Classifying – separating – and assorting solids – Sorting special items – and certain methods and apparatus for... – Condition responsive means controls separating means
Patent
1995-06-12
1998-10-13
Nguyen, Tuan
Classifying, separating, and assorting solids
Sorting special items, and certain methods and apparatus for...
Condition responsive means controls separating means
209563, 209919, 198518, B07C 500
Patent
active
058199535
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for sorting capsules for faultless and faulty capsules, for example capsules for drugs to be administered orally.
Such capsules are used mainly as enclosure or container for a pulverulent or granulated medicament and are taken together with the latter. These capsules consist of a physiologically compatible material, for example hard or soft gelatins, starch or another material which does not contain the active substances of the medicament. Hereinafter, usually only gelatin capsules are mentioned as example. Gelatin capsules are produced as mass product in high-performance production processes from gelatin or gelatin solution. A distinction is made between hard gelatin capsules and soft gelatin capsules.
Hard gelatin capsules consist of a hollow cap and a hollow body which are produced simultaneously on one machine. The capsule parts are provisionally joined together to a finished capsule without filling, resulting in a small empty container in oblong form. To ensure the quality of the end product, in the manufacture of the hard gelatin capsules very high demands are made on the dimensional accuracy and cleanness of the corresponding machine components and the capsule parts made therewith.
Hard gelatin capsules are produced in various colours and colour combinations, transparent and opaque. Depending on the size, the empty hard capsule has a weight of about 30 to 130 mg.
With regard to the further processing, the dimensional accuracy and stability of the hard gelatin capsules is of particular significance. They are passed onto the pharmaceutical industry as empty capsules and filled there with the drug. To do this the empty capsules are separated into the caps and bodies, the body receiving the filling and the empty cap then being placed on again. By pressure the two capsule halves are firmly and permanently joined so that the content cannot escape.
The hard gelatin capsules made on conventional production machines may have faults, for example holes, deformations or bubbles which can present considerable problems during filling. Stoppages of the filling machines possibly resulting therefrom are to be avoided. Consequently, faulty capsules must be sorted out at the manufacturers themselves.
At present this sorting operation is carried out by manual sorting. The capsules to be sorted drop from a container mounted on a vibrator onto a transparent conveyor belt. The capsules on said conveyor or sorting belt are illuminated from below or above. One or more persons conduct a visual inspection of the capsules and remove the defective capsules by hand from the conveying belt passing by. Each control person sees on a sorting belt only about 30 to 40% of the surface of a capsule. A complete control of the quality of the capsule is thus not possible. Moreover, the result of such a quality control is influenced substantially by the attentiveness of the particular control person and by their subjective assessment.
The problem underlying the invention is therefore to provide a method and an associated apparatus for sorting capsules for faultless and faulty capsules in which the problems involved with manual sorting of the capsules are eliminated. In particular, the sorting of the capsules is to be carried out without control persons and therefore automated.
The invention describes a method and an apparatus for sorting out faulty capsules; the capsules can be observed all round in a control station in individual control positions by means of cameras. The images picked up by the cameras are evaluated by means of computer programs to determine production faults. Finally, the faulty capsules are sorted out in accordance with the result of the evaluation.
A method according to the invention for sorting capsules is described in claim 1. Claims 2 to 8 characterize further inspection of the capsules due to the all round observation. Since human inadequacies are eliminated, the result of the sorting operation is considerably improved. The producers of capsules can thus meet the q
REFERENCES:
patent: 2617527 (1952-11-01), Smith
patent: 4144970 (1979-03-01), McKnight et al.
patent: 4300689 (1981-11-01), Franklin et al.
Bagusche Christoph
Julius Klaus
Nguyen Tuan
R. P. Scherer GmbH
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