JPS62207460A - Gelatin sheet molding device in gelatin capsule producing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Objective of the Invention) <Industrial Field of Application> The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing drugs, nutrients, etc. packaged in capsule form using gelatin sheets.
The present invention relates to a gelatin sheet forming device that is required in the first stage of capsule manufacturing, and particularly to a cooling device used in sheet forming.

<Prior Art and Problems> Various gelatin capsules are commercially available in which liquid drugs, nutritional supplements, etc. (hereinafter referred to as stock solutions) are wrapped in flexible gelatin to make them easier to take. . To manufacture such gelatin capsules, molten gelatin is first molded into a sheet shape, and then this is molded into spindle-shaped granular capsules using Gyroll, and at the same time as this molding, a stock solution is filled inside. . When forming gelatin sheets using such equipment, molten gelatin is spread and applied onto a rotating cooling drum, and cooling air is blown onto the coated surface to allow the molten gelatin to pass through processing. That's what I do.

When using such conventional methods, the cooling air that performs the cooling effect is not particularly recovered, so the operating cost of the refrigerator to supply the cooling air becomes extremely high, which ultimately increases the overall manufacturing cost. I had a problem. In addition to the cost, this type of product is intended for human consumption as medicine, so extremely strict sanitary control is required. Clean, unmixed products must be supplied, and for this reason air purifiers, mainly filters, etc., must be managed extremely strictly, and in this regard, extremely careful management of the manufacturing process is required. was.

Technical matters that were attempted to be developed> The present invention was developed in view of the shortcomings of the conventional methods, and it completely eliminates the so-called method of blowing cooling air when cooling gelatin sheets, and instead replaces the cooling roll itself. Cooling is achieved by directly supplying a cooling medium into the inside of the device, thereby reducing manufacturing costs and making it easier to manage sanitary manufacturing.

(Structure of the Invention) Means for Achieving the Object> That is, the gelatin sheet forming device in the gelatin capsule manufacturing device of the present invention applies heated gelatin in a curtain shape to the surface of a cooling drum using a spreader box, and then transfers the heated gelatin while transporting the gelatin. In the cooling device, the cooling drum is characterized in that a cooling medium is supplied therein, thereby achieving the above object.

(Example) The present invention will be specifically explained below based on illustrated examples. The present invention is constructed by being incorporated into a gelatin capsule manufacturing apparatus 1 described below, and these apparatuses will be described in detail below. This gelatin capsule manufacturing apparatus 1 is roughly divided into a sheet molding section 2 and a capsule molding section 3, and these members are assembled to a frame F. First, the sheet molding section 2 is assembled into a frame F. To explain this, two gelatin sheets are supplied to the capsule molding section 3 in a stacked state and are molded into a spindle shape in the capsule molding section 3, so that the sheet molding sections 2 before and after the gelatin sheets are A pair of gelatin sheets are provided on the left and right sides of the frame F. However, the structure is not necessarily limited to this. An appropriate method may be used, such as cutting the gelatin into two sheets in between and feeding them oppositely.First, a gelatin tank 5 is provided above the sheet forming section 2.

This is for storing molten gelatin,
Since this embodiment is a relatively compact device used for relatively small-volume production or experimental production, it can be used for practical purposes even when gelatin is supplied to the gelatin tank 5. Furthermore, in order to make it suitable for mass production, instead of this gelatin tank 5, a gelatin hopper or the like that can be supplied as appropriate may be suspended above the processing plant by a hoist crane or the like to supply gelatin.
A supply hose 6 is drawn out downward from the gelatin tank 5 and is provided with a valve 7 in the middle. A heater 8 is provided in the gelatin tank 5 to ensure that the gelatin is in a molten state. The gelatin supplied from the supply hose 6 of the gelatin tank 5 is supplied to the spreader box 10 located below the gelatin tank 5, and the spreader box 10 will be described in detail below.

As shown in Fig. 4.5.6, this device has a substantially wedge-shaped side surface, and consists of a main body 11 and a dam plate 12 movably attached to the front surface of the main body 11.
1 is configured to be fixed to the frame F by a fixing bracket 13. A float valve 14 is provided within this main body 11. This device consists of a float and a valve installed between the connection end of the supply hose 6 and the spreader box 1 according to a conventional method.
When enough gelatin is supplied into the spreader box 10, the float in the float valve 14 rises and closes the valve, so that a certain amount of gelatin is always stored in the spreader box 10. In addition, such a main body 11 and adjustment [f! 12 are each provided with a heater 15 for ensuring that the gelatin is in a molten state. A slit-shaped discharge hole 16 is formed between the lower end of the main body 11 and the lower end of the adjustment weir plate 12, from which the molten gelatin in the spreader box 10 is discharged. Next, the opening adjustment mechanism and the like of this adjustment weir Fi12 will be explained. First, reference numeral 1B is an adjustment rod having a thread formed around its periphery, and this rod is short-fitted to a female threaded portion 19 that is integrally attached to the adjustment dam plate 12. A dial 20 is provided at the upper end of the adjustment lorado 18 for rotating it, and the lower end thereof forms an abutting end 21 and abuts against a reference end 22 fixed to the main body 11 side. maintains its condition. Incidentally, reference numeral 23 denotes a spring, which acts to constantly press the adjustment dam 12 side downward. Further, reference numeral 24 is a front guide formed on the main body 11 side. Such an adjustment weir f! A dial gauge 26 is provided between the spreader box 12 and the main body 11 so that the adjustment state thereof can be visually checked.
The plunger 27 of the dial gauge 26 is in contact with a detection protrusion 28 that moves together with the adjustment dam plate 12. Therefore, the dial gauge 26 indicates the open state or fully closed state as a constant value when the reference position is adjusted to 0 as appropriate, such as when the discharge hole hole 6 is in the fully closed state or the most frequently used open state. It is configured as follows. Incidentally, in this embodiment, since the discharge amount of gelatin requires very delicate adjustment, the adjustment dam plate 12
Since even the slightest inclination of the adjustment weir plate 12 is not allowed, a dial gauge 26 is provided on each side of the adjustment 11Fi 12, but the mechanism is such that such an inclination of the adjustment weir plate 12 hardly occurs, or even if it does occur, the degree of inclination is limited. When making adjustments when this is not a problem, it is possible to make adjustments by installing only one dial gauge 26 or adjustment rod 18 in the center. As shown in FIG. 7.8, this device is rotatably supported by a frame F at a shaft 31 and driven by a suitable motor. And this axis 31
A cooling medium supply means is formed for the cooling medium, and numeral 32 is a cooling medium supply hose, and 33 is a cooling medium recovery hose. These hoses are connected to a compulsion ring 34, which is fitted onto the shaft 31 so that the cooling medium can be supplied and recovered. A coolant discharge pipe 35 and a coolant recovery pipe 36 are formed to extend into the cooling drum 30 from each opening of the shaft 3.

Such a cooling medium is supplied or recovered from the refrigerator unit 38. Note that a detailed explanation of the refrigerator unit 38 will be omitted since a general refrigerator unit can be used.

The device described above becomes the sheet molding section 2, and the capsule molding section 3 is provided at the subsequent stage, that is, the side where the gelatin sheet s is fed, and a feed roll 40 is provided as a relay between them. A reversing guide 41 is formed. The gelatin sheet S, which has been cooled by circulating around the Uchi cooling drum 30, passes between the plurality of feed rolls 40 in a zigzag pattern, reaches the reversing guide 41, and is fed into the capsule molding section 3. Next, this capsule molding section 3
will be explained according to FIG. 9.10.11 etc. First, reference numeral 42 denotes a die head which is a main component of the capsule molding section 3, and this head is composed of a die roll frame 43 and a pair of die rolls 44. Note that one of the pair of die rolls 44 is fixed, and the other is configured to be able to freely approach the fixed die roll 44,
If it is necessary to distinguish between the two, one will be described as the stationary die roll 44a and the other as the restarting die roll 44b. Each die roll 44 has an appropriate molding protrusion 45 formed on its surface, and has an elliptical shape with a concave center when forming gelatin capsules A that are, for example, approximately spindle-shaped. It is something.

Next, the adjustment mechanism of the contact pressure of the die roll 44 will be explained.
A pair of front and rear leaf springs 47.4 for pressing against this bearing portion 46 are slidably formed on the 4a side.
8 is configured to act. That is, the pair of slope springs 47 and 48 have a central contact portion 49 with a protruding center.
The leaf springs 47 on the side closer to the bearing part 46 have both ends in contact with the bearing part 46, thereby acting to push the bearing part 46 toward the stationary die roll 44a. An adjustment push rod 51 is in contact with both ends of the other slope spring 4, and this adjustment push rod 51 is configured to engage with the die roll frame 43, and an adjustment dial is provided at the operating end of the adjustment push rod 51. 52, so that a stronger contact pressure can be obtained when the adjusting bushing rod 51 is screwed in tightly. This contact pressure is numerically detected by a pressing force gauge 53. Next, the stock solution supply device 55 will be explained. Store the stock solution inside. A pump unit 57 is provided below the pump unit 57, which combines a large number of appropriate plunger pumps, etc., and sends out the stock solution from multiple routes at a predetermined timing, from the delivery pipe to the stock solution nozzle 59. It is configured so that it can be discharged in parallel. The undiluted solution nozzle 59 has a protruding shape so that its tip can fully fit between the die rolls 44. Each member provided below the die roll 44 contributes to the ejection of the gelatin capsule A as a product. I will explain about it.

First, reference numeral 61 is a take-out trough for gelatin capsules A, which is configured to be pulled out from below the die roll 44 to the front of the apparatus. A scraping brush 63 for the die roll is brought into contact with each of the die rolls 44 for taking out the gelatin capsules A stuck between the molding protrusions 45 of the die roll 44. Furthermore, it is expected that the gelatin capsules A will remain on the blank sheet S' from which the gelatin capsules A have been punched. Place them opposite each other so that they are sandwiched between them. Furthermore, a blank sheet feed roll 65 for actively drawing the blank sheet S' downward is provided below. In this apparatus, the scraping brush 63 for the gougly roll, the scraping brush 64 for the blank sheet, and the blank sheet feed roll 65 are driven by a separate system from the other drive systems. The drive system will be described below. Reference numeral M denotes a take-out motor, and rotation is transmitted from its output gear port 7 to a blank sheet feed roll gear 69 via an idle gear 68.

The blank sheet feed roll gear 69 is configured such that a pair of left and right blank sheet feed rolls 65 are provided and rotated in opposite directions so that the gears mesh with each other and are driven in a reversed state. Furthermore, an output sprocket 70 is provided which shares the shaft center with the output gear port 7, and a chain 71 is suspended from the output sprocket 70.
Rotation is transmitted to 2. Similar to the blank sheet feed roll gear 69, this relay speed reducer 72 is configured to change the rotation direction to a pair of left and right by a gear, and is further connected to a sprocket 74 that drives a blank sheet scraping brush 64 by a chain 73. Rotation is transmitted. Furthermore, a sprocket 7 attached to the scraping brush 63 for Gwirol by another chain 76
7 and is configured to transmit rotation to. Note that each of these transmission systems is appropriately provided with a chain tension mechanism, etc., but a description thereof will be omitted.

The present invention is embodied as a device as described above, and its operating state will be explained below.

i) Molding of gelatin sheet S When molding gelatin sheet S, first, enough melted gelatin in gelatin tank 5 is poured into spreader box 10 by opening valve 7 of supply hose 6.
It is supplied to At this time, spreader box 1
Since the float valve 14 is open when no gelatin is stored in the spreader box 10, melted gelatin sequentially flows into the spreader box 10 to fill it with gelatin. When a certain amount of gelatin flows in, the float valve 14 is closed and the spreader box 10 is filled with a certain liquid level. When the adjustment weir plate 12 is adjusted to an appropriate position in this state, molten gelatin is discharged from the discharge hole 16 formed between the lower end of the adjustment weir plate 12 and the lower end of the main body 11. The gelatin will flow out and the gelatin will be applied to the surface of the cooling drum 30 facing there. At this time, setting the thickness of this gelatin is extremely important.
to rotate the adjustment loft 18, thereby adjusting the set height of the adjustment weir plate 12 relative to the main body 11, and adjusting the height of the adjustment weir plate 12 relative to the main body 11.
Set the opening dimensions of 6. In other words, the lower contact end 21 of the adjustment lorado 18 is in contact with the reference end 22 on the main body 11 side, and by twisting this, the adjustment dam plate 1
The female screw portion 19 on the second side moves up and down to set the adjustment weir plate 12. And this set quantity is dial gauge 2
It is expressed as a numerical value by 6. Therefore, it is preferable to provide various numerical data so that the adjustment of the gelatin sheet S can be made based on the numerical values, and even a non-skilled operator can make the settings. The gelatin sheet S discharged onto the surface of the cooling drum 300 in this manner comes into sufficient contact with the surface of the rotating cooling drum 30, and then is cooled and sent to the feed roll 40. Cooling in the cooling drum 30 is carried out by supplying a cooling medium from a refrigerator unit 38, for example a cooling liquid or a refrigerant such as fluorocarbon gas, from a cooling medium supply hose 32 through a coupling 34, and from a cooling medium discharge pipe 35 in the cooling drum 30 to the cooling drum. The cooling drum 30 is sufficiently cooled by being discharged into the cooling drum 30 and then being recovered. The gelatin sheet discharged onto the surface of the cooling drum 30 undergoes heat exchange there, is sufficiently cooled, and is supplied to the capsule molding section 3 in a desired viscosity state.

ii) Capsule Forming Process In this embodiment, the gelatin sea S thus supplied is reversed in direction by approximately 90° by a reversing guide 41 and reaches the capsule molding section 3, as an example. That is, as shown in FIG. 11, the gelatin sheet S is supplied so as to be sandwiched between a pair of die rolls 44 in the capsule molding section 3. On the other hand, a stock solution nozzle 59 faces this sandwiched portion, from which a fixed amount of stock solution is discharged between the two gelatin sheets S. The timing of this discharge is naturally set in accordance with the state in which the molding protrusions 45 of the die roll 44 are in contact with each other, thereby further filling the interior of the die roll with the stock solution. Incidentally, such a configuration itself is conventionally known. At this time, when the pair of die rolls 44 molding protrusions 45 are brought into contact with each other, setting the contact pressure is an extremely important adjustment operation, and this is done by the following means. That is, the operator makes the adjustment by rotating each adjustment dial 52, and when the adjustment dial 52 is screwed in, for example, the adjustment bushing rod 51 presses both ends of the leaf spring 4, and the pressure is further increased. The central contact portion 49 of the leaf spring 48 leads to the central contact portion 49 of the other leaf spring 47, and then the leaf spring 4
The pressure No. 7 reaches the bearing portion 46 of the restart side die roll 44b from both ends thereof. This pressing force is indicated as a numerical value by a pressing force gauge 53 that is integrally attached to the adjustment dial 52. Therefore, by compiling this numerical data, ideal settings can be made even by non-experts.

The gelatin capsules A thus molded are recovered from a take-out trough 61 provided below the die roll 44. At this time, the molded gelatin capsules A may not necessarily come off the die roll 44 or the gelatin blank sheet S', and the following operation is performed to recover them. First, the die roll scraping brush 63 is driven by the take-out motor M to contact the die rolls 4.
4, and the gelatin capsules A that had been fitted into the molding protrusions 45 are successively scraped off. The brush 64 acts to lift the blank sheet S' in the direction opposite to the running direction (downward in this embodiment), thereby removing the eight molded gelatin capsules from the blank sheet S'.

At this time, in order to more reliably take out the blank sheet S', the blank sheet S' is sandwiched between the blank sheet feed rolls 65 and drawn downward in an accumulative manner. In addition, when driving the die roll scraping brush 63, blank sheet scraping brush 64, and blank sheet feed roll 65 on the extraction side of the gelatin capsule A, other driven members such as the die roll 44 and the cooling drum 30 are used. This is done completely independently of the drive source of the extractor, and in this case, it is possible to independently adjust and inspect only the various devices of the extracting section, and a more preferable adjustment operation can be performed.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the present invention, when forming a gelatin sheet, the cooling drum for the gelatin sheet has a cooling effect by supplying a cooling medium inside thereof. There is no need to separately blow wind or the like, and the cost required for cooling can be significantly reduced. Also, since cooling air etc. are not supplied, it is extremely difficult to
This makes it possible to manufacture gelatin sheets in a biological environment.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a gelatin capsule manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of the same, FIG. 3 is a front view of the same, and FIG. Figure 5 is a front view of the same as above, Figure 6 is a plan view of same as above, and Figure 6 is a top view of the same as above.
1 is a cross-sectional view of the cooling drum in this device, FIG. 8 is a side view of the same, FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the die head portion in this device, FIG. 10 is a plan view of the goo head, and FIG. 11 is a capsule formed by a die roll. FIG. 12 is a front view showing the various devices of the extraction section, and FIG. 13 is a front view showing the driving state of the same. 1; gelatin capsule manufacturing device 21 sheet molding section 3; capsule molding section 5; gelatin tank 10; spreader box 11; main body 12: adjustment weir plate 16; discharge hole 18; adjustment roller 21; abutting end 22 ; Reference end 26; Dial gauge 27; Plunger 28; Detection protrusion 30; Cooling drum 32; Coolant supply hose 33; Coolant recovery hose 34; Coupling 35; Coolant discharge pipe 36; Coolant recovery pipe 38; Refrigerator unit 42: Gui head 44; die roll 44a; fixed die roll 44b; adjustable die roll 45; molded protrusion 46; bearing portion 47.48; slope spring 51; adjustment bushing rod 52; adjustment dial 53; pressing force gauge 55; stock solution Supply device 56; Stock solution hopper 57: Pump unit 58; Delivery pipe 59; Stock solution nozzle 63; Die roll scraping brush 64; Blank sheet scraping brush 65; Blank sheet feed roll A; Gelatin capsule F; Frame M; Removal Part motor S; Gelatin sheet S'i blank sheet Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7

Claims (1)

[Claims] A device for applying heated gelatin to the surface of a cooling drum using a spreader box and cooling the gelatin while transporting the gelatin capsule, wherein the cooling drum is provided with a cooling medium inside thereof. Gelatin sheet forming equipment in manufacturing equipment.