Patent ID: 7102741

Claim:
An apparatus for printing and inspecting pellet-shaped articles, comprising: a conveyer mechanism structured to convey a plurality of pellet-shaped articles in a transport direction along a predetennined path, said conveyer mechanism including a plurality of rows of receiving pockets, each said row being configured to receive multiple ones of said pellet-shaped articles, each said row being oriented substantially transverse to the transport direction; a printing unit provided along the predetermined path and structured to provide printing indicia to the plurality of pellet-shaped articles; and an inspection unit provided downstream of the printing unit along the predetermined path, the inspection unit including: a first camera unit positioned adjacent a first side of the conveyer mechanism, the first camera unit being configured to sense the printing indicia provided to each of the plurality of pellet-shaped articles; and a removal mechanism, downstream from the first camera unit, structured to individually remove each of the plurality of pellet-shaped articles from at least a selected one of said rows of the conveyer mechanism depending on whether the printing indicia on each article is sensed by the first camera unit.