JPS6339260B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention involves transporting pharmaceutical tablets, capsules, or other pellet-like preparations (hereinafter collectively referred to as "solid preparations") using a transport drum, and This invention relates to a device for discharging from a position.

The conveyance device for solid preparations described above is used in many fields as a conveyance section in an appearance inspection machine for solid preparations, a printing machine for solid preparations, a counting machine, and the like.
An example of application to a visual inspection machine for solid preparations will be described below.

First, an outline of the above-mentioned solid drug appearance inspection machine will be explained with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a first drum-shaped conveyance unit (hereinafter referred to as the ``first drum'') which also serves as a supply drum for solid preparations (hereinafter referred to as ``tablets'').
2 is a second drum-shaped conveying section (hereinafter referred to as "second drum") adjacent to the first drum 1;
3 and 4 are observation devices, for example, using industrial television cameras, which are placed close to the outer peripheries of the first and second drums 1 and 2; 5 is an observation device that faces the outer periphery of the drums at the final end position of the conveyance process in the second drum 2; A discharge shutter 6 for good tablets is installed, and a discharge shutter 6 for defective tablets is installed in front of the shutter 5. The tablets 7 fed into the first drum 1 are synchronized in the directions of arrows A and B, respectively. The tablets 7 are conveyed along the outer peripheries of the rotating drums 1 and 2 as shown in the figure, and during this conveyance process, the tablets 7 are observed one side at a time using a viewing device. Based on the observation results, the tablets are individually judged to be good or bad, and the tablets judged to be defective are discharged to the discharge shooter 6, and the remaining good tablets are collected via the discharge shooter 5. On the other hand, the structure of each drum 1, 2 for transporting the tablets 7 as described above is as follows. First, the first drum 1 has solid drug storage holes 8 arranged at predetermined intervals along its outer circumferential surface in the circumferential direction.
The first drum 1 is provided with an outer guide 9 on the outer periphery of the lower half to prevent tablets from falling off, and an inner guide 10 on the inner periphery of the upper half. Therefore, the tablets 7 that have fallen into the accommodation holes 8 are conveyed along the outer periphery of the first drum 1 toward the second drum 2 as the drum rotates in the direction of arrow A. On the other hand, the second drum 2 is provided with pocket-shaped solid preparation accommodation holes 11 arranged along the circumferential direction on the outer peripheral surface, similar to the accommodation holes 8 in the first drum 1.
As will be described later, the housing hole 11 has an air passage opened at the bottom thereof passing through the inside and outside of the drum. Further, in the tablet conveying stroke area of the second drum 2, a vacuum chamber 13 is defined in the inner space of the drum by a fixed partition wall 12, and an exhaust pump 14 is connected to the vacuum chamber 13.
Therefore, in the conveying stroke area, negative pressure acts behind each accommodation hole 11, and the tablets 7 transferred from the first drum 1 are held in the accommodation holes 11 by suction. In addition, in a position corresponding to the aforementioned tablet ejection shooters 5 and 6,
Air nozzles 15 and 16 are fixedly arranged on the inner peripheral side of the drum toward the row of accommodation holes 11 at the end position of the conveyance stroke. Air nozzle 1 for discharging non-defective products
5 constantly blows out air, and the air nozzle 16 for discharging defective products receives a signal based on the above-mentioned observation judgment result.
The air is controlled to be blown out in time with the arrival of defective tablets. Note that the observation device 4, tablet ejection shooters 5, 6, and air nozzles 15, 16 in the second drum 2 are arranged above the drum as shown by the solid line, or are arranged oppositely below the drum as shown by the chain line. There is also. In one example of such an inspection machine, tablets are continuously conveyed and inspected at a rate of about 8 tablets per second.

By the way, in the conventional conveying device, the air passage that opens at the bottom of the pocket-shaped accommodation hole 11 in the second drum 2 is a small-diameter air passage that opens at the center of the bottom of the accommodation hole 11, as shown by reference numeral 17 in FIGS. 2a and b. It is formed as a through hole. Note that 18' indicates an air pressure source. However, in the conventional conveying device, the tablets are well absorbed by the accommodation hole 11, but when the tablets are discharged from the accommodation hole 11, the diameter of the through hole 17 is small, so the air nozzles 15, 1
The ejection operation of the tablet 7 by 6 is uncertain and the accommodation hole 11
It often happens that the liquid passes through the discharge shutter without being discharged. If the tablet continues to be transported without being ejected from the transport end position, it will eventually go around the drum and reach the transfer point between it and the first drum 1, where it will interfere with newly transferred tablets. This causes a so-called jamming phenomenon in which the tablets mesh together, leading to breakage of the tablet. In addition, attempts have been made to increase the blowing air pressure of the air nozzles in order to prevent such tablet ejection errors, but in particular, air nozzles 15 and 16 are installed facing each other in the upper surface area of the drum, as shown by the solid line in Fig. 1. In other words, when the tablet 7 is blown up and discharged against gravity, it has been confirmed that even if the blowing air pressure is increased, the ejection performance of the tablet 7 cannot be improved. As a result of considering this phenomenon, it was found that the cause lies in the following points. That is, as shown in FIG. 2a, the air nozzles 15, 1
The air blown from 6 is passed through the small diameter air passage through hole 1.
After passing through the tablet 7 and the pocket-like accommodation hole 11
As shown by arrow C, a high-speed airflow blows through the narrow gap between the bottom wall and the bottom wall. As a result, the negative pressure generated in the area of the high-speed airflow acts as a downward force on the tablet 7, which balances the upward dynamic pressure caused by the blown air, making it impossible to eject the tablet.

The present invention eliminates the drawbacks of the above conventional devices,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a conveying device that can reliably discharge tablets using an air nozzle. This is achieved by forming the air passage as a long groove-shaped air passage that traverses the accommodation hole along the circumferential direction of the drum-shaped conveying section.

Next, the configuration and operation of the present invention will be explained in detail based on illustrated embodiments.

In FIGS. 3a to 3c, each solid preparation accommodation hole 11
The air passage opening through the bottom surface of the second drum 2 is formed as a long groove 18 that crosses approximately the center of the accommodation hole 11 along the circumferential direction P of the second drum 2 . Also, this long groove 1
In the example shown in FIG. 3, reference numeral 8 is a circumferential groove formed by cutting the inner circumferential surface of the drum 2 with a lathe so as to extend over the entire circumferential area of the second drum 2 and straddle each accommodation hole 11.

By forming the air passages as long grooves 18 as described above, as shown in FIG. 3a, the drum 2
As the housing rotates, the air flow C blown out from the air nozzles 15 and 16 moves from the front edge of the housing hole 11 relative to the housing hole 11. Moreover, unlike the conventional case where the air flow is blown only at the moment when the small diameter hole 17 and the air nozzle coincide, the air flow C is blown into the accommodation hole during the period when the accommodation hole 11 crosses the air nozzle. . As a result, the chaining agent 7, which has been conveyed in the storage position shown by the chain line, is first subjected to the dynamic pressure of the airflow at its front edge and is easily raised upward as in the solid line position. Therefore, the airflow directly blows straight upward, and the negative pressure caused by the high-speed airflow as described in FIG. 2a does not act downwardly on the tablet 7. Moreover, this air flow C moves toward the rear edge of the tablet 7. As a result,
The tablet 7 is reliably ejected upward from the receiving hole 11 in the direction of arrow D. Note that this effect can be similarly produced when the air nozzle is arranged downward as shown by the chain line in FIG. 1, and when the tablet 7 is vacuum-adsorbed and discharged by the air flow blown from the air nozzle. It will be done.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which the long groove-shaped air passages are not provided as circumferential grooves over the entire circumference as shown in FIG. It is formed as an elongated hole 19 that is perforated in the drum and traverses along the circumferential direction P of the drum. This embodiment also has the same effect of improving tablet ejection performance as described above. However, when considering the machining of the air passage, whereas in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 or the conventional example shown in FIG.
According to the embodiment shown in the figure, all the accommodation holes 11 can be formed in common by performing one cutting process using a lathe, which has the advantage that the number of processing steps can be significantly reduced.

As described above, according to the present invention, due to the clever shape of the air passage, the tablets accommodated in the pocket-shaped receiving hole and transported are discharged by the air flow blown out from the air nozzle at the end of the transport stroke. To,
Its discharge performance is greatly improved compared to conventional ones, and reliable discharge can be achieved. As a result, it is also possible to obtain a solid drug transport device configured with a highly reliable drum-shaped transport mechanism that is free from jamming accidents.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied not only to the above-mentioned appearance inspection machine for solid preparations, but also to conveyance devices in other fields such as printing machines and counting machines for solid preparations.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a structural layout diagram of the entire apparatus in which the conveying device of the embodiment of the present invention is applied to a solid drug appearance inspection machine, and Fig. 2 a and b are local cross sections in the circumferential direction showing the shape of conventional solid drug storage holes. Figure and plan view, 3rd
Figures a to c are a circumferential cross-sectional view, a plan view, and a cross-sectional view showing the shape of a solid preparation accommodation hole according to an example of the present invention, respectively, and Fig. 4 is a plan view of another example. 2... Drum-shaped conveyance unit, 5, 6... Tablet ejection shooter, 7... Tablet, 11... Pocket-shaped solid preparation accommodation hole, 13... Vacuum chamber, 15, 16... Air nozzle, 18, 19... ...Long groove air passage, P
...circumferential direction of the drum, B...rotational direction of the drum,
C... Air flow blown from the air nozzle.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Pocket-shaped solid preparation storage holes arranged along the circumferential direction are provided on the outer peripheral surface of the drum, and when the solid preparations accommodated in the storage holes are transported to the end position of the transport process, the transport process is carried out. a drum-shaped conveyance section configured to adsorb and hold the solid preparation by applying negative pressure from the inner surface of the drum in the row of accommodation holes in the area, and facing the row of accommodation holes of the drum-shaped transportation section at the end position of the conveyance stroke; In a solid preparation transporting device that is equipped with an air nozzle for discharging solid preparations on the inner surface of the drum, an air passage opened through the bottom of each solid preparation storage hole is inserted into the storage hole along the circumferential direction of the drum-shaped transport section. A conveying device for solid preparations, characterized by having a transverse long groove-shaped air passage. 2. In the conveying device according to claim 1, the air passage is formed by cutting on the inner circumferential surface of the drum-shaped conveying section so as to extend over each solid preparation accommodation hole over the entire circumference of the drum-shaped conveying section. A conveying device for solid preparations, characterized in that the device has a circumferential groove.