JPH11108860A - Apparatus and method for detecting statement of virtue - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply and continuously detect the presence/absence of statements of virtues with avoiding direct touch of X rays to medical supplies, by projecting soft X rays only to one end of the statement in a box carried so that the one end of the statement faces opposite to a projection direction of the soft X rays. SOLUTION: A box 1 is transferred along a transfer line 5 to pass through a virtue statement-detecting apparatus comprising an X-ray generation device 6 and a detector 7. At this time, soft X rays are projected through a slit 8, and hits only one end of a virtue statement because of the slit 8 without directly hitting a drug. The soft X rays passes the box 1 while hitting the one end of the statement, and reaches the detector 7. The detector 7 detects one end of the statement in the box 1, thereby detecting the presence/absence of the statement. A detection state is image-processed by an image-processing apparatus 60, and the presence/absence of the statement is displayed on a screen. If the box 1 contains the statement, the box is introduced to a product pack station. Without the statement, the box is transferred by the transfer line 5 to a failure product place.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for continuously detecting the presence / absence of a functional book inserted in a box containing a medicine and a detecting apparatus used for the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Pharmaceuticals, quasi-drugs, cosmetics, etc. (hereinafter referred to as pharmaceuticals) are defined in Article 1 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. The drug finally passes as a product to a pharmacy member of a hospital, a pharmacy store owner, an individual user, etc. (hereinafter, referred to as a user). At this time, it is required by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law that a functional form be always entered in the smallest packaging unit as a product form. For example, when a user purchases a so-called cold medicine at a pharmacy, what symptoms do they have in a box (hereinafter referred to as a box) in which a product name containing the cold medicine is written? It is a piece of paper inserted in a folded state or the like on which the effects, precautions, etc., such as the amount used per time, the number of times used per day, the suitability for use with other drugs, etc., are written.

[0003] If a medicine without a Noh book is accidentally shipped to the market, it violates the regulations on the quality of pharmaceuticals etc. under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, and permits and permits the manufacture of pharmaceuticals under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. Violates the standards of In this case, the production license will be lost. In addition to the laws and regulations related to packaging, they will lose social trust in the quality control system itself, which is one of the most important things for the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Thus, shipping a product that does not include a book will create a major problem for the manufacturer that can evolve into a life and death problem.

[0004] By the way, when medicines are packed in a box in the packaging process, generally, a method has been adopted in which a functional book is put into a box together with the medicine by using a machine or by manual operation. However, in recent years, a so-called human error occurs in a work by human power, and therefore, it is avoided because it is not a preferable method, and a method using a machine has been adopted.

[0005] For the above-mentioned reason, in the step of packing a letter book together with a medicine (hereinafter referred to as a cartoning step), 1
It is necessary to confirm that the sheets are packed in one box. When inserting a functional book into a box using a machine, check in advance the number of functional books to be inserted by a machine having a counting function such as a sucker for a functional book, a chuck for a functional book or by hand,
After inserting the Noh book into the box, it has been confirmed that there is no shortage and no surplus of the Noh book, and a method has been adopted in which it is assumed that one sheet has been completely inserted into one box. After inserting the Noh in the box for the number of Nos checked in advance, if it is confirmed that there is an excess or deficiency in the Noh, it is necessary to manually refill the Noh and the medicine in all new boxes, repack and ship it. A trouble that required extremely labor and time had occurred.

[0006] Further, the confirmation method cannot be said to be a reliable proof method that one sheet of functional book has been inserted into each box. An example is the case where a drug manufacturer knows after shipping a product that two boxes are in one box due to a complaint from the user and that no box is in another box. is there.

Incidentally, although the details of the present invention will be described in detail later, an X-ray nondestructive inspection apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-178872 as a technique similar to the present invention. The publication states that non-destructive inspection by X-ray irradiation can be automatically performed in-line while preventing the irradiated X-ray from leaking out of the inspection space, that the inspection target is not selected, and the like. ing. However, in the embodiment of the publication, it is disclosed only that it is possible to inspect in a non-destructive state whether or not foreign matter has entered the inside of a product or the like to be inspected, and the intensity and wavelength of X-rays, the inspection object, the type of foreign matter, There is no disclosure or suggestion of a place to be irradiated with X-rays. In addition, continuous inspection cannot be performed. On the other hand, an object of the present invention is to prevent a soft X-ray from being directly irradiated on a medicine,
An object of the present invention is to continuously detect presence / absence of a Noh book by irradiating one end of the Noh book with soft X-rays. In addition, since soft X-rays that are easily attenuated are used, it is possible to prevent the scattered soft X-rays from directly hitting the medicine. As described above, different means are used due to the difference in the purpose between the present invention and the publication. Therefore,
From the above-mentioned publication, means for detecting only the presence / absence of a functional book in a box is irradiated in a state where soft X-rays are prevented from directly hitting a medicine in the box. As explained above,
In the cartoning process, the development of a technology that can easily and reliably detect the presence or absence of a functional book while avoiding direct exposure of X-rays to a medicine has been awaited.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a means for easily, reliably and continuously detecting the presence or absence of a functional book in a cartoning process while avoiding direct exposure of X-rays to a medicine. The purpose is to provide.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and the object of the present invention can be achieved by the following means.

That is, according to the present invention, (1) in a cartoning step, a soft X-ray is irradiated on a box in a hermetically sealed state containing a medicine and a letter of conduct conveyed as a product;
To continuously detect the presence or absence of a letter in the box so that the soft X-ray is not directly irradiated on the medicine, the box is transported such that one end of the letter is opposed to the soft X-ray irradiation direction, and thus transported. Soft X that can be irradiated to only one end of the written Noh
A method for detecting the presence or absence of a book in a box by irradiating one end of a book with a book, and (2) preventing irradiation of soft X-rays with scattered X-rays, (3) When soft X-rays are irradiated, the soft X-rays are 10 kVp to 30 kV.
(4) In a cartoning step, a soft X-ray is irradiated to a box in a hermetically sealed state containing a medicine and a letter of conduct conveyed as a product.
In continuously detecting the presence or absence of a letter in the box so that the radiation is not directly irradiated on the medicine, the box is transported such that one end of the letter is opposed to the soft X-ray irradiation direction, and thus transported. This is a function book detection device having a function of detecting the presence or absence of a function book in a box by irradiating one end of the function book with soft X-rays that can be applied to only one end of the function book.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the present invention, pharmaceuticals refer to pharmaceuticals, quasi-drugs, and cosmetics specified in Article 1 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. When soft X-rays are qualitatively distinguished from each other by their ability to penetrate a substance, they have a small wavelength of several to several hundreds of long-wavelength X-rays that are easily absorbed by a thin shielding material. Refers to a line. The one end of the book differs depending on the form in which the book is inserted into the box, but refers to a portion described below. That is, when the book is inserted into the box in a folded state, it refers to one end that is not a fold. When the Noh book is inserted in a box in the form of a book, it refers to one end without a binding. When a letter is inserted into a box so as to wrap a medicine, it refers to any one of the leading end, the terminating end, and the peripheral part of the letter.

The form of the drug before being packed into a box is a capsule, a tablet in the form of a pellet, a powder, a liquid, or the like, and is separately pretreated to protect the drug from contact with air or the like. One example is a state in which the medicine and the pellet-like tablets packed in a capsule are packed in a blister and a state packed in a bottle. Liquid medicines and cosmetics are packed in bottles or the like.

In the cartoning process, these products are made into a box which is a minimum unit of packaging. The box is partially transported by a transport line surrounded by a shielding material provided to prevent scattering of soft X-rays. Are conveyed so as to be opposed to the irradiation direction. The box is irradiated with soft X-rays when the box passes through a function book detector to which soft X-rays are being irradiated.
In the present invention, only one end of the book is continuously detected by the book reader so as not to irradiate the medicine directly with the soft X-ray, so that there is no influence of the soft X-ray on the medicine.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the box 1 is transported along a transport line 5 and passes through a booklet detector including an X-ray generator 6 and a detector 7. At this time, the soft X-rays
Is irradiated through. As will be described later in detail with reference to FIG. 4, the soft X-ray is not directly irradiated to the medicine only by irradiating one end of the function book with the slit 8. The soft X-ray irradiates one end of the book
And arrives at the detector 7. The detector 7 detects one end of the book inserted in the box 1 and detects the presence or absence of the book.
The detection state is image-processed by the image processing device 60, and the presence or absence of one end of the function is displayed on the screen. An example is shown in FIG. 5, which is one of the results of Example 1 described below. In addition, the whole of the Noh detection device and a part of the transport line 5 are surrounded by a shielding material 9 to leak soft X-rays from the Noh detection device and the transport line 5 and to remove soft X-rays scattered. It is designed to prevent leakage to the outside space. Transport line 5
Prevention of leakage of soft X-rays from the outside and prevention of leakage of scattered soft X-rays to an external space will be described in detail below. The soft X-rays emitted from the X-ray generator 6 are detected by the detector 7, but scattered on the box 1, the transport line 5, and the like. In the present invention, leakage of scattered soft X-rays to the outside can be prevented by surrounding the periphery of the transport line 5 with the shielding member 9. In particular, on the transport line 5 near the X-ray generator, the shielding member 9 is provided so as to be stray. As the shielding material, a metal having a large specific gravity, such as lead or tungsten, is used.

The X-ray generator 6 and the detector 7
Is connected to the image processing device 60, data is collected in real time, and the boxes 1 having no function book are sorted out. Here, the image processing device 60, the X-ray generator 6, and the detector 7 are commercially available. Also, the X-ray generator 6
The one provided with the cooling device is adopted. As the X-ray generator 6, for example, Radioflex 10 manufactured by Rigaku Corporation
0GS-B and the like.

As described above, when it is determined that the box 1 contains a book in the book reader, the book is guided to a product packing station not shown in FIG. If it is determined that the product does not enter, it is transported by the transport line 5 to a defective product storage area not shown in FIG. The transport line 5 can use an automatic transport device, a belt conveyor, or the like, but it is sufficient to use a commercially available belt conveyor.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a plurality of blisters 3 superimposed, a medicine 4 contained in the blister 3, and a box 1 containing a letter 2 so as to wrap them. The material of the blister 3 is usually aluminum. In addition,
It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this. FIG. 2 is an example showing a state in which the book 2 is inserted into the box 1 so as to wrap the blister 3 in which a plurality of books are stacked, but the book 2 may be inserted into the box 1 in a book shape, Further, the book 2 may be inserted into the box 1 in a folded state. It is appropriately selected depending on the form of the medicine 4 before being packed in a box.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing that the box 1 containing the medicine 4, the blister 3 and the letter 2 shown in FIG. 2 is irradiated with soft X-rays from the respective directions indicated by a to e. In the present invention, irradiation is performed from the directions of a and e, but any of them may be selected. In addition, as shown in Examples 1 to 6 and Comparative Example 1 below, it is preferable to avoid irradiation with soft X-rays from the b, c, and d directions. In addition, box 1
Before transporting the box, the position of the box on the transport line can be determined in advance so that the box is irradiated from the irradiation direction of a or e.

The results of irradiation from the direction a are shown in Examples 1 to 6 described below.
30 kVp is selected, preferably 10 kVp to 20 k
Vp is selected, and more preferably 15 kVp to 20 k
Vp is selected. If it is less than 10 kVp, the situation in which the noh is included becomes unclear, and if it exceeds 30 kVp, the noh itself becomes unclear, and sheets, bottles, medicines, etc. become clear, and thus should be avoided.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view schematically showing a state in which the soft X-ray 10 is irradiated to one end of the book 2 from the slit 8 provided in the shielding member 91. X-ray generator 6 shown in FIG.
4, the soft X-ray 10 passes through the slit 8 in FIG. 4 and irradiates one end 20 of the book 2 in the box 1 from the direction a shown in FIG. Here, since the soft X-rays 10 irradiated by the shielding member 91 are shielded, it goes without saying that the bundle 30 on which the plurality of blisters 3 are superimposed is not irradiated with the soft X-rays 10. . The soft X-ray 10 passing through the slit illuminates the tip 20 of the book 2 of the box 1, passes through the box 1, and is detected by a detector not shown in this figure. Here, one end 20 of the book 2 is conveyed so as to be parallel to the slit 8. Therefore, the box is transported so as to face the soft X-ray.

Although the present invention has been described above, the present invention will be further described in detail with reference to embodiments. It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited only to the embodiments described below.

[0022]

【Example】

Example 1 In FIG. 1, a box having a length, 150 mm, a width, 70 mm, and a height of 70 mm was prepared as a box 1 containing a plurality of blisters 3. Noh book 2 was placed in a box to wrap the bundle of blisters. As the transfer line 5, a commercially available belt conveyor was prepared. A commercially available soft X-ray generator 6, a detector 7, and an image processing device 60 were used as a letter detector. As a commercially available soft X-ray generator 6, Radioflex 100GS-B manufactured by Rigaku Corporation was used. The distance between the X-ray generator and the box was 1 m. Note that Noh Book 2 was irradiated from the a direction. The shielding members 9 and 91 used lead. First, stop the belt conveyor, place the box 1 in front of the function book detector 6 so that one end 20 of the function book 2 is irradiated, and place
A soft X-ray 10 was irradiated from the direction a at Vp. FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of the result obtained by the image processing device 7. In FIG. 5, the Noh book 2 is clearly displayed in white between the slits 8 which have moved to the screen 40 in black. From this figure, it was found that Noh Book 2 could be detected.

Examples 2 and 3 10 kVp of Example 1 was changed to 20 kVp and 30 kVp, respectively. The result was almost the same as in FIG.

Embodiment 4 In the cases of Embodiments 1 to 3, the belt conveyor is moved, and the box 1 in which the book 2 is inserted and the box in which the next book is inserted are processed by the image processing device 60. 0 within ability.
It was made to pass through the book reader at intervals of 6 seconds to 1.0 second. It was not removed from the belt conveyor because it detected that No.2 was in it.

Example 5 A function book 2 was extracted from a part of the box 1 in which the function book 2 of the example 4 was inserted, and the same operation as in the example 4 was performed. Box 1 without No. 2 was removed from the belt conveyor.

Example 6 Example 1 was changed from the direction a to the direction e shown in FIG.
As in the results of Example 1, the presence of a book was clearly confirmed.

Comparative Example 1 Instead of the direction a in Example 1, soft X-rays were irradiated from the directions b, c and d shown in FIG. Unlike the result of Example 1, the existence of the noh was unclear.

[0028]

According to the booklet detecting device and the detecting method of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (1) The presence or absence of a functional book in the box being transported can be reliably detected without directly applying soft X-rays to the medicine without worrying about leakage of soft X-rays and scattered soft X-rays to the outside. . (2) The presence or absence of a book in a box being transported can be reliably detected, so that a box without a book can be sorted out. for that reason,
You no longer have to worry about shipping a box that doesn't have a noh. (3) Since the presence or absence of a book can be confirmed at a continuous and constant speed, stable productivity can be obtained. (4) Check the presence or absence of a letter in the box being transported directly to the medicine.
Since the detection can be performed reliably without applying a line, there is no need to worry about a defect such as deterioration of the drug.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a box containing a letter book, a medicine, and a blister.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing an irradiation direction of soft X-rays in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view schematically showing a state in which soft X-rays are emitted from a slit to one end of a book.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram in which a book is clearly displayed on a screen of an image processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Box 2 Function book 3 Blister 4 Drug 5 Transport line 6 X-ray generator 7 Detector 8 Slit 9, 91 Shielding material 10 Soft X-ray 30 Blister bundle 40 Screen 60 Image processing device a, b, c, d, e Irradiation direction

Claims (4)

[Claims] In a cartoning process, a box in a hermetically sealed state containing a medicine and a letter of conduct conveyed as a product is irradiated with soft X-rays, and a soft X-ray is prevented from being directly irradiated on the medicine. To continuously detect the presence or absence of a noh, the box is conveyed so that one end of the noh is opposed to the soft X-ray irradiation direction, so that only one end of the noh that has been conveyed can be irradiated. A method of detecting a book, comprising irradiating one end of the book with soft X-rays, and detecting the presence or absence of a book in a box. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein leakage of soft X-rays is prevented when the soft X-rays are irradiated. 3. When the soft X-ray is irradiated, the soft X-ray is 1
The method according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation is performed at 0 kVp to 30 kVp. 4. In a cartoning step, a box in a hermetically sealed state containing a drug and a letter of conduct conveyed as a product is irradiated with soft X-rays, and a soft X-ray is placed in the box so that the drug is not directly irradiated on the box. To continuously detect the presence or absence of a noh, the box is conveyed so that one end of the noh is opposed to the soft X-ray irradiation direction, so that only one end of the noh that has been conveyed can be irradiated. A function of detecting the presence or absence of a book in a box by irradiating one end of the book with soft X-rays.