JPH11218497A - Powder inspecting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a powder inspecting apparatus for efficiently inspecting a powder by adopting a definite area of a surface of a rotary table for placing the powder. SOLUTION: The powder inspecting apparatus comprises a rotary table 2, a supplying unit, a photographing unit, a foreign matter removing unit and a non-defective powder removing unit. The table 2 is formed of a colorless transparent resin or glass, and has an annular groove 2 formed on its surface to engage a powder 10. The width of the groove 20 is set so as to become an operation effective range of all the photographing unit, the matter removing unit and the non-defective powder removing unit. The groove 20 has a bottom 201 and both side faces 202. The bottom 201 is a horizontally flat surface. The faces 202 are flat surfaces inclined to narrow a groove width from the surface of the table 2 toward the bottom 201 and inclined at an angle of less than 45 to the bottom 201. Intersections between the faces 202 and the bottom 201 are rounded. The supplying unit supplies the powder into the groove 20.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a powder inspection apparatus for automatically performing at least a foreign substance inspection on a powder such as a pharmaceutical product, a food raw material, a resin raw material, and a pulverized substance to remove the foreign substance.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a powder inspection apparatus for detecting foreign matter in a powder by photographing with a television camera while transporting the powder placed on the surface of a rotary table and removing the foreign matter by a removing device, For example, it is known from the applicant's utility model registration No. 2502329.

When the powder 10 is placed on the surface of the rotary table 2 with a width of, for example, 50 mm in the above-described apparatus, as shown in FIG. By expanding, the width exceeds 50 mm. Therefore, the TV camera 26 and the removal device provided on the premise of the 50 mm width cannot perform sufficient detection and removal. In order to avoid this, it is conceivable to preset a television camera or the like having a large effective operating range S. However, this will waste use and reduce efficiency.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a powder inspection apparatus capable of performing an efficient inspection by making the area of the surface of a rotary table on which powder is placed deterministic.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In a powder inspection device that automatically performs at least foreign substance inspection on powder and removes foreign substances, a rotary table that transports the powder while rotating with the powder placed on the surface, and supplies the powder to the surface of the rotary table Feeding device, a photographing device for photographing powder on the surface of the turntable from the front and back sides of the turntable to detect foreign matter, a foreign matter removing device for removing foreign matter from the turntable surface, and removing foreign matter from the turntable surface Equipped with a non-defective product removing device for removing the powder after, the turntable is formed of colorless transparent resin or glass,
An annular groove into which the powder is fitted is formed on the surface of the rotary table, and the width of the groove is set to be within the effective operating range of all of the photographing device, the foreign matter removing device, and the good product removing device. The groove is composed of a bottom surface and both side surfaces,
The bottom surface is a horizontal flat surface, and both side surfaces are planes inclined so that the groove width becomes narrower from the rotary table surface toward the bottom surface and each inclined at an angle of less than 45 ° with respect to the bottom surface. The intersection with the bottom has a radius, and the supply device supplies the powder into the groove.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the supply device supplies the powder to the surface of the rotary table after passing the powder through the perforated plate. Is set to a size that does not allow passage of a foreign matter.

[0007]

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a powder inspection apparatus 1 of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the powder inspection apparatus 1. The powder inspection apparatus 1 includes a rotary table 2 that rotates and transports powder while placing the powder on the surface.
And a supply device 3 for supplying powder onto the surface of the turntable 2
A first photographing device 5 for photographing and detecting foreign matter in the powder from the back side of the rotary table 2, a second photographing device 6 for photographing and detecting foreign matter in the powder from the front side of the rotary table 2, Foreign matter removing device 7 for sucking and removing foreign matter in powder detected by first and second photographing devices 5 and 6, non-defective product removing device 8 for sucking and removing powder from which foreign matter has been removed by foreign matter removing device 7, etc. , Which are arranged around the turntable 2 in this order.

The turntable 2 is made of a colorless and transparent resin, for example, methacrylic acid resin, or a colorless and transparent glass, has a flat disk shape, and is provided horizontally. As shown in FIG. 3, a groove 20 into which the powder 10 is fitted is formed on the surface of the turntable 2 in an annular shape concentric with the turntable 2. The width W of the groove 20 is set to be within the effective operation range of all of the first photographing device 5, the second photographing device 6, the foreign matter removing device 7, and the good product removing device 8. The groove 20 has a bottom surface 201 and both side surfaces 202. The bottom surface 201 is a horizontal flat surface. Both sides 2
02 is inclined so that the width W of the groove 20 becomes narrower from the surface of the rotary table 2 toward the bottom surface 201, and
1 is a plane inclined at an angle α of less than 45 °.
The intersection X between the side surfaces 202 and the bottom surface 201 has an R.

As shown in FIG. 4, the supply device 3 is provided with a hopper 13 for charging powder, and is disposed below the hopper 13 to receive the powder supplied from the hopper 13 and feed the powder to the rotary table 2 side. Screw feeder 14 for feeding
And a pipe 1 protruding from the screw feeder 14.
A trough 16 with its free end facing the inside thereof;
And an electromagnetic coil 17 for providing vibration to the trough 16. The other end of the trough 16 is located on the turntable 2.

The trough 16 is a gutter-like body having a U-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. 5, and includes a bottom plate 161 and walls 162 on both sides in the longitudinal direction. A notch 163 is formed at the tip of the bottom plate 161, and both walls 162 are longer by that amount. The vibration applied to the trough 16 by the electromagnetic coil 17 is set so that the powder fed to the tip of the bottom plate 161 is surely supplied evenly into the groove 20.

The first photographing device 5 includes a television camera 21 and two strobes 221 and 222, as shown in FIG. The strobe 221 is installed above the turntable 2, and the strobe 222 is installed below the turntable 2 together with the television camera 21 so as to face the strobe 221. 23 is a television camera 21, a strobe 221,
This is a stand for supporting 222 in a vertically movable manner.

As shown in FIG. 7, the second photographing device 6 has a vertical relationship between the television camera 26 and the strobes 271, 272 with respect to the rotary table 2, which is opposite to that of the first photographing device 5 described above. That is, the TV camera 26 and the strobe 2
Reference numeral 72 is provided above the turntable 2 and strobe 271 is provided below.

FIG. 8 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow VIII in FIG. The suction ejector 30 includes a suction pipe 31, an air inlet pipe 32, and a valve 33 (see FIG. 2). The suction tube 31 is located close to the surface of the rotary table 2 until the suction port 311 at the tip can reliably suck the powder on the surface of the rotary table 2, and the surface of the suction port 311 is parallel to the surface of the rotary table 2. It is provided so that it becomes.
Further, one end of a connection hose 36 is connected to the other end of the suction tube 31. The air inlet pipe 32 has one end connected to an air compressor (not shown) and the other end connected to the suction pipe 31.
Are connected so as to feed air toward the side opposite to the suction port 311. The valve 33 controls the flow of air in the air inlet pipe 32. An air blowing hose 35 provided above and communicating with the cyclone 34 is connected to a dust collector (not shown). In addition, the non-defective removal device 8
Has the same configuration as the foreign matter removing device 7.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of the powder inspection apparatus 1, FIG. 10 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow XI in FIG. The connection hose 36 of the foreign matter removing device 7 is connected to the foreign matter cyclone 41, and the foreign matter sucked by the foreign matter removing device 7 is separated from the air by the cyclone 41 and collected in the collection box 42. ing. Further, the powder sucked by the non-defective product removing device 8 is sent to the non-defective cyclone 43 through the connection hose 29, separated from the air, and collected in the collection box 44.

A rotary drive mechanism 1 is provided below the rotary table 2.
1 is provided. The rotation drive mechanism 11 is provided with a rotation shaft connected to the center of the turntable 2 and a motor (both not shown) for rotating the rotation shaft at a predetermined speed.

The position of the foreign matter detected by the first and second photographing devices 5 and 6 is adjusted so that the foreign matter is sucked from the suction opening 311 when the foreign matter is located immediately below the suction opening 311 of the suction ejector 30. A rotary encoder 12 for detection is provided.

Reference numeral 51 denotes a printer for printing out inspection data; 52, a monitor on which images from the television cameras 21 and 26 are displayed; 53, a computer for operating the entire apparatus and storing the inspection data;
1 is a keyboard, 54 is a video signal processor, and 55 is an image analyzer, which analyzes images of video signals from the television cameras 21 and 26 to determine the presence or absence of foreign matter in powder. 56 is a strobe 221, 222, 271,
A strobe main body 272 controls the cycle and the like, and a power supply filter 57 adjusts the power supply.

The hopper 13 is provided outside the apparatus 1 so that the powder does not soar into the apparatus 1 when feeding the powder and does not disturb the inspection result.

Next, the operation will be described. The powder taken out of the production line and put into the hopper 13 is cut out by the trough 16 vibrated by the electromagnetic coil 17 via the screw feeder 14 by a fixed amount, and the inside of the trough 16 is turned to the turntable 2 side. Sent gradually. The fed powder falls from the notch 163 in a state of being uniformly spread by the vibration applied from the electromagnetic coil 17 and fits into the groove 20 on the surface of the turntable 2. That is, the supplied powder is aligned in the groove 20 as shown in FIG.

The powder in the groove 20 on the surface of the turntable 2
It is transported as it is by the rotary table 2 which rotates in the direction of arrow A1 (see FIG. 1) at a predetermined speed by the rotary drive mechanism 11 (see FIG. 9).

The powder passes over the television camera 21 of the first photographing device 5 and is photographed from below. At this time, the powder is photographed while being intermittently illuminated by the strobes 221 and 222, and foreign matter in the powder is detected. At this time,
Since the constituent material of the turntable 2 is transparent, the strobe 222 also illuminates the powder in the groove 20 from behind.

The bottom surface 20 of the side surface 202 of the groove 20
If the angle α (FIG. 3) with respect to 1 is a steep angle of, for example, 45 ° or more, the side surface 202 reflects light like a mirror when viewed from below the turntable 2, and the side surface 2
The powder on the portion 02 is not photographed by the television camera 21. However, in the present invention, the angle α
Is set to less than 45 °, the degree to which the side surface 202 reflects light like a mirror surface is low, and the powder placed on the side surface 202 is sufficiently removed by the television camera 21 from under the turntable 2. Be photographed. Therefore, the powder in the groove 20 is photographed from below the rotary table 2 by the television camera 21 without leakage.

In addition, the side surface 202 and the bottom surface 201 of the groove 20
Since the intersection X with R has an R, no flaw is left on the intersection X when the groove 20 is formed, so that the flaw is not erroneously detected as a foreign substance.

The powder passing under the first photographing device 5 is
An image is taken from under the television camera 26 of the photographing device 6 this time, and foreign matter in the powder is detected.

The detected foreign matter is sucked from the powder by the suction ejector 30 of the foreign matter removing device 7. At this time, since the surface of the rotary table 2 is made of resin or glass, the surface thereof is hard, so that the rotary table 2 is not bent by the suction from the suction ejector 30 and the suction port 311 is not blocked. Further, since the surface of the rotary table 2 is flat and the surface of the suction port 311 is provided in parallel with the surface of the rotary table 2, the suction force from the ejector 30 acts evenly on the surface of the rotary table 2. As a result, the suction force reaches all of the powder in the groove 20 below the suction port 311. The sucked foreign matter is blown out into the cyclone 41 through the connection hose 36, and is separated from air while turning inside the cyclone 41. The separated foreign matter is stored in the collection box 42.

The powder from which the foreign matter has been removed, that is, the non-defective product is suction-removed from the surface of the turntable 2 by the non-defective product removing device 8 and sent to the cyclone 43 through the connecting hose 29.
The air is separated from the air and collected in the collection box 44.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the powder inspection apparatus 1. The computer 53 has a built-in control circuit 61, which controls the entire apparatus.

The image signals from the television cameras 21 and 26 are input to the control circuit 61, and are mutually switched and displayed on the monitor 52. When the control circuit 61 determines that there is a foreign substance based on the color and size of the powder, The position of the foreign matter is detected based on the output from the rotary encoder 12 and the rotation table 2 is detected.
Rotates to move the foreign matter detection position to the foreign matter removing device 7, and outputs a drive signal to absorb the foreign matter. All of the powder that has not been determined to be foreign matter is absorbed by the non-defective product removing device 8.

(Embodiment 2) Instead of the trough 16 of the first embodiment, a trough 9 having the following configuration may be used. FIG.
FIG. 14 is a plan view of the trough 9, and FIG.
It is sectional drawing. The trough 9 includes a trough body 91 having a base end provided on the electromagnetic coil 17 and a tip end located on the rotary table 2, and a perforated plate 92 provided so as to overlap the trough 91. As shown by an arrow in FIG. 14, the powder supplied from the input port 93 is caused to pass through the perforated plate 92 by the vibration of the electromagnetic coil 17, and then is gradually added to the surface of the rotary table 2 by the trough body 91. They are supplied continuously. The trough body 91 has the same structure as the trough 16 shown in FIG. The size of the holes in the perforated plate 92 is set to a size that does not allow passage of a size that is regarded as foreign matter. XV-X in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 15 which is a V sectional view and FIG. 16 which is an XVI-XVI sectional view of FIG. 13, the tip of the horizontal porous plate 92 is an inclined surface 921 which communicates with the outside.

When the trough 9 having the above configuration is used, the hopper 1
3 to screw feeder 14 and pipe 15 (see FIG. 4)
The powder fed into the trough 9 from the input port 93 through the trough 9 first passes through the perforated plate 9 under the condition that the perforated plate 92 and the trough body 91 are vibrating by the electromagnetic coil 17 in the trough 9.
2 and passes through the holes of the perforated plate 92 to form a trough 91
It falls down and is sent gradually and continuously over the trough body 91 toward the turntable 2. At this time, the electromagnetic coil 1
The powder from the perforated plate 92 is smoothly dropped by the vibration caused by the vibrator 7, and the powder on the trough body 91 is spread uniformly, so that the groove 20 on the surface of the rotary table 2 extends from the tip of the trough body 91. Supplied within.

On the other hand, in the trough 9, the size of the holes in the perforated plate 92 is set to a size that does not allow the perforated plate 92 to pass through the perforated plate 92. Instead, the water is gradually fed toward the front end on the perforated plate 92, reaches the inclined surface 921, and is discharged to the outside as shown by the arrow in FIG. Therefore, in the supply device 3 using the trough 9, large foreign matter is reliably removed from the powder supplied to the surface of the turntable 2.

[0032]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. The powder is put into the groove whose width is set so as to be within the effective operating range of all of the photographing device, the foreign matter removing device, and the good product removing device, and the powder in the groove is detected and removed. Therefore, the photographing device, the foreign matter removing device, and the good product removing device can be used effectively, and an efficient inspection can be performed.

The rotary table is formed of a colorless and transparent resin or glass, the groove is composed of a bottom surface and both side surfaces, the bottom surface is a horizontal flat surface, and both side surfaces are from the surface of the rotary table to the bottom surface. Since the planes are inclined so as to narrow the groove width toward the bottom and are each inclined at an angle of less than 45 ° with respect to the bottom surface, when photographing powder in the groove from behind the rotary table with a strobe light, the groove is used. The degree of reflection of light on the side surface is low like a mirror surface, so that the powder on the side surface can be sufficiently photographed by the television camera from the back side of the rotary table. Therefore, the powder in the groove can be photographed without leakage from both sides of the rotary table, and the reliability of the inspection data can be improved.

Since the intersection between the side surface and the bottom surface of the groove has a radius, no damage remains at the intersection when the groove is formed.
Therefore, it is possible to prevent the scratch from being mistakenly detected as a foreign substance,
From this point as well, the reliability of the inspection data can be improved.

When the rotary table is made of resin, the possibility of breaking is lower than that of glass, so that the danger during maintenance work can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, large foreign substances can be reliably removed before powder is supplied to the surface of the rotary table.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a powder inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the powder inspection device.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a front view of the supply device.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a trough tip of the supply device.

FIG. 6 is a view taken in the direction of arrow VI in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow VII in FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a view as viewed in the direction of arrow VIII in FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of the powder inspection device.

10 is a view as viewed in the direction of the arrow X in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a view as viewed in the direction of the arrow XI in FIG. 9;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the powder inspection device.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of another trough.

14 is a sectional view taken along the line XIV-XIV in FIG.

15 is a sectional view taken along line XV-XV in FIG.

16 is a sectional view taken along the line XVI-XVI in FIG.

FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view showing a powder inspection state in a conventional powder inspection apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 powder inspection device 2 rotary table 3 supply device 5 first imaging device 6 second imaging device 7 foreign matter removal device 8 non-defective product removal device 9, 16 trough 91 trough body 92 porous plate 20 groove 201 bottom surface 202 side surface

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A powder inspection apparatus for automatically performing at least a foreign substance inspection on a powder and removing the foreign substance, comprising: a rotary table for conveying the powder while rotating the powder placed on the surface; A feeder for supplying powder to the rotary table; a photographing device for detecting foreign particles by capturing powder on the surface of the rotary table from the front and back sides; a foreign particle removing device for removing foreign particles from the surface of the rotary table; The rotary table is made of colorless and transparent resin or glass, and an annular groove is formed on the surface of the rotary table for removing powder after removing foreign matter from the surface. The width of the groove is set to be within the effective operating range of all of the photographing device, the foreign matter removing device, and the good product removing device, and the groove has a bottom surface and both side surfaces, The bottom surface is a horizontal flat surface, and both side surfaces are planes inclined so that the groove width becomes narrower from the rotary table surface toward the bottom surface and each inclined at an angle of less than 45 ° with respect to the bottom surface. A powder inspection device, wherein an intersection with the bottom surface has an R, and the supply device supplies the powder into the groove. 2. The supply device supplies the powder to the surface of the rotary table after passing the powder through the perforated plate,
2. The powder inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the size of the holes in the perforated plate is set to a size that does not allow passage of a foreign matter.