ .

The reference voltage generation circuit 33 includes a peak detection circuit and a reference voltage setting volume VR, charges the output from the rectifier circuit 32 into the holding capacitor C ₂ , and always holds the peak value of the input detection voltage. To do. Therefore, the reference voltage generation circuit 33 holds the maximum value of the detection value of the medicine A that has passed through the photodetector 24 in various postures. That is, the size of the medicine A supplied by the constant quantity supply device can be detected regardless of the detection posture.

The output voltage of the peak detection circuit is divided by the volume VR, a threshold value for discriminating the medicine A from the fragments is set, and the reference voltage of the comparator 34-is set.
Entered in the input.

Further, the addition signal is input to the + input of the comparator 34, to which the reference voltage is connected to the − input, via the dividing resistors R ₂ and R ₃ , for example, when the + input is higher than the − input, that is, , When the medicine A has a regular size, “H” output is output. On the other hand, when the-input is lower than the + input, that is, when the medicine is smaller than the normal size and is a fragment or the like, the "L" output is output.

The other components are described in the conventional example, and the following will be omitted.

This embodiment is configured as described above, and when the rotor 5 is rotated in one direction while the supply container 2 is filled with the medicine, the medicine A moves downward along the tapered surface 4 of the bottom plate 3. Then, when the medicine A in the pocket 15 coincides with the supply port 16 by entering the medicine intrusion passage 12 formed between the outer peripheral surface of the lower surface of the rotor 5 and the bottom plate 3 and entering the pocket 15, the medicine A in the pocket 15 is supplied. It drops into 16 and is discharged downward.
Here, since the pocket 15 is provided in the inner diameter portion of the rotor 5 having a low peripheral speed, the pocket 15 is rotationally moved above the supply port 16 at a low speed, and as a result, the medicine in the pocket 15 is moved. A is reliably discharged from the supply port 16 into the supply path 21, and is detected by the photodetector 25 of the supply path 21.

This detection unit 25 is provided with a photodetector 24 mounted in a required number so as to cross the falling medicine A, and the supply path cross section (V
-V) is detected without exception, and all the drug A discharged into the supply passage 21 is detected.

In this way, the detection signal of the drug A detected by the photodetector 24 is discriminated by the detection circuit 30.

That is, the adder circuit 31 adds the input signals from the photodetectors 24 to detect the size of the medicine A passing through the photodetector 25, and outputs the detection voltage corresponding to the size. It

The detected voltage is rectified by the half rectification circuit 32 and output to the reference voltage generation circuit 33 and the comparator 34.

The reference voltage generation circuit 33 holds the maximum value of the detection voltage of the drug A that crosses the photodetection section 25 by holding the voltage by the peak voltage circuit. Then, the voltage is divided to create a reference voltage, which is applied to the-input of the comparator 34. Therefore, the reference voltage applied to the comparator 34 is automatically set to a threshold value according to the size of the medicine A supplied by the constant quantity supply device, and the medicine A can be discriminated accurately.

On the other hand, the + input of the comparator 34 is connected to the dividing resistors R ₂ and R ₃
The addition input is added via
Outputs an "H" output when the medicine A has a regular size, that is, when the + input is larger than the-input.

On the other hand, when the − input is lower than the + input, that is, when the medicine A is smaller than the normal size, the “L” output is output, and when the “L” output is output, it is detected by the photodetector 24. Since the particles are smaller than the drug A, they are detected as fragments.

Incidentally, even when the fragments are discharged to the supply path 21, the photodetection section 25 can detect the fragments passing through the supply path 21 regardless of their size and posture, and therefore the detection output thereof is the addition circuit 31. Will be output. Therefore, if this output is used as the drug A or the ejection signal of the fragments, the fragments can be easily detected.

As described above, in this quantitative drug supply device, the photodetector 2
By providing a large number of 4 in parallel, the size of the drug A passing through the supply path 21 can be detected.

Further, the reference voltage generating circuit 33 can also detect the size of the medicine A supplied by the fixed quantity supply device.

Further, even when the photodetector 24 is covered by the scattering of the medicine A, the photodetector 24 is rarely covered entirely, and when the photodetector 24 is partially covered, the reference voltage of the reference voltage generation circuit 33 is also lowered. The drug A can be detected without any trouble.

If all the photodetectors 24 are covered at this time,
When the addition output is not output, the reference voltage is also not output, which is a fail-safe that does not output an erroneous output.

〔effect〕

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the medicine can always drop in the supply passage.

At that time, the medicine in the supply path that falls can be detected by the photodetector in any posture.

Further, since the reference voltage generating circuit can detect the size of the medicine and generate the reference voltage, it is possible to accurately discriminate the both.

Further, when the drug powder adheres to the photodetector, the detection output is not output.

Therefore, the drug discharged from the fixed quantity supply device can be detected without error.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional front view showing an embodiment of the drug quantitative supply device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view with the upper lid removed, and FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the same rotor as described above. FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the detection circuit, and FIG. 6 is a circuit drawing of FIG. 2 ... Container body, 3 ... Bottom plate, 4 ... Tapered surface, 5 ... Rotor, 9 ... Tapered surface, 10 ... Tapered surface, 12 ... Drug entry path, 15 ... Pocket, 16 ... Supply Mouth, 17 ... Tongue piece, 21 ... Supply path, 24 ... Photodetector (photosensor), 25 ... Photodetector, 30 ... Detection circuit, 31 ... Addition circuit, 33 ... Reference voltage generation Circuit, 34 ... Comparator.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A top surface of a bottom plate 3 of a supply container 2 is formed into a taper surface 4 which inclines with a downward slope toward the center of the bottom plate 3, and a rotor 5 arranged on the bottom plate 3 and driven to rotate in one direction. The upper surface is a tapered surface 9 which is inclined downwardly toward the outer periphery of the rotor 5, and the outer peripheral surface of the lower surface of the rotor 5 and the bottom plate 3 are
A drug entry path 12 is formed between the upper surfaces, a tapered surface 10 that matches the tapered surface 4 of the bottom plate 3 is provided on the inner peripheral surface of the lower surface of the rotor 5, and a plurality of pockets 15 are formed in the circumferential direction of the tapered surface 10.
Are formed at equal intervals, and the bottom plate 3 is provided with a supply port 16 that matches one of the pockets 15, and a thin tongue that covers the upper opening of the pocket 15 that is matched with the supply port 16 by the rotation of the rotor 5. In a fixed-quantity drug supply device in which a piece 17 is provided inside a supply container 2, a supply path 21 is provided continuously to the supply port 16 and a photodetector for detecting the drug A passing through the supply path 21. A required number of photodetectors 25 are formed so that the medicine A crosses 24, and the detection outputs of the photodetectors 24 are added to each other to detect the medicine according to the size of the medicine A passing through the supply path 21. Adder circuit 3 that outputs the output
1 and a peak value of the detection voltage output from the adder circuit 31, and a reference according to the drug size for discriminating the drug A and the fragment thereof passing through the supply path 21 from the voltage by size. A reference voltage generation circuit 33 that generates a voltage, and a comparison circuit 34 that compares the detection voltage of the adder circuit 31 with the reference voltage of the reference voltage generation circuit 33 and detects the drug A passing through the supply path 21. A quantitative supply device for a medicine, comprising a detection circuit 30.