Material or article handling – Device for emptying portable receptacle – With container opening means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-19
2004-03-16
Lillis, Eileen D. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Device for emptying portable receptacle
With container opening means
C053S381100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06705818
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a package take-out apparatus for taking out individual packages piled and housed in a package container, and to the package container itself. The present invention also relates to an unwrapping apparatus for unwrapping a package wrapped with a wrapping sheet to obtain a solid object wrapped therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there has been a widely used dry-type slide for chemical analysis (hereinafter, referred to simply as a “slide”). Such a slide may be used for quantitative analysis of a chemical component or a material component of a liquid sample dripped thereon. More specifically, the quantitative analysis may be carried out by dripping a drop of a liquid sample on the slide, putting the slide in an incubator for a predetermined time to promote color reaction (i.e., color matter producing reaction) of the liquid sample, irradiating the slide with radiation including a predetermined wavelength to measure optical density of a target biochemical substance contained in the liquid sample, and determining physical density of the target biochemical substance based on the measured optical density referring to a predetermined working curve correlating the optical density of the biochemical substance with the physical density thereof. The predetermined wavelength included in the radiation is determined depending on the combination of the target biochemical substance contained in the liquid sample and a reagent mixed in a material of the slide. The entire process described above is carried out by a suitably configured biochemical analyzer.
The biochemical analyzer used for the above quantitative analysis has a slide stocking portion which holds a plurality of slides ready for the analysis. Usually, when shipping the slides, each slide is wrapped tightly with a plastic film laminated with a metal lamina or a plurality of slides are packed in a single tightly-wrapped cartridge. In each case, an unwrapped slide must be used immediately or stocked in a dry atmosphere, as the reagent mixed in the material of the slide deteriorates rapidly. Therefore, it is desirable to use a plurality of individually-wrapped slides when there is a need to analyze many slides.
Usually, about ten to fifty slides wrapped individually (hereinafter, referred to as “slide packs”) are housed in a container before being shipped to an examiner. The examiner needs to take each slide pack out of the container immediately before using it, leaving the rest of the slide packs in the container for storage. However, preparation for the analysis will require a lot of effort if the examiner has to manually take out and unwrap each slide pack one by one.
To reduce the problem, there have been several known apparatuses for unwrapping a package wrapped with a wrapping sheet such as a wrapping film to obtain a solid object wrapped therein. One example of such apparatuses is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9(1997)-237383. The apparatus disclosed in the Publication is directed to unwrapping a belt-like package containing a series of sub-packs each containing beverage ingredients therein. The sub-packs are tightly sandwiched between an upper wrapping sheet and a lower wrapping sheet. Although the disclosed apparatus is capable of unwrapping the belt-like package by peeling the upper wrapping sheet off from the lower wrapping sheet to obtain the sub-packs therein, the examiner is still required to manually detach edges of the upper and lower wrapping sheets in advance. Thus, the disclosed apparatus is incapable of unwrapping the individually wrapped slides in a completely automated manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a package take-out apparatus for taking out of a package container individual packages each containing a solid object, such as the slide described above wrapped with a wrapping sheet. Another object of the present invention is to provide a package container suitable for use in the above package take-out apparatus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an unwrapping apparatus capable of automatically unwrapping the package containing the solid object wrapped with the wrapping sheet.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a package take-out apparatus for taking out individual packages, each containing a solid object tightly wrapped with a wrapping sheet, piled and housed in a package container, each of the packages including an unsealed space where the solid object is contained and a sealed portion surrounding the unsealed space, comprising: housing means for housing the package container, the package container having a cut-off portion on the top face or the bottom face thereof, wherein the width of the cut-off portion is slightly larger than the width of the solid object contained in each of the packages; sucker means for sucking the package to take the package out of the package container through the cut-off portion; sucker moving means for moving the sucker means; and controlling means for controlling operations of the sucker means and the sucker controlling means by causing the sucker moving means to move the sucker means to a position near the cut-off portion of the package container, causing the sucker means to suck the package, and moving the sucker means to take the package out of the package container through the cut-off portion.
The position of the solid object may be shifted within the unsealed space of the package. However, the above width of the cut-off portion, which is only slightly larger than the width of the solid object, prevents the package from falling out of the package container wherever the solid object is located within the unsealed space of the package. The package never falls out of the package container unless the sucker means forcedly draws the package from the package container through the cut-off portion.
The above package take-out apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention saves the examiner effort of taking each package out of the package container one by one in a manual manner, as the sucker means in the package take-out apparatus automatically takes each package
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out of the package container. As the width of the cut-off portion of the package container is only slightly larger than the width of the solid object in the package, the sealed portion of the package interfering with the edge of the cut-off portion is folded inward when the sucker means draws the package from the package container. Concurrently, the solid object moves substantially to the center of the package within the unsealed space thereof. As the folded sealed portion of the package helps a separated unwrapping apparatus catch the package firmly and easily, the package take-out apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention also improves efficiency of an unwrapping operation carried out after the taking-out operation.
In addition, as package never fall out of the package container unless the sucker means forcedly draws the package from the package container through the cut-off portion, the examiner may easily carry and handle the package container.
It is desirable that the above package take-out apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention further comprises: selecting means for selecting one package container from a plurality of given package containers; wherein the housing means is capable of housing said plurality of package containers arranged in a predetermined manner; and wherein the controlling means further controls operations of the sucker moving means by causing the sucker moving means to move the sucker means to a position near the cut-off portion of said one package container selected by the selecting means. Using such a package take-out apparatus provided with the selecting means, the examiner may take out a plurality of packages, which contains different solid objects, in a desired order by specifying different
Endo Yoichi
Komatsu Akihiro
Sagaya Fumio
Takiue Tomoyuki
Fox Charles
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Lillis Eileen D.
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