JPH11314620A - Drug bag printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically print on envelopes and sort the envelopes based on various use purposes. SOLUTION: To printing devices 2, 3, 4, a carrying-out conveyor 8 is connected with carrying paths 5, 6, 7, and at the end of the carrying-out conveyor 8, housing case 9 equipped with a sorting plate 12 which swings is provided. On respective carrying paths 5, 6, 7, a roller 18 which makes envelopes stand by, and detectors 19, 20, 21 which detect the standing by, are provided, and respective detectors 19, 20, 21 are connected to a control device 23. Also, to the control device 23, a data memory 24 in which printing information of envelopes is stored, and a driving motor 15 of the sorting plate 12 are connected. The printing devices, 2, 3, 4 perform printings on envelopes by control mode data and already stored drug information, or the control mode data and data such as a patient name under an order of priorities, the order of priorities, and re-issued patient names, in response to patient names, or the order of priorities, or the condition of a re-issuance, and when envelopes which have been printed in such a manner stand by on respective carrying paths, the control device 23 discriminates the printed information of the envelopes, and the sorting direction of the sorting plate 12 is switched based on the information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a medicine bag printing apparatus for printing and sorting medicine bags containing tablets, powdered medicines, sachets and the like based on conditions such as patient names and priorities.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, a medicine bag of this kind is temporarily stored in a storage case after information such as a patient name, usage, and precautions is printed on the surface of the printing device, and then the tablet is placed inside the medicine bag. In the past, printed medicine bags were stored as they were in the same storage case. It was necessary to separate the medicine bags separately.

[0003] In particular, when medicine bags printed by a plurality of printing devices are stored in the same storage case, a large number of kinds of medicine bags are mixed with each other. .

In dispensing operations at pharmacies and the like, it is often the case that priorities are set for dispensing medicines for each patient, and medicine bags are reissued due to changes in printing contents or printing errors. In this case, in the conventional method, in order to prevent mixing of the medicine bags, it is necessary to interrupt the bag making and printing of another medicine bag and to make and print only the target medicine bag.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a plurality of medicine bags can be printed in parallel based on various conditions such as patient name, priority order, reissue, etc., so that the medicine bags can be automatically and efficiently sorted. An object of the present invention is to provide a medicine bag printing device.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention transmits printing information to a plurality of sets of printing devices for printing prescription information on a medicine bag, and the plurality of sets of printing devices transmit the printing information. In a medicine bag printing apparatus for printing information based on a prescription, a medicine path discharged from each of the plurality of sets of printing apparatuses is introduced into one conveyance path to convey the medicine bags, and each of the plurality of sets is printed. A plurality of detectors for detecting that the medicine bags discharged from the device have been introduced into the one transport path, and a distribution plate for distributing the medicine bags in at least two directions provided at the transport terminal of the one transport path. Thus, a medicine bag printing apparatus is characterized.

[0007]

The medicine bag printing apparatus having the above construction transmits printing information to a plurality of sets of printing apparatuses and prints the printing information on the medicine bags with each printing apparatus. The printing of the medicine bags is stored in advance in the order of the patient name. This is performed based on the print information and the control mode data, and on the priority or re-issuing condition, data such as the patient name, priority or re-issuance, patient name, etc., and the control mode data.

For this reason, the medicine bags printed in this way are checked for the waiting state by a detector for detecting the waiting state of each medicine bag, and the order according to the patient name, the priority order, or the condition for reissuing the medicine bag is determined. The medicine bags sent out by any of the above are collected in one transport path, and are sent to and distributed to a distribution plate as distribution means.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A shows an embodiment in which a sorting device is connected to a bag making / printing device for a medicine bag. It is assumed that the apparatus of this embodiment is used to print the medicine bags, sort each medicine bag in a desired direction, and then manually enclose necessary medicines in the medicine bags. In this example, a medicine bag T made by one bag making device 1 is distributed to three printing devices 2, 3, and 4, and information such as a patient name and usage is printed on the surface thereof.

The printed medicine bag T is then sent to a carry-out conveyor 8 through a plurality of conveyance paths 5, 6, 7 connected to the printing devices 2, 3, 4, and the carry-out conveyor 8 It is thrown into the storage case 9 installed at the end. As shown in FIG. 2, a distribution plate 12 that partitions the inside of the case into two storage portions 10 and 11 is swingably mounted inside the storage case 9. The distributing plate 12 has a central portion connected to a cam disk 14 via a link 13, and a drive motor M for rotating the cam disk on the cam disk 14.
15 are connected. A pair of notches 16, 16 are formed on the periphery of the cam disk 14 at 180 ° opposite positions, and proximity switches 17, 17 for detecting the respective notches 16, 16 are connected to the drive motor 15. Mounted on the end face.

In this structure, when the cam disk 14 is rotated in a range where the notch grooves 16 and 16 and the proximity switches 17 and 17 coincide with each other, the distribution plate 12 moves between the solid line position and the chain line position in FIG. The medicine bags that are swung and discharged from the carry-out conveyor 8 are sorted and stored in the respective storage units 10 and 11. In addition, the outside of the discharge side roller 18 of each of the transport paths 5, 6, and 7,
Detectors 19, 20, 21, and 22 for detecting the presence of a medicine bag are provided at the discharge side end of the carry-out conveyor 8, respectively. The signals of these detectors 19, 20, 21, and 22 are shown in FIG. The signal is output to a control device (CPU) 23 such as a microcomputer as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, when the detectors 19, 20, and 21 provided in the respective transport paths detect the medicine bags, the control device 23 causes the medicine bags to temporarily wait while being bitten by the discharge roller 18,
Under the condition that the detector 22 of the carry-out conveyor 8 is off (in a state where no medicine bag is present on the carry-out conveyor 8), the medicine bag is sent to the carry-out conveyor 8.

A data memory 24 is connected to the control device 23 online, and the data memory stores print information such as patient names and usages to be printed on the surface of each medicine bag. When the medicine bag made by the bag making device 1 is distributed to the printing devices 2, 3, and 4, information to be printed on the medicine bag is output from the data memory 24 to each printing device, and the movement of the printing device is controlled. Control.

Further, the control device 23 is connected to a drive circuit 25 of the drive motor 15 of the distribution plate 12, and controls the operation of the drive motor 15 as described later.
Also, an external input device 26 is connected, and various data necessary for controlling the control mode and the printing device are externally transmitted to the control device 23.
It is configured so that it can be directly input to.

This embodiment is constructed as described above, and its operation will now be described. In order to distribute the medicine bags, first, the control device 23 is controlled via the external input device 26 through a control mode that determines the type of distribution, that is, the distribution by patient name or the distribution based on priority or reissue. Command.

In this case, in the case of distribution by patient name, the distribution is performed based on the information in the data memory 24 only by specifying the control mode. In the case of distribution based on priority or reissue, Along with the control mode, the control unit 23 is instructed to the control device 23 with data such as a priority patient name, a priority order, or a patient name to be reissued.

After the control mode is designated as described above, when the medicine bags are distributed from the bag making apparatus 1 to the printing apparatuses 2, 3, and 4, the control apparatus 23 sends the medicine bags to the printing apparatuses 2, 3, and 4. The print information is output, and the medicine bag is printed.

The printed medicine bag is then transferred to each of the transport paths 5, 6,
7 and waits at the position of the discharge roller 18, a signal is output from each of the detectors 19, 20 and 21 to the control device 23. In this state, the control device 23 can specify what print information is printed on the medicine bags distributed to the respective printing devices. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the medicine bag at the standby position and the print information. Can be.

For this reason, the drive motor 15 is driven based on the print information and the contents of the control mode, and the distribution plate 12 is swung to store the medicine bags in the predetermined storage portions 10 and 11.
In this case, when two or three of the detectors 19, 20, and 21 simultaneously output the standby state of the medicine bag, if each medicine bag has a priority, the medicine bag follows the order, and When there is no priority, the medicine bags are sent out to the carry-out conveyor 8 in the descending order of the print information input to the control device 23 and sorted to the storage case 9.

As described above, the medicine bag to be conveyed and the printing information are accurately specified by the control device 23, and the movement of the sorting plate 12 is controlled based on the information. Therefore, the medicine bag is reliably sorted and stored according to various conditions. can do.

In the above embodiment, the medicine bags are distributed in two directions. However, the medicine bags may be distributed in three or more directions. Further, the prescription may be flown to the printing device and the transport path at the same time as the medicine bag, and may be distributed in the same manner as the medicine bag.

The above-mentioned embodiment can be collectively described as a sorting device. In the medicine bag sorting device, a plurality of sets of printing devices for printing medicine bags are arranged in parallel, and the printed medicine bags are transported from the printing device through respective transport paths. The transport path is connected to an unloading path for aligning and sending the medicine bags received from these transport paths, a detector for detecting the drug bag is provided on the path from the transport path to the unloading path, and a drug bag is provided at an end of the unloading path. A distribution plate that distributes the medicine bags in a plurality of directions is arranged, and the medicine bag conveyed from the printing device is detected by the above-mentioned detector, sent from the carry-out path to the distribution plate, and the medicine bag is distributed based on the medicine bag printing information from the storage unit of the information for each medicine bag. It is provided with a control device for controlling so as to switch the plate distributing direction.

In the medicine bag sorting apparatus having the above structure, when printing is performed on the medicine bags in parallel by the printing devices arranged in parallel, the medicine bags are sent from the transport path to the discharge path. At that time, in order to prevent medicine bags from a plurality of transport paths from overlapping on the unloading path, the detector detects whether there is a drug bag on the path from the transport path to the unloading path, and controls the control device based on the detection signal. Transports the medicine bag.

For the medicine bag conveyed as described above,
The control device determines in advance which bag the patient belongs to based on the medicine bag information in the storage unit of the control device, and the distribution plate is controlled in accordance with the medicine bag information, and the direction of the distribution plate is switched according to the patient name. The medicine bag is sorted in a desired direction. When prioritizing or reissuing medicine bags, information on the order and reissue is input to the control device, and medicine bags are sorted in the same manner as described above.

The medicine bag sorting device sends medicine bags printed in parallel and conveyed from the printing device from the conveyance path to the carry-out path so as not to overlap with each other by a signal from the detector. The medicine bags are sorted by controlling the sorting direction of the sorting plate based on the print information stored in the storage unit in advance, so that the medicine bags can be automatically sorted according to various conditions such as patient names and priorities. The distribution can be performed, which has the effect of greatly increasing the efficiency of the distribution work.

[0026]

According to the medicine bag printing apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of printing apparatuses print in the respective order according to the patient name or according to the priority order or the condition of reissuance, and are sent out and sorted. A remarkable effect is obtained in that the printing and sorting work of the medicine bags is greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is an overall structural diagram of an embodiment, and FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing a control structure thereof.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of the above.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a distribution plate and its driving unit.

[Description of Signs] 2, 3, 4 Printing device 5, 6, 7 Conveying path 8 Conveying conveyor 9 Storage case 12 Distributing plate 14 Cam disk 15 Drive motor 19, 20, 21, 22 Detector 23 Control device 24 Data memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A medicine bag printing apparatus for transmitting print information to a plurality of sets of printing devices for printing prescription information on medicine bags, and printing information based on prescriptions on the medicine bags with the plurality of sets of printing devices. The medicine bag discharged from each printing device is introduced into one conveyance path to convey the medicine bag, and the medicine bags discharged from each of the plural sets of printing devices are introduced into the one conveyance path. A plurality of detectors for detecting the presence of a medicine bag, and a distribution plate provided at a transport terminal of the one transport path for distributing the medical bags in at least two directions.