Article dispensing – Automatic control – Of discharge assistant operation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-06
2001-07-03
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3651)
Article dispensing
Automatic control
Of discharge assistant operation
C221S277000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06253953
ABSTRACT:
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic high-speed pill counting apparatus for general purposes to prevent the pills from being soiled or broken and to count the pills quickly and accurately.
2. Prior Art
In the case of counting the number of pills in the prior art, there is a system in which the pills are conveyed in a row, while being oscillated, by a part feeder or in which the pills are conveyed in multiple rows, while being oscillated, by a linear feeder, so that their number is counted at the conveyor end. In this series feeder system, the conveyance path is elongated to make the pills liable to become dirty. If the oscillations are intensified, an error is caused in the counted number by an overlap of pills. At a transfer from high- to low-speed conveyances, the oscillations have to be delicately adjusted for preventing the over-count. This frequently raises problems in the speed-up.
In order to enhance the reliability in the discharge of pills thereby to ensure an accurate counting, for example, there is a separate feeder system, as disclosed in Examined Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 60-34620. In this separate feeder system, as shown in
FIG. 7
, the pills, as poured into a hopper
32
, sequentially fall into a cylinder
33
and further sequentially into an intermediate portion between a rotary alignment bed
35
and the cylindrical portion
33
so that they are conveyed into a notch
37
which is held at a predetermined spacing from a flange
36
, until they are discharged out of a pill exit
39
.
Since a tongue
41
protruded from a partition member
40
is arranged above the pill exit
39
, only the pill, as admitted by one hole having the pill width of the tongue
41
, arrives over the pill exit
39
so that it is discharged. Here in
FIG. 7
, reference numeral
31
designates a casing having a rectangular section, and numeral
42
designates corners having a round shape.
In the aforementioned separate feeder system, however, the pills are rubbed by the inner wall of the cylindrical portion so that the inner wall becomes dirty. If the numerous pills are agitated in the cylindrical portion, powder is produced to soil the pills themselves. Moreover, the powder agglomerates, when it is discharged, to raise a problem in the safety of medicine.
Moreover, the pill exit has such a restricted opening as to catch the pills thereby to damage or break them. Thus, this system is not suitable for the high speed so that it can be employed exclusively at a low speed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an automatic high-speed pill counting apparatus which is constructed to prevent the inner wall of the cylindrical portion of a hopper from becoming dirty thereby to prevent the pills from being soiled or broken and to count the pills quickly and accurately thereby to solve the above-specified problems.
In view of the background thus described, according to the invention, there is provided an automatic high-speed pill counting apparatus comprising: a cylindrical pill hopper having a pill exit and a center hole in a base plate; a rotational separative feeder rotatably mounted in the lower portion in the cylindrical pill hopper and removably fitted on a shaft borne in the center hole of the base plate, the feeder including an upper diametrically smaller portion and a lower diametrically larger portion having an external diameter approximate to the internal diameter of the lower portion of the pill hopper, a multiplicity of vertically through holes being formed in the outer circumference of the lower diametrically larger portion and allowed to come into alignment with the pill exit for accommodating a plurality of pills vertically, the lower portions of the multiple vertically through holes being diverged downward, a ring-shaped slit being formed in such a position in the outer circumference of the lower diametrically larger portion as to accommodate substantially one pill from the bottom; a pill separating plate mounted on the cylindrical pill hopper above the pill exit and having an inwardly projected tip fitted loosely in the slit; a drive motor for driving the shaft; and a pill passage counting sensor arranged below the pill exit.
In the automatic high-speed pill counting apparatus, moreover, the multiple through holes of the lower diametrically larger portion of the rotational separative feeder include a multiplicity of notches formed in the outer circumference of the lower diametrically larger portion, and a thin sheet fixed on the notches in the outer circumference of the lower diametrically larger portion.
In the automatic high-speed pill counting apparatus, moreover, a diametrically larger groove is formed in the lower portion of the inner wall of the cylindrical pill hopper and has a diameter approximate to the external diameter of the lower diametrically larger portion of the rotational separative feeder.
The automatic high-speed pill counting apparatus further comprises: first control means for controlling in such a manner that the drive motor is driven at a high speed to rotate the rotational separative feeder at a high speed thereby to discharge the pills from the pill exit and count them by the pill passage counting sensor, that when the number of pills is approximate to a set number the drive motor is driven at a low speed to rotate the rotational separative feeder at a low speed and count the pills by the pill passage counting sensor, and that when the number of pills reaches a set number the drive of the drive motor is interrupted.
Moreover, multiple rows of the cylindrical pill hoppers are connected to the lower end of one mass hopper, and the automatic high-speed pill counting apparatus further comprises: second control means for controlling in such a manner that the individual drive motors is driven at a high speed to rotate the indivisual rotational separative feeders at a high speed thereby to discharge the pills from the individual pill exits and add the number counted by the indivisual pill passage counting sensor, that when the number of pills is approximate to a set number only one drive motor is driven at a low speed to rotate one rotational separative feeder at a low speed and count the pills by one pill passage counting sensor thereby to interrupt the drives of the remaining drive motors, and that when the number of pills reaches a set number the drives of all the drive motors are interrupted.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3368713 (1968-02-01), Hurst et al.
patent: 6161721 (2000-12-01), Kudera et al.
patent: 2189914 (1987-11-01), None
patent: 58-66186 (1983-04-01), None
patent: 60-34620 (1985-10-01), None
Noland Kenneth W.
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
Yunitec Co., Ltd.
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