Patent ID: 7364103

Claim:
A method for aligning and moving a test specimen ( 7 ) such as, for instance, tablets, pills, lozenges or tabs, which are cambered or rounded an at least one of their main surfaces and are thus able to execute rocking oscillations starting from a resting position, in order to carry out another process step such as a hardness test, involving the test specimen ( 7 ), making use of two jaws ( 2 , 3 , 21 ) arranged opposite from each other and movably relative to each other, whereby the movable pressing jaw ( 2 ) pushes the test specimen ( 7 ) forward an a guide segment ( 6 , 34 ) towards the stationary counter-jaw ( 3 , 21 ) until the test specimen ( 7 ) makes mechanical contact with the counter-jaw ( 3 , 21 ), so as to initiate the further process step involving the test specimen ( 7 ), characterized in that, while carrying along the test specimen ( 7 ), the advancing movement of the movable pressing jaw ( 2 ) in the direction of the stationary counter-jaw ( 3 , 21 ) is continuously interrupted and the pressing jaw ( 2 ) retreats and advances, whereby the advancing and retreating movement of the pressing jaw ( 2 ) is small relative to its total advancing distance with respect to the counter jaw ( 3 , 21 ), but all in all, the pressing jaw ( 2 ) moves towards the counter-jaw ( 3 , 21 ) while each time carrying along the test specimen ( 7 ) by the small advancing distance and releasing the test specimen by retreating, so that the test specimen oscillates back into its resting position and then the pressing jaw ( 2 ) starts up again to push in the direction of the counter-jaw ( 3 , 21 ) until the test specimen ( 7 ) has reached the counter jaw ( 3 , 21 ) or the stationary jaw ( 3 , 21 ) and/or the guide segment ( 6 , 34 ) are made to oscillate during the advancing movement of the movable pressing jaw ( 2 ) in the direction of the stationary jaw ( 3 , 21 ), said oscillations acting an the test specimen ( 7 ) so that, during the advancing movement of the pressing jaw ( 2 ), the test specimen ( 7 ) executes a rocking and/or vibrating oscillation that continuously causes the test specimen ( 7 ) to oscillate back into the resting position or allows it to oscillate around said resting position until the test specimen ( 7 ) has reached the counter-jaw ( 3 , 21 ) and the oscillation of the test specimen ( 7 ) is stopped by the stationary counter-jaw ( 3 , 21 ).