JPS6318471Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for wiping the bottom of a container such as a vial.

2. Description of the Related Art A product housed in a container, such as a medicine sealed in a vial, is used as an inspection object to check whether there is any foreign matter in the medicine or whether there is any abnormality in the container itself. This inspection generally includes automatic inspection using an optical machine and manual inspection using visual inspection, but in either case, there is a need to improve the inspection accuracy. In order to improve inspection accuracy, it is necessary to remove dirt that adheres to the outer bottom surface of the container during the transportation process so that the inside of the container and the container itself can be clearly seen.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a container bottom surface cleaning device that can wipe the bottom surface of containers during transportation.

The container bottom surface cleaning device of the present invention includes a rotatable star wheel having a plurality of grooves formed on the circumference for receiving the body of the container, and a rotatable star wheel arranged below the star wheel to support the bottom surface of the container held by the star wheel. a rotatable disc, and a number of container holders arranged above the star wheel that can be raised and lowered to come into contact with the containers, and a wiping material is provided at the portion of the top surface of the disc that contacts the bottom surface of the container. ,
While the container is held by the star wheel, the container presser is lowered to press the container against the wiping material on the upper surface of the disc, and the star wheel and the disc are forcibly driven together to rotate relative to each other. Features.

The embodiments shown in the drawings will be described below.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a turntable that supports a large number of bottles, and guides 3 and 4 are arranged above the turntable for feeding the bottles 2 in a line. A star wheel 5 for taking out a bottle is provided at the tips of the guides 3 and 4, and a container bottom surface cleaning device 6 according to the present invention is provided adjacent to this star wheel 5. Furthermore, a conveyor 7 is provided behind the device 6 and is adapted to receive the bottles whose bottom surfaces have been wiped by the device 6 and send them to an inspection device (not shown).

Next, details of the cleaning device 6 will be explained with reference to FIG. The cleaning device 6 has a star wheel 11 and a disk 12 below the star wheel 11.
The star wheel 11 has a number of grooves 11A on its circumference for receiving the bodies of the bottles 2, and is fixed to a shaft 14 via a sleeve 13. axis 14
is rotatably supported by a bearing box 16 via a bearing 15. A pulley 1 is attached to the lower end of the shaft 14.
7 is fixed, and the pulley 17 is connected to the belt 18.
It is connected to a pulley 20 on the drive shaft of the motor 19 via. The shaft 14 is thus rotated clockwise in FIG. 1 by the motor 19.

A rotor 21 is fixed above the star wheel 11 so as to rotate together with the shaft 14. This rotor 21 has a star wheel 1
A hole 21A is formed above the first groove 11A, and a guide rod 22 is held in the hole 21A so as to be slidable up and down. The guide rod 22 has a container holder 23 at its lower end and is pushed downward by a spring 24 to push the bottle 2 downward.
On the other hand, a roller 25 is provided at the upper end of the guide rod 22.
is installed. The rollers 25 are provided so as to be able to engage with a cam rail 26 which is mounted stationary by means of a support device, not shown. The cam rail 26 has a bottle star wheel 1.
1 and the position where it is sent out from the star wheel 11, the guide rod 22
The container holder 23 is placed at a position such that the container holder 23 can be lifted away from the top end of the bottle 2.

Next, the disk 12 is fixed via a bearing 27 to the upper end of a pulley 28 which is rotatably held. The pulley 28 is connected via a belt 29 to a pulley 31 on the drive shaft of a motor 30. An attachment member 33 having a wiping material 32 is attached to the upper surface of the disk 12. The wiping material 32 supports and cleans the bottom surface of the bottle 2, and cloth, felt, paper, etc. can be used as appropriate.
The mounting member 33 may be ring-shaped or may be divided into an appropriate number of blocks. The motors 19, 30 rotate in opposite directions, and therefore the star wheel 11 and disk 12 rotate in opposite directions.

Next, the operation will be explained. The bottles 2 on the turntable 1 are continuously fed to the star wheel 11 through the star wheel 5. Since the star wheel 11 is rotating in synchronization with the star wheel 5,
Bottles from the star wheel 5 are held in the groove 11A, rotated, and sent to the conveyor 7. At this time, the bottle is pressed against the wiping material 32 of the disc 12 by the container holder 23, and since the disc 12 is rotating in the opposite direction to the star wheel 11, the bottom surface of the bottle is rubbed and wiped by the wiping material 32. Ru. The wiped bottles are then sent from the conveyor 7 to the inspection device.

Note that the rotation direction of the disk 12 is not necessarily limited to the opposite direction to the star wheel 12,
They may be in the same direction as long as the relative speed is such that the desired rubbing action can be achieved on the bottom of the bottle. The center of rotation of the disk 12 is not necessarily the star wheel 11
It is not necessary to align the center of rotation with the center of rotation, and it may be slightly eccentric. However, in the case of eccentricity, it is necessary to make the diameter of the disc larger than that of the star wheel so that the disc can always support the bottom of the bottle being transported by the star wheel 11.
On the other hand, there is an advantage that the effective area of the wiping material 32 can be increased.

As described above, in the present invention, the bottom surface of the bottle can be simply cleaned while the bottle is being transported by the star wheel 11,
This has the effect of greatly improving the accuracy of bottle inspection in subsequent processes.

In addition, although the above-mentioned Example showed the case where this invention was applied to a bottle, this invention is applicable to containers other than a bottle. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the case where it is combined with an inspection device, but can also be applied to cases where it is simply desired to wipe the bottom surface of the container.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing the mounting position of a cleaning device 6 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing details of the cleaning device 6 in side view and cross section. 1... Turntable, 2... Bottle, 6... Cleaning device, 7... Conveyor, 11... Star wheel, 11A... Groove, 12... Disc, 3
2... Wiping material, 19, 30... Motor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] a rotatable star wheel 11 having a plurality of grooves formed on its circumference for receiving the body of the container; a rotatable disk 12 disposed below the star wheel 11 for supporting the bottom surface of the container held by the star wheel; It has a large number of container holders 23 which are arranged above the star wheel and can be raised and lowered so as to come into contact with the containers, and a wiping material 3 is provided on the portion of the upper surface of the disc that contacts the bottom surface of the container.
2 is provided, and while the container is held by the star wheel, the container presser is lowered to press the container against the wiping material on the upper surface of the disc, and the star wheel and the disc are rotated relative to each other. A container bottom cleaning device characterized in that it is forcibly driven.