Patent ID: 6301862
Filing Date: 2001-10-16
Classification: B65H

Abstract:
A drug packaging device comprising:a sheet feed unit comprising a fixed shaft, a first rotary shaft rotatably mounted around said fixed shaft, a second rotary shaft rotatably mounted around said first rotary shaft and carrying a roll of sheet material, brake means for applying a braking force to said first rotary shaft, and feed rollers for feeding said sheet material from the roll; anda packaging unit comprising a triangular plate for folding the sheet material in half to form a valley in the sheet material, a hopper for dropping drugs into the thus defined valley of the sheet material, and heating rollers for heat-sealing the sheet material in a width direction at predetermined intervals and along top edges thereof to form a plurality of bags with the drugs sealed therein;one of said first and second rotary shafts having at one end thereof a magnet that attracts a magnetizable member provided on the other of said first and second rotary shafts so that said first and second rotary shafts can be rotated relative to each other against the force of said magnet;said sheet feed unit further comprising a sheet length sensor for measuring the feed length of the sheet material in the sheet feed path leading to said packaging unit, a first angle sensor for detecting the rotation angle of said second rotary shaft, and a control unit for calculating the current sheet length on the roll and the diameter of the roll based on the sheet length measured by said sheet length sensor and the rotation angle measured by said angle sensor, and controlling a direct-current voltage applied to said brake means.