JPS58117442A - Method and apparatus for inspecting foreign matter in liquid contained by soft bag - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit a foreign matter inspection to be carried out stably and reliably as well as at a speed several tens of times as high as that of the conventional visual inspection, by allowing an automatic inspection by means of an electronic camera. CONSTITUTION:In a step A, a transparent rigid plate, e.g., a glass plate or acrylic resin plate, and a colored rigid plate are pressed against the front and rear surfaces of a soft bag so as to retain the soft bag by pressing and clamping the same from both the front and rear surfaces, respectively. In a step B, these rigid plates are strongly shock-vibrated by, e.g., clobbering the plates. In a step C, the retained soft bag is rotated a half turn so as to be inverted, thereby to move the liquid contained therein vertically. In a step D, a strong vibration is applied to the soft bag similarly to the step B. In a step E, a possible foreign matter in the liquid contained by the soft bag is inspected by means of an electronic camera. In a step F, the retaining of the soft bag by the rigid plates is canceled, and the automatic quality selection of the soft bag is effected by receiving the signal from the electronic camera.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for inspecting foreign objects in softback contents i using an electronic camera and an apparatus for carrying out the same.

Conventionally, a glass container such as an ampoule or a vial containing a medical solution is faced with an electronic camera using photoelectrons, such as a television camera, and the electronic camera is used to image and inspect foreign matter mixed in the medical solution inside the container. Sorting into defective products with contamination and non-defective products with no contamination is generally practiced.

On the other hand, so-called soft bags, in which infusions such as Ringer's solution are sealed in transparent soft synthetic resin bags rather than in vials or other bottles, have been widely used in the medical field in recent years, and are lightweight, lightweight, and easy to handle without risk of breakage. Although it has many advantages such as being easy to use, inspection for foreign substances mixed in it relies exclusively on visual inspection.
Inspection using an electronic camera is considered impossible.

In addition, the entire internal volume of a general liquid-filled soft bag is not occupied by the filled liquid, but due to manufacturing reasons, a portion is occupied by gas, and many small bubbles are present. It is always attached to the inner wall.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for automatically inspecting foreign matter in the liquid inside a soft bag using an electronic camera.

First, an outline of the method of the present invention will be described, but please also refer to the attached drawings for easy understanding. That is, as a manual process, a transparent hard plate, such as a glass plate or an acrylic resin plate, is pressed against the front side of the soft back, and a colored hard plate is pressed against the back side, and the soft back is held by being pressed and held from both the front and back sides. Next, as a step B, the pressed hard plate is subjected to strong impact vibration by repeatedly hitting it, etc., and in a step C, the held soft bag is rotated half a turn to turn it upside down, and the content liquid is moved up and down, In step D, strong vibration is applied as in step B, in step E an electronic camera is used to inspect the liquid inside the soft bag for foreign matter, and in step C the holding of the soft back by the hard plate is released, while a signal from the electronic camera is It consists of the above steps of automatically selecting whether the soft bag is good or bad based on the received information.

Next, the purpose and effect of each of the above steps will be described.

First, as a result of pressing and holding the soft bag with hard plates during the manual process, the soft bag, which is flexible and easily deformed, is turned into a regular inspection object that does not deform, making inspection and handling very stable and easy.

When capturing an image of the liquid inside the soft bag with an electronic camera without adopting this manual process, the flexible walls of the soft back may become twisted, bent, or uneven due to the flow of the liquid inside, and the electronic camera During inspection, images are captured with various patterns, and unlike the glass tube wall, the soft back wall is very susceptible to many small bubbles adhering to it.
And because it is difficult to separate, even if you simply hit various parts of the flexible soft back repeatedly, vibration will only be applied to the repeatedly hit contact points, and the immediately adjacent non-contact points will not be affected in any way. Therefore, it is very difficult to separate the attached bubbles from the wall. If a large number of small bubbles are imaged and inspected using an electronic camera, the small bubbles will be captured as images, making foreign object inspection completely impossible.

However, after employing the human process, when a part of the hard board is pressed repeatedly in step B, the vibrations spread widely to the entire surface of the soft back that is in pressing contact with the hard board.
All of the logical bubbles can be easily detached.

The application of impact vibration in step B or D causes not only the separation of the bubble walls but also the separation of the walls of the logical foreign object, which facilitates the imaging of the foreign object with the electronic camera in step E. Note that the frequency is preferably 1 to 50 hertz. In the I process, parallel light is irradiated into the liquid content from the side of the soft back, but while this prevents strong light from hitting the walls of the soft back, it is strong against foreign objects floating in the liquid. This is to allow the electronic camera to clearly capture an image in the front direction of the soft back, which is pressed and held between transparent hard plates and has a smooth surface.

In process C, the soft bag is rotated half a turn to move heavy foreign matter that has settled at the bottom to the upper liquid layer due to the movement of the content liquid, and to move light foreign matter that has floated to the top of the liquid layer to the liquid layer. This is because by moving the foreign matter to the lower part, the position of the foreign matter in the liquid becomes unstable, that is, the light matter is at the bottom and the heavy one is at the top, giving rise to an opportunity for the foreign matter to return to its previous position. During this up-and-down reversal, the bubbles will again adhere to the inner wall of the soft back, so in step 1, it is necessary to separate the bubbles from the walls by strong vibration in the same manner as in step 1. Then, while the opportunity provided by step C continues,
The image of the foreign object is taken using an electronic camera in step 1. During this opportunity, all foreign objects can be imaged by the electronic camera, as heavy foreign objects slowly settle downwards within the field of view of the electronic camera, and lightweight foreign objects slowly rise within the field of view. be.

? In the process, after receiving the signal from the electronic camera,
The four-way pass/fail selection, that is, the means for separating defective products with foreign matter from non-contaminated good products, is carried out by employing a conventional automatic sorting technique.

The order in which the above steps are combined can be modified slightly, and it is also preferable to incorporate the inspection step using an electronic camera twice as shown in M→B→I→0→D−′1→A.

However, there is at least some principle to the order of these combinations! , that is, immediately after the l process, there is always the l process, that is, the press clamping by the hard plate of the soft back (
After the holding) step (A), there is a strong vibration step of the soft back by repeatedly hitting the hard plate, etc.
- The combination principle of B, and the fact that the 1 process or 1 process is required immediately before the W and 1 processes, i.e., before the foreign object imaging process [I process] using an electronic camera, the inner wall of the soft back will adhere due to strong vibration. There is a process of detaching small bubbles or B is combined; there is a combination principle of D or B-me. Therefore, in order to perform accurate foreign object imaging, as a pre-process to the electronic camera imaging process, an up-and-down inversion process is performed to allow the foreign object to become loose within the soft bag, and multiple electronic camera images are performed to double-check the foreign object. Slightly modified combinations may be adopted as necessary, such as by adopting different processes.

As mentioned above, according to the present invention, foreign matter inspection of the liquid inside the soft bag was performed only by visual inspection in the conventional method.
By using a soft bag as a non-deformable, regularized object to be inspected, foreign matter inspection can be performed automatically and stably and reliably. Similarly, for the first time, it became possible to stably and reliably screen softbacks for quality and in a short period of time.

Next, an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention will be explained.

The device of the present invention comprises a soft back holding frame comprising a transparent hard plate and a colored hard plate that are spaced apart and facing each other, and an elastic member that constantly biases the hard plates so as to reduce the distance between them. A soft bag loading device that widens the gap between holding frames and loads soft bags into the gap, a vibrating device that vibrates the holding frame, and a rotation mechanism that rotates the holding frame by half a rotation; a re-vibration tool for vibrating the holding frame again;
An electronic camera for capturing images of foreign objects in the liquid inside the soft bag, a soft bag ejecting mechanism for ejecting the soft bag from the holding frame by expansion, and a system that determines whether the soft bag is good or bad based on signals from the electronic camera. This is an automatic softback inspection device characterized by comprising a sorting mechanism for.

Examples thereof will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall explanatory diagram of the apparatus of the present invention, and the flow of the preferred embodiment of the method of the present invention described above is (A) -rB) -rE'
J - (0) → (D) - [1) → [A] (For Al, the holding frame 1 of the soft bag 5 is expanded by the expanding tool 4, and at the same time, the soft bag 5 is expanded. Then, the expansion device 4 and the holding frame 1 are disengaged, and the soft bag 5 is pressed and held within the holding frame 1 at the (B) process point. The transfer is performed by a conveyor 2 driven by a motor 3, and the holding frame 1 is fixed to the conveyor 2 via a bearing 21 so as to be self-rotatable.

At point (B), the vibration rod 7a of the vibration device 6- is used to repeatedly hit the soft bag holding frame 1 to give an impact and vibrate it, causing many air bubbles attached to the inner wall of the soft bag to separate and float. .

[At the initial point, the electronic camera 9 images the foreign object in the liquid inside the soft bag, which is irradiated with parallel light from the light source 8g.

At point [C], the rack 11 fixedly installed near the conveyor 2 engages the pinion 9 at the end of the support shaft 20 protruding from the holding frame 1, rotating the holding frame 1 by approximately 180 degrees. .

[At the effective point, the holding frame 1 and the soft back 5 therein are moved again by the vibrating rod 7b of the vibrating device 6b in the same way as the [junior point].
By the rotation in step (0), the bubbles that form and form on the inner wall of the soft back are separated and floated away.

[At the phantom point (similar to the processing process, the electronic camera 9b is used again to image the foreign matter in the liquid inside the soft bag. In this case, as mentioned earlier, the heavy foreign matter descends from the upper layer of the liquid to the bottom). An electronic camera detects objects that are moving upwards, and light foreign objects that are moving upwards.

At the last country point, the holding frame 1 is expanded by the expanding device 12, the soft bag 5 that has been pressed and held is released and ejected from the holding frame 1, and the automatic operation is activated by storing and controlling the signals from the electronic cameras 9a and 9b. A sorter selects whether the softback 5- is good or bad.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of step (A), in which the ends of the hard plates 15 of the holding frame 1 are engaged with the koji 19 of the expanding device 4 and pulled outward to separate the hard plates 15 and 16. During this time, the soft bag 5 dropped from the hopper 13 is loaded, and the expanding device 4 is expanded.
By removing the engagement of 019 from the end of the hard plate 15, the distance between the hard plates 15 and 16 is reduced, and the soft batter 5 is pressed and held between the two hard plates 15 and 16.

Reference numeral 14 designates a stand that receives the soft bag 5 when it falls from the hopper 13.

The holding frame 1 is made up of a transparent hard plate 15, a colored hard plate 16, and a bolt 17 with a coil spring 18 wound around both ends of the bolt 17 so that the distance between the two hard plates can be expanded or contracted. It is always pushed out toward the transparent hard plate 15, so that the soft bag 5 inserted between both the hard and hard plates 15 and 16 is pressed and clamped by them.

Note that if the colored elastic plate 22 is laminated on the inner surface of the colored hard plate 16 of the holding frame 1, vibrations can be transmitted to the soft back in step (B) well.

By the way, one side of the softback 5 is usually colored and printed with characters, patterns, etc. for displaying the composition of the liquid content, and the other side, which is not printed, allows the image of the liquid content to be captured by an electronic camera as shown in FIG. In this case, there is a drawback that not only the foreign matter in the liquid but also the letters and patterns are captured as images, but in order to eliminate this disadvantage, one of the hard plates should be placed in the same color as the printed letters and patterns. It is best to use a colored (including black) side.

The reason for this is that when the printed surface of the soft back with colored letters, patterns, etc. is discarded onto the colored hard board 16.22, the colored letters, patterns, etc. are absorbed into the colored surface of the background and become a wall surface of the same color. This is because the image will not be captured by an electronic camera.

Furthermore, when imaging a foreign object with an electronic camera, the background is a colored surface, so there is little reflection of light, resulting in a dark area.As a result, the foreign object clearly emits light in such a dark background, making it possible to image the foreign object very clearly and reliably. It has the advantage of being

In imaging the foreign object 27 with the electronic camera in FIG.
The light from the light source 7 for illuminating foreign matter is converted into band-shaped parallel light by the slit mask 23 and travels into the soft back 5 . Therefore, there is no worry that the electronic cameras 9a and 9h will receive the diffusely reflected light from the wall surface of the soft back 5 or the printed characters and pattern images.

FIG. 4 shows the release of the soft bag 5 from the holding frame 1 and the pass/fail selection mechanism. The end of the transparent hard plate 15 is engaged with the koji 26 of the expanding device 12 and pulled outward, and the gap between the two hard plates is widened. Soft back cover 5 which had been expanded and was pressed between both plates.
are released and discharged from the holding frame 1, and then enter the sorting device 24 installed directly below it, where a sorting plate 25 that opens and closes under the control of storing signals from an electronic camera separates good soft bags from foreign matter. The defective product will be shipped separately via softback and two channels.

FIG. 5 shows the rotation mechanism of the soft bag holding frame 1 for the (0) process, in which the soft bag holding frame 1 fixed on the conveyor 2 and transferred reaches the A holding frame 1 is attached to a rack 10 fixed at a location.
The pinion 9 at the end of the support shaft 20 protruding from the hard plate is engaged, and as the holding frame 1 moves in the direction of the arrow, the holding frame 1 is rotated 180° while holding the soft bag 5.

In addition, the softback holding frame 1 (
7) Transfer Lt rA)-(@-('l t O-I
D) -0") -IF) Each process is carried out by intermittent movement, that is, with a temporary stop during each process operation, but it may be easily possible to carry out the process without stopping by making some design changes.

Further, the soft back 5 can be pressed and clamped by the hard plates 15 and 16' in the soft back holding frame 1 not only by using bolts and fill springs, but also by using leaf springs, rubber bands, or the like.

As described above, according to the method and apparatus of the present invention, it has become possible to stably and reliably inspect foreign matter in the liquid inside a soft bag, yet at a speed several tens of times faster than the conventional visual inspection method.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an overall plan view of the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a -1 sectional view, Fig. 3 is a 1-I sectional view, Fig. 4 is a -■ -■ sectional view, and Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along -1.

[0] Part side view. 1...Softback holding frame 2...Conveyor 4.
... Expanding tool 5 ... Soft bag 6a, 6b
... Vibrating tools 8a, 86... Light sources 9a, 9h... Electronic camera 10... Binion 11... Rack 12...
Expansion device and above Applicant: Yasushitaka Nakamura, Attorney (8135') JP, Hiroki Akira, Physician - Age 5 I! lI
, 1" Written process procedure amendment (method) Date of S/2Q, Showa Tata, Japan Patent Office Haruki Shimada 1, Indication of the case 1937 Patent No. a Tag No. 3, Relationship with the person making the amendment Patent application Person 4 Agent 7, drawings subject to amendment (Figures 2121 to 5)'#2
Figure L3 Figure 40 Ka5 z

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] t. A manual process in which a liquid-filled soft bag is pressed and clamped from both the front and back sides by a transparent hard plate and a colored hard plate to hold it in a vertical position, and a B process in which strong vibration is applied to these. , step C in which the soft bag is rotated half a turn together with both hard plates, step D in which strong vibrations are applied to these again, and foreign matter in the liquid inside the soft bag is imaged with an electronic camera from in front of the transparent hard plates. Finally, while releasing the holding of the soft back by both hard plates, the r step consists of receiving a signal from the electronic camera in the previous step and selecting whether the soft back is good or bad. A method of automatically inspecting foreign substances in the liquid inside soft bags using an electronic camera. 2. The method according to claim 1, which incorporates a step E' between steps B and C in which a foreign object in the liquid inside the soft bag is imaged by an electronic camera. (v) A soft back holding frame consisting of a transparent hard plate, a colored hard plate, and an elastic member that constantly biases the hard plates to reduce the facing distance between the two hard plates, and widening the gap between the holding frames. a soft bag loading device for loading the soft bag in the interval, a vibrating device for applying vibration to the holding frame, a rotating mechanism for rotating the holding frame by half a rotation, and a rotating mechanism for vibrating the holding frame again. a re-vibration device, an electronic camera for imaging foreign matter in the liquid inside the soft bag, a soft bag ejection mechanism for ejecting the soft bag from the holding frame by expansion, and a soft bag ejector that receives signals from the electronic camera. An automatic inspection device for foreign matter in a liquid inside a soft bag, characterized by comprising a sorting mechanism for classifying whether the bag is good or bad.