Source: http://patents.com/us-9844491.html
Timestamp: 2018-01-21 10:25:34
Document Index: 247557012

Matched Legal Cases: ['art.\n3', 'art.\n4', 'art.\n6', 'art 93', 'art 93', 'art 93', 'art 121', 'art 1624', 'art 162', 'art 1624', 'art 162', 'art 1622', 'art 1623', 'art 1622', 'art 1624', 'art 1623', 'art 162', 'art 1624', 'art 1624', 'art 162', 'art 162', 'art 1622', 'art 1622', 'art 1622', 'art 11', 'art) 16', 'art 11', 'art) 15', 'art 162', 'arts 162', 'art 162', 'art 162', 'art 1622']

US Patent # 9,844,491. Medicine feeder and medicine feeding unit - Patents.com
United States Patent 9,844,491
Yoshinori , et al. December 19, 2017
Medicine feeder and medicine feeding unit
A medicine feeder configured to feed solid medicines with an elongated shape, the medicine feeder including: a medicine container having a medicine outlet; a medicine delivering part having a plurality of medicine receiving spaces that are arranged at intervals and contain the medicines one by one; and a medicine entry preventing part that is provided in the medicine container and is configured to prevent the medicines from entering one of the plurality of medicine receiving spaces that coincides with the medicine outlet by covering over the medicine receiving space. A bulkhead portion partitioning between each two of the medicine receiving spaces has a shape such that an upper surface of a portion close to a rear side in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part rises toward a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part.
Yoshinori; Kenzo (Hirakata, JP), Takahama; Makio (Hirakata, JP)
Family ID: 1000003014622
14/917,644
PCT/JP2014/074500
WO2015/041228
US 20160220447 A1 Aug 4, 2016
Sep 20, 2013 [JP] 2013-195847
Current CPC Class: B65B 5/103 (20130101); G07F 11/24 (20130101); A61J 7/0076 (20130101); G07F 17/0092 (20130101); G07F 11/44 (20130101)
Current International Class: G07F 11/00 (20060101); A61J 7/00 (20060101); B65B 5/10 (20060101); G07F 11/24 (20060101); G07F 11/44 (20060101); G07F 17/00 (20060101)
2002186658 May 1996 JP
2005289506 Mar 2005 JP
1. A medicine feeder configured to feed solid medicines with an elongated shape, the medicine feeder comprising: a medicine container configured to contain the medicines, the medicine container having a medicine outlet that is formed in a bottom part; a medicine delivering part that is provided inside the medicine container and is rotatable about an axis intersecting the bottom part of the medicine container, the medicine delivering part having a plurality of medicine receiving spaces that are arranged at intervals in a circumferential direction about the axis and contain the medicines one by one in an erected state, the medicine delivering part being configured to deliver the medicines contained in the respective medicine receiving spaces to the medicine outlet by being driven to rotate about the axis; and a medicine entry preventing part that is provided in the medicine container and has flexibility, the medicine entry preventing part being configured to prevent the medicines from entering one of the plurality of medicine receiving spaces that coincides with the medicine outlet by covering over the medicine receiving space, wherein a bulkhead portion partitioning between each two of the medicine receiving spaces that are adjacent in the circumferential direction about the axis is arranged between the medicine receiving spaces, the bulkhead portion is located below the medicine entry preventing part, and comprises a downstream side wall, an upstream side wall and an upper surface, the upper surface of the bulkhead portion is located below the medicine entry preventing part, and comprises a horizontal part, and a slope part that is adjacent to the horizontal part on the upstream side in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part, the slope part comprising a slope rising in a direction from the downstream side wall to the upstream side wall, and the slope part is configured to cause the medicines being held between the upper surface of the bulkhead portion and the medicine entry preventing part to ride up on the slope part, and thereby cause each medicine to stride over each adjacent bulkhead portion so that the medicine does not fall into the medicine receiving space.
2. The medicine feeder according to claim 1, wherein the bulkhead portion has the upper surface of the portion close to the upstream side in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part, which upper surface is located at a higher position than an upper surface of a portion close to the downstream side in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part.
3. The medicine feeder according to claim 1, wherein the bulkhead portion comprises an upper corner of the downstream side wall comprising a curved surface or an inclined flat surface on its front edge in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part.
4. A medicine feeding unit comprising: the medicine feeder according to claim 1; and a support that comprises a rotational driving source configured to drive the medicine delivering part to rotate and supports the medicine feeder.
5. The medicine feeder according to claim 1, wherein the bulkhead portion comprises an upper corner of the downstream side wall comprising a curved surface, and the curved surface has a radius of curvature being greater than an upper corner between the upstream side wall and the slope part.
6. The medicine feeder according to claim 1, wherein the medicine entry preventing part comprises a base part attached to the medicine container, and a flexible part that extends from the base part to an upper side of the bulkhead portion and has flexibility, and the flexible part is configured to press downward the medicine above the bulkhead portion.
This application is the United States national phase of International Application No. PCT/JP2014/074500 filed Sep. 17, 2014, and claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. JP 2013-195847 filed Sep. 20, 2013, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference.
The present invention relates to a medicine feeder configured to feed capsules or the like, and a medicine feeding unit including such a medicine feeder.
As a medicine feeding unit, a "solid preparation filling device" disclosed in Patent Literature 1, for example, can be mentioned. This medicine feeding unit basically includes a medicine container (which is described as a "tablet case" in Patent Literature 1; the following terms in the parentheses in the "Background" are the names of members disclosed in Patent Literature 1) that contains solid medicines, and a substantially cylindrical rotor (discharge drum) that is rotatably located inside the medicine container. The rotor rotates about the vertical axis. As the rotor rotates, the medicines can be sequentially ejected from a medicine outlet (outlet) provided in the medicine container. The ejected medicines are, for example, fed to a packaging device.
A plurality of temporary medicine containers (grooves) having receiving spaces that can temporarily contain the medicines are formed in the rotor. An outer circumferential portion of the rotor that is interposed between two temporary medicine containers serves as a blocking part. Each temporary medicine container is formed as a recess extending along the vertical axis on the outer circumferential surface of the rotor. The plurality of temporary medicine containers are formed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction.
For example, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 in Patent Literature 1, a partition body (a partition member and a brush member) may be located above the medicine outlet and above the portion where the temporary medicine containers of the rotor are formed. In the partition body, the portion in contact with the medicines is a brush composed of synthetic fibers or the like. Therefore, the partition body has flexibility. The partition body allows one temporary medicine container to contain only one medicine by partitioning between the upper space and the lower space of the partition body. Therefore, the medicines can be dropped one by one from the medicine outlet.
In such a medicine feeding unit provided with a partition body, a medicine may be occasionally caught between the partition body and the rotor (specifically, the blocking part) as the rotor rotates. This occurs because the medicine that has almost fallen into the temporary medicine container comes into contact with the partition body as the rotor rotates.
The caught medicine may come into contact with another medicine that has already been contained in the temporary medicine container in some cases. In such a case, a delay may occur in dropping the other medicine due to the other medicine being pressed, which may result in a shift in ejection timing. Further, the medicine that has been caught and the other medicine may be ejected at one time in some cases. Such an inconvenient phenomenon tends to occur particularly when ejecting medicines with an elongated shape such as capsules.
This inconvenient phenomenon is described with reference to FIG. 11A to FIG. 11I. In each figure, a rotor 91 rotates in a rotational direction R (in the direction from the right to the left of the figure). First, as shown in FIG. 11A, part of a tablet M such as a capsule may occasionally enter a temporary medicine container 92. Then, the tablet M in such a state comes into contact with a flexible part ("brush member" disclosed in Patent Literature 1) 93 of a partition body (FIG. 11B). Then, with the rotation of the rotor 91, the tablet M moving to the left of the figure gets under the flexible part 93, so as to be caught between the upper surface of the rotor 91 and the flexible part 93 (FIG. 11C). The tablet M caught as above slides on the upper surface of the rotor 91 with the rotation of the rotor 91 (FIG. 11D). Then, the sliding tablet M is about to fall into the temporary medicine container 92 (FIG. 11E). Here, in the case where another tablet M' is already located in the temporary medicine container 92 into which the tablet M is about to fall, the caught tablet M presses the other tablet M' to the right of the figure (in FIG. 11F, the pressing direction is shown by an arrow).
The pressed tablet M' may fail to fall at an appropriate timing, even when it comes above a medicine outlet 94, due to being pressed against the inner surface of the temporary medicine container 92 in some cases (FIG. 11G). In the case where the tablet M' falls with a delay, the tablet M' may be caught between the temporary medicine container 92 and the edge of the medicine outlet 94 in some cases, as shown in FIG. 11H. In such a case, the rotor 91 may stop moving, or the tablet M' may be damaged, in some cases. Alternatively, two tablets, that is, the tablet M that has been caught between the upper surface of the rotor 91 and the flexible part 93, and the other tablet M' that has been already located in the temporary medicine container 92 may fall at one time in some cases, as shown in FIG. 11I. Such a phenomenon is the inconvenient phenomenon.
Patent Literature 1: JP H09-77001 A
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a medicine feeder capable of suppressing the occurrence of the inconvenience even in the case where a medicine is caught between a partition body and a rotor, and a medicine feeding unit including the medicine feeder.
The present invention is a medicine feeder configured to feed solid medicines with an elongated shape, the medicine feeder including: a medicine container configured to contain the medicines, the medicine container having a medicine outlet that is formed in a bottom part and ejects the medicines; a medicine delivering part that is provided inside the medicine container and is rotatable about an axis intersecting the bottom part of the medicine container, the medicine delivering part having a plurality of medicine receiving spaces that are arranged at intervals in a circumferential direction about the axis and contain the medicines one by one in an erected state, the medicine delivering part being configured to deliver the medicines contained in the respective medicine receiving spaces to the medicine outlet by being driven to rotate about the axis; and a medicine entry preventing part that is provided in the medicine container and has flexibility, the medicine entry preventing part being configured to prevent the medicines from entering one of the plurality of medicine receiving spaces that coincides with the medicine outlet by covering over the medicine receiving space, wherein a bulkhead portion partitioning between each two of the medicine receiving spaces that are adjacent in the circumferential direction about the axis is arranged between the medicine receiving spaces, and the bulkhead portion has a shape such that an upper surface of a portion close to a rear side in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part rises toward a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part.
Further, the present invention is a medicine feeding unit including: the medicine feeder; and a support that has a rotational driving source configured to drive the medicine delivering part to rotate and supports the medicine feeder.
The bulkhead portion can have the upper surface of the portion close to the rear side in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part at a relatively high position, and an upper surface of a portion close to a front side in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part at a relatively low position.
The bulkhead portion can have an upper corner having a curved surface or an inclined flat surface on its front edge in the rotational direction of the medicine delivering part.
FIG. 5C is a perspective plan view similar to FIG. 5A but showing the surface between the front edge and the slope part as flat.
Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a partition body 15 is located at a position on the rear side of the cylindrical part 121 of the medicine container 1a, above the medicine outlet 111, and above the position at which one of the temporary medicine containers 164 of the rotor 16 is formed. In this embodiment, the partition body 15 is spaced from the upper end position of an upper surface, or a slope part 1624, of a blocking part 162 of the rotor 16 (see FIG. 9B and others). It is also possible to arrange the partition body 15 so as to be dragged on the slope part 1624 with the rotation of the rotor 16. The partition body 15 prevents two or more tablets M from falling into the medicine outlet 111 at one time due to the two or more tablets M entering a medicine receiving space 164a of the temporary medicine container 164 of the rotor 16 that has moved to the position overlapping the medicine outlet 111 thereabove. In other words, the partition body 15 functions as a medicine entry preventing part, and covers over one of a plurality of medicine receiving spaces 164a of the rotor 16 that coincides with the medicine outlet 111, thereby preventing the tablets M from entering the medicine receiving space 164a.
In each blocking part 162, also referred to as bulkhead portion, the side walls extend in the vertical direction on the upstream side to define an upstream side wall 1621(a) and extend in the downstream side to define a downstream side wall 1621(b) in the rotational direction R, a rounded part 1622 located at an upper corner on the downstream side wall 1621(b) in the rotational direction R, a flat part 1623 adjacent to the upstream side wall 1621(a) in the rotational direction R of the rounded part 1622, the slope part 1624 that is adjacent to the upstream side in the rotational direction R of the flat part 1623 and is a slope rising toward the upstream side in the rotational direction R (that is, in the direction opposite to the rotational direction R) are formed. With reference to the end edge of each blocking part 162 on the upstream side in the rotational direction R, the slope part 1624 is a slope declining from the upper end of the end edge on the upstream side toward the downstream side in the rotational direction R. The formation of the slope part 1624 allows each blocking part 162 to have a shape such that the upper end of the end edge on the upstream side in the rotational direction R is located at a relatively high position, and the upper end of the end edge on the downstream side is located at a relatively low position. Further, each blocking part 162 has an upper surface in a portion close to the upstream in the rotational direction R located at a relatively high position, and an upper surface in a portion close to the downstream in the rotational direction R located at a relatively low position.
The rounded part 1622 is formed to guide the tablet M located above the rotor 16 to the medicine receiving space 164a of the temporary medicine container 164. By allowing the tablet M to move along the rounded part 1622, the tablet M that should enter the temporary medicine container 164 can be smoothly guided to the temporary medicine container 164. The rounded part 1622 of this embodiment is formed as a curved surface with a constant curvature. However, there is no limitation to this, and a curved surface with varying curvature or an inclined flat surface (chamfered part), as shown by reference item 1622 in FIG. 5C, can be formed at the upper corner on the downstream side in the rotational direction R.
Finally, the configuration and action of this embodiment is summarized. This embodiment is a tablet cassette (medicine feeder) 1 configured to feed tablets (solid medicines) M with an elongated shape, the medicine feeder 1 including: a medicine container 1a configured to contain the tablets M, the medicine container 1a having a medicine outlet 111 that is formed in a bottom part 11 and ejects the tablets M; a rotor (medicine delivering part) 16 that is provided inside the medicine container 1a and is rotatable about an axis intersecting the bottom part 11 of the medicine container 1a, the rotor 16 having a plurality of medicine receiving spaces 164a that are arranged at intervals in a circumferential direction about the axis and contain the tablets M one by one in an erected state, the rotor 16 being configured to deliver the tablets M contained in the respective medicine receiving spaces 164a to the medicine outlet 111 by being driven to rotate about the axis; and a partition body (medicine entry preventing part) 15 that is provided in the medicine container 1a and has flexibility, the partition body 15 being configured to prevent the tablets M from entering one of the plurality of medicine receiving spaces 164a that coincides with the medicine outlet 111 by covering over the medicine receiving space 164a, wherein a blocking part (bulkhead portion) 162 partitioning between each two of the medicine receiving spaces 164a that are adjacent in the circumferential direction about the axis is arranged between the adjacent medicine receiving spaces 164a, and the blocking part 162 has a shape such that an upper surface of a portion close to a rear side in the rotational direction R of the rotor 16 rises toward a direction opposite to the rotational direction R of the rotor 16.
Further, this embodiment is a medicine feeding unit including the medicine feeder 1, and a support base (support) 2 that has a motor (rotational driving source) 22 configured to drive the rotor 16 to rotate and supports the medicine feeder 1.
According to such configurations, when the tablet M is caught between the partition body 15 and the rotor 16 as the rotor 16 rotates, the tablet M is tilted upwardly along the upper surface of the portion close to the rear side as it moves in the direction opposite to the rotational direction of the rotor 16. In such a state, the rotor 16 further rotates, and the tablet M is allowed to stride over adjacent blocking parts 162, so as to move over the medicine receiving space 164a without falling into the medicine receiving space 164a.
Further, the blocking part 162 may have the upper surface of the portion close to the rear side in the rotational direction R of the rotor 16 at a relatively high position, and the upper surface of the portion close to the front side in the rotational direction R of the rotor 16 at a relatively low position.
According to this configuration, the upper surface of the portion close to the front side is located at a relatively low position, and therefore the tablet M caught between the partition body 15 and the rotor 16 can move over the medicine receiving space 164a more reliably.
Further, the blocking part 162 can have an upper corner with a rounded part (a curved surface or an inclined flat surface) 1622 on the front edge in the rotational direction R of the rotor 16.
According to this configuration, the tablet M to be contained in the medicine receiving space 164a can be smoothly guided to the medicine receiving space 164a along the rounded part 1622.
Previous Patent US 9,844,490 | Next Patent US 9,844,492