JPH09323704A - Medicine-packaging machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stabilize medicine received by a shutter in a guide passage in a short time. SOLUTION: A shutter 12, 12' provided in a guide passage 6 is constituted of a plate body 14 made of a flexible silicone resin and a teflon layer 15 coating on the plate body 14 to absorb shocks generated when the shutter has received medicine (a). As the medicine (a) which has been recived by the shutter is prevented from scattering, it is stabilized in a short time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a medicine packing machine for discharging and packaging required medicines from a plurality of medicine feeders containing medicines such as tablets, capsules, and vials. The present invention relates to a medicine packing machine in which a shutter for stopping the falling of medicines is provided in a guide path for guiding medicines falling due to falling into the packaging device so as to be openable and closable.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in such a medicine packaging machine, a shutter formed in a plate-like body having a size capable of closing a guide path pivotally supports a central portion on both sides thereof in the guide path. As a result, a plurality of them are mounted in the guide path at an appropriate height, and the rocking device connected to the rotary shaft allows the rocking device to rotate at a proper time.

This shutter closes the guide path in an inclined state when both ends contact the inner surface of the guide passage opposite to each other, and when both ends are separated from the inner surface of the guide passage opposite to each other, the shutter is parallel to the drop direction. The guideway is opened in this state. Then, the opening and closing of the shutter is appropriately performed by driving the swinging device to rotate the shutter.

In this medicine packing machine, the shutter provided in the guide path receives the falling medicine in the closed state, and drops the received medicine in the packaging device in the opened state. In this way, once the medicine is received by the shutter in the guide path, the next medicine can be immediately discharged from the medicine feeder by returning the shutter to the closed state immediately after dropping the medicine from the shutter. Therefore, the time taken for the medicine to fall on the guide path is substantially reduced to a fraction, and the medicine packaging can be speeded up.

[0005]

By the way, in such a medicine packaging machine, when the shutter is made of a hard material, the shutter ends are opposed to the guide path at the time of opening and closing when many shutters are installed in the guide path. Since noise is generated by contacting the inner surface, the shutter is often made of a flexible material such as silicone resin to suppress the generation of noise.

However, when the shutter is made of a flexible material as described above, when the medicine is received by the shutter, the medicine jumps upward, and it takes time for the medicine to stabilize, and the shutter opens in the opened state. However, there is a problem that the medicine does not drop and the timing of supplying the medicine to the packaging device is delayed. Furthermore, if the shutter is closed while the medicine is splashing, the splashed medicine and the next medicine dropped from the medicine feeder will be received together by the shutter, so that the splashed medicine drops to the packaging device. There was also a serious problem that the drug was not packaged according to the prescription because it slipped into the next time.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to prevent the medicine received by the shutter in the guide path from jumping up so that the medicine is stabilized in a short time.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention forms a shutter by coating a material capable of absorbing shock with a material harder than the material. Further, the upper surface of the shutter may be made smooth. As a material for the shutter, it is preferable to coat a flexible silicone resin with a Teflon resin.

In the medicine packing machine according to the present invention, for example, when the shutter is formed by coating the flexible silicone resin with the Teflon resin, the Teflon resin is dented together with the silicone resin due to its flexibility and an impact is received when the medicine is received. Absorb. At this time, since the Teflon resin delays the restoration of the silicone resin and suppresses the splashing of the drug due to its hardness, the drug received by the shutter is stabilized in a short time without jumping.

Further, if the upper surface of the shutter is made smooth by, for example, Teflon resin coating or sticking of a sheet, the medicine can be smoothly dropped from the shutter.

[0011]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

A medicine packing machine 1 shown in FIG. 1 has a plurality of laterally arranged medicine supply units 2 in a housing, a common hopper 3 for receiving medicines falling from the medicine supply unit 2, and a collection in the hopper 3. And a packaging device 4 for packaging the obtained medicine.

In the drug supply unit 2, a plurality of drug feeders 5 for dropping a predetermined number of drugs according to a prescription are arranged in the vertical direction, and a common guide path 6 for guiding the falling drug is provided in these drug feeders 5. . Here, the drug supply units 2 may be arranged side by side in the left-right direction, or may be arranged side by side on the same circumference.

In the medicine feeder 5, as shown in FIG. 2, a rotor 8 provided at the bottom of the medicine storage case 7 is rotationally driven by a motor 9 so that a plurality of pockets 10 are formed on the outer peripheral portion of the rotor 8. The medicine a is made to invade into the guide passage 6 through the discharge passage 11 in the circumferential direction by the rotation of the rotor 8.

A sensor PH for detecting passage of each medicine a is provided in the discharge passage 11. When a predetermined number of medicines is detected by this sensor PH, the motor 9 is stopped and the medicine a is discharged. The discharge is stopped.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the guide path 6 is provided with a plate-like shutter 12 formed so that the thickness thereof gradually decreases toward both ends. As shown in FIG. 2, both ends of the shutter 12 are in contact with the inner surfaces of the guide path 6 facing each other to close the guide path 6 in an inclined state, and when closed, the medicine a from the medicine feeder 5 is received and stored. Form a wedge-shaped space.

The shutter 12 is rotatably supported by the guide passage 6 at its center on both sides. The shutter 12 is rotated about the rotating shaft 13 so that both ends contact the inner surfaces of the guide passage 6 facing each other. The drug a
The closed state of receiving the medicine and the open state in which both ends are separated from the facing inner surface of the guide path 6 and the medicine a received is dropped are switched appropriately.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the shutter 12
Is a plate-shaped body 14 made of a flexible silicone resin.
Further, it is formed by coating the Teflon resin layer 15 by baking coating, and has a double structure of a flexible main body and a hard exterior film. When the shutter 12 receives the medicine a dropped from the medicine feeder 5, the hard Teflon resin layer 15 and the flexible silicon resin main body 14 are recessed to absorb and absorb the impact from the medicine a to absorb the medicine a. Prevent damage. At this time, the Teflon resin layer 15 moderates the restoration of the recess of the silicon resin main body 14 due to its hardness, so that the received medicine a is not splashed and is stabilized in a short time.

Further, since the main body of the shutter 12 is made of a flexible material, no noise is generated even when both ends hit the facing inner surface of the guide path 6 when switching between opening and closing, and the upper surface of the shutter 12 is covered by the Teflon resin layer 15. Since it is smooth, the medicine a received is smoothly dropped.

Since the central portions of both sides of the shutter 12 are pivotally supported, the shutter 12 is turned from the closed state to the open state, and is rotated in one direction to be closed again as shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. Since it suffices to be moved, a series of state changes are rapidly performed, and the supply of the medicine to the hopper 3 and the packaging device 4 is speedy.

As shown in FIG. 3B, one end of the shutter 12 'may be pivotally supported on both sides.
By doing so, the shutter 12 'is rotated in the opposite direction in order to return from the closed state to the open state shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 3B by rotating in one direction and then to return to the closed state.

As shown in FIG. 4, the shutter 12 is opened and closed by an oscillating device 16 connected to a rotary shaft 13.

In this swinging device 16, a pin 19 projecting from an outer peripheral portion of a disk 18 attached to a rotating shaft of a motor 17 is fixed to an end portion of a rotating shaft 13 at different positions in the axial direction. The first plate body 20a and the second plate body 20b are sequentially brought into contact with each other from the inside, and the plate body 20 is contacted by this contact.
By moving a and 20b in the up-and-down direction, the shutter 12 which is pulled by the spring 22 via the arm 21 fixed to the end of the rotating shaft 13 and becomes two stable closed states is moved from one closed state. Moving to another closed state. At this time, the shutter 12 is opened during the transition from one closed state to another closed state, and the medicine a received by the shutter 12 is received.
To drop.

The hopper 3, as shown in FIG.
The lower end portion is provided with a discharge port 24 that is opened and closed by means of an opening and closing mechanism (not shown) to open and close the lid body 23 in a timely manner.

As shown in FIG. 1, the packaging device 4 includes a pair of heater rolls 25, which rotate in opposite directions from each other.
A long packaging sheet S folded in two in the width direction is inserted. The packaging sheet S is formed of a heat-fusible laminated film, and both side edges overlapping each other are continuously heat-sealed by a circular heating surface 26 formed in the circumferential direction above the heater roll 25. It In addition, the packaging sheet S is heat-sealed in the width direction at a predetermined interval in the length direction by the pair of axial heating surfaces 27 formed by sandwiching the rotating shaft of the heater roll 25.

When the packaging sheet S is conveyed between the heater rolls 25 at a constant speed and heat-sealed in the width direction, the medicine from the discharge port 24 of the hopper 3 is put in the rear portion of the heat-sealing. It Then, the introduced medicine is sealed and packaged in the packaging bag 28 by heat fusion of the continuous side edges of the packaging sheet S and subsequent heat fusion in the width direction.

In this medicine packing machine 1, a controller (not shown) selects a medicine feeder 5 to discharge a predetermined quantity of medicine a, and after a lapse of a set time from the start of discharging, the shutter 1
2 and the lid 23 are opened at the same time, and the discharge port 24 of the hopper 3 is opened.
The medicine dropped from is packaged by the packaging device 4.

The above set time is the time until the medicine a discharged from the medicine feeder 5 located above the shutter 12 is received by the shutter 12 and stops falling, and the medicine a dropped from the shutter 12 is in the hopper. 3 lid 23
Compared with the time it takes to receive and stop at the longer time.

As described above, the process of discharging the drug a from the drug feeder 5 onto the shutter 12 and temporarily stopping it, and the process of dropping the drug a on the shutter 12 into the hopper 3 and receiving it by the lid 23. Since the shutter 12 and the lid 23 are opened and the packaging process is performed after the process requiring a long time among these process steps is completed, the distance from the medicine feeder 5 to the hopper 3 is long. Even in this case, the medicine can be efficiently packaged.

Further, in the closed state in which both ends of the shutter 12 are in contact with the facing inner surface of the guide passage 6, a narrow wedge-shaped space is formed between the shutter 12 and the facing inner surface, and this space is formed. In addition to allowing the drug to be taken in, it absorbs the impact from the drug due to the double structure of flexible silicone resin and hard Teflon resin, so the drug received will be stable in a very short time without jumping. . Therefore, when the medicine is packaged with the time from the medicine feeder 5 dropping on the shutter 12 to the stop as the set time, the set time can be shortened to improve the efficiency of the process and to receive the medicine. It is possible to suppress the splashing of the medicine a and prevent the delay of the supply timing to the packaging device 4 and the mixing of the medicine received and the next medicine from the medicine feeder 5.

Further, due to the flexibility of the shutter 12, noise is not generated due to the contact between both ends of the shutter 12 and the inner surface of the guide path 6 facing each other, and the medicine a received is not damaged.

In this embodiment, only one shutter 12 is provided on the guide path 6, but a plurality of shutters 12 may be provided above and below for higher speed processing.

[0033]

[Effect] Since the medicine packaging machine according to the present invention can absorb the shock from the medicine dropped by the shutter and prevent the medicine from being splashed up, the medicine is stabilized in an extremely short time. There is no delay in the timing of supply to the packaging device, and the medicine is not mixed with the next medicine from the medicine feeder.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a medicine packaging machine of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a drug feeder and a shutter in a guide path.

FIG. 3A is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a shutter. FIG. 3B is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the shutter.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a rocking device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 medicine packing machine 2 medicine supply unit 3 hopper 4 packaging device 5 medicine feeder 6 guide path 7 medicine storage case 8 rotor 9, 17 motor 10 pocket 11 discharge passage 12, 12 'shutter 13 rotation shaft 14, 14' made of silicone resin Main body 15, 15 'Teflon resin layer 16 Oscillating device 18 Disc 19 Pin 20a First plate 20b Second plate 21 Arm 22 Spring 23 Lid 24 Discharge port 25 Heater roll 26 Circular heating surface 27 Heating surface 28 Packaging bag a Pharmaceutical PH sensor S packaging sheet

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A shutter for receiving the falling medicine in a closed state and dropping the received medicine in the opened state is provided in a guide path for guiding the medicine discharged from the medicine feeder and falling, and the shutter is provided with the shutter. A packaging device for packaging the medicine dropped from the shutter opened by this means is provided with means for switching the open / closed state at appropriate time,
In the medicine packing machine provided below the guide path, the shutter is formed by coating a material capable of absorbing shock with a material harder than the material. 2. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 1, wherein the shutter has a smooth upper surface. 3. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 2, wherein the shutter is formed by coating a flexible silicone resin with Teflon resin. 4. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 3, wherein the Teflon resin is coated by baking coating. 5. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 2, wherein the shutter is formed by attaching a Teflon resin sheet to a silicone resin.