Package making – With means responsive to a sensed condition – Of receptacle or cover feed or adjunct feed or application
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-15
2001-01-09
Sipos, John (Department: 3721)
Package making
With means responsive to a sensed condition
Of receptacle or cover feed or adjunct feed or application
C053S253000, C053S282000, C053S900000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170226
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a capsule filling apparatus, and more particularly to a capsule filling apparatus which can be precisely controlled to prevent insufficient or excessive filling of powder into the capsules.
Generally, a capsule includes a hollow container and a cap which has an inner diameter slightly larger than an outer diameter of the container. Different types and doses of medicine powder may be dispensed and filled into the capsule with a capsule filling apparatus.
When using a conventional capsule filling apparatus to fill capsules, the caps of the capsules must first be separated from the containers and medicine powder is filled into the containers with a manually controlled powder filling mechanism. More specifically, the containers with the caps temporarily removed are manually pulled to a filling area for filling medicine powder into the containers. In the conventional capsule filling apparatus, capsules to be filled are positioned on capsule holding means on which multiple rows of holes are arranged in rows side by side to each contain an empty capsule waiting for filling with powder by an operator. The operator tends to fill insufficient or excessive powder into different capsules due to tiredness caused by operation for a long time, making the filled capsules defective products containing insufficient or excessive dosage of medicine powder. This is, of course, undesirable and not acceptable.
FIG. 1
illustrates a conventional capsule filling apparatus
10
in which a capsule positioning mechanism
11
, a powder filling mechanism
12
, and an assembling mechanism
13
are included. Disc-shaped capsule holding means
14
,
15
are provided in the apparatus
10
corresponding to the capsule positioning mechanism
11
and the powder filling mechanism
12
, respectively. A plurality of holes
141
,
151
are regularly arranged in multiple rows extending from inner to outer side on the capsule holding means
14
,
15
, respectively, to each receive an empty capsule therein. The capsule positioning mechanism
11
positions empty capsules into the holes
141
on the capsule holding means
14
. Vacuum suction is used to suck lower containers of the capsules from the upper caps. Then, the capsule holding means
14
is moved to the powder filling mechanism
12
, so that medicine powder is filled into the lower containers.
FIG. 2
schematically illustrates steps A to D included in the conventional capsule filling apparatus to fill the capsules. In step A of
FIG. 2
, the capsule positioning mechanism
11
sends empty capsules
16
into holes
141
on the capsule holding means
14
which is formed from an upper part
142
and a lower part
143
. A portion of each hole
141
located in the upper part
142
of the capsule holding means
14
has a diameter larger than that of another portion
144
of each hole
141
located in the lower part
143
of the capsule holding means
14
. When the empty capsules
16
are positioned in the holes
14
, the caps
161
of the capsules having larger diameter are located in the large-diameter upper holes
141
while the containers of the capsules
16
having smaller diameter are located in the small-diameter lower holes
144
. A suction hole
145
having a reduced diameter smaller than that of the lower hole
144
is formed at a bottom of each lower hole
144
. Suction is provided by a vacuum source (not shown) to suck the containers of the capsules
16
via the suction holes
145
, so that the containers of the capsules are sucked to a lower position in the lower holes
144
, as shown in the Step B. At this point, the capsule holding means
14
is moved to the powder filling mechanism
12
and will be referred to as capsule holding means
15
to conveniently distinguish it from the capsule holding means
14
in the capsule positioning mechanism
11
. In the powder filling mechanism
12
, the upper part
152
(originally
142
) of the capsule holding means
15
is removed from the lower part
153
(originally
143
) and powder
121
is filled into the empty containers of the capsules
16
in the small-diameter lower holes
154
(originally
144
) by the power filling mechanism
12
, as shown in the Step C. The lower part
153
and the upper part
152
are then moved to the assembling mechanism
13
to be assembled again, as shown in the Step D, so that the containers of the capsules
16
filled with medicine powder are covered by the caps
161
.
In the above-described conventional capsule filling apparatus
10
, the capsule holding means
15
is manually controlled through a foot switch
17
, as shown in
FIG. 1
, to rotate row by row in an intermittent manner. And, the powder filling mechanism
12
is manually pulled to locate above the capsule holding means
15
to fill powder
121
into individual capsules. As a result, the capsule holding means
15
is not always precisely located below the powder filling mechanism
12
to permit each capsule to receive accurate dosage of medicine powder. Moreover, the operator tends to fill incorrect amount of powder into the capsules due to tiredness caused by long time of work. Defective capsules with insufficient or excessive dosage are therefore frequently produced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a capsule filling apparatus in which a clutch is used to cooperate with vacuum suction to more accurately control the separation of the containers of capsules from the caps in the capsule holding means, and the clutch also cooperates with a sensor to control revolution and starting point of the capsule holding means to more precisely control dosage into each main capsule. The drawback of insufficient or excessive dosage caused by manual filling of powder into the capsules can therefore be avoided to ensure uniform dosage in the produced medicine capsules.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3531909 (1970-10-01), Edelbalk
patent: 4802323 (1989-02-01), Garris
patent: 5081822 (1992-01-01), Boyd
patent: 5495702 (1996-03-01), Ko
Pro-Techtor Inter-national Services
Sipos John
LandOfFree
Capsule filling apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Capsule filling apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Capsule filling apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2514134