Patent ID: 6108030
Filing Date: 2000-08-22
Classification: G01N,Y10S

Abstract:
An appearance inspecting device for inspecting appearances of solid formulations each having a shape being rotation-symmetric around a specific axis, comprising:a supply section for continuously supplying said solid formulations;an inspecting drum for holding on its outer peripheral portion said solid formulations supplied from said supply section and carrying said solid formulations in such a manner as to allow said solid formulations to be intermittently revolved, and rotating said solid formulations at a specific carrying position;an image pickup device for photographing surfaces of said solid formulations rotated by said inspecting drum;a quality determining section for processing images of said solid formulations picked-up by said image pick-up device and determining whether said solid formulations are defective or nondefective; anda classifying means for classifying said solid formulations into defective capsules and nondefective capsules on the basis of the results determined by said quality determining section and recovering said defective and nondefective capsules;wherein said inspecting drum includes a fixed inner cylinder, and an outer cylinder rotatably mounted on an outer periphery of said inner cylinder in such a manner as to be intermittently rotated along the outer peripheral surface of said inner cylinder;a roller rotatable on a rotational axis extending along the axial direction of said inner cylinder is provided inside a portion of said inner cylinder in a state in which a surface of said roller is exposed from the outer peripheral surface of said inner cylinder;the surface of said roller, exposed from the outer peripheral surface of said inner cylinder, is formed into a cross-sectional shape being tiled downward to one axial end side; andsaid outer cylinder has lead-through holding pockets each being formed into an elliptic, oblong, or rectangular shape having a center axis offset a specific angle from the axial direction of said outer cylinder;whereby said solid formulations are held in said lead-through holding pockets and carried by intermittent rotation of said outer cylinder; said solid formulations in said lead-through holding pockets intermittently stopped at a specific carrying position are rotated on said roller being rotated on the rotational axis; and outer peripheral surfaces of said solid formulations thus rotated are photographed by said image pickup device.