Package making – Group forming of contents unit and subsequent or further... – From plural or different supply sources
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-23
2001-07-10
Vo, Peter (Department: 3721)
Package making
Group forming of contents unit and subsequent or further...
From plural or different supply sources
C053S238000, C221S265000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256963
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present utility model relates to a tablet cassette for an automatic tablet sorting and counting machine, and more specifically to an improved tablet cassette which is capable of facilitating a tablet packaging operation in a packaging unit by supplying to an output port of a drum as much quantity as instructed in a prescription, in correspondence to information input to the automatic tablet dispenser.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, automatic tablet dispensers are employed in hospitals and drugstores to automate the output and assembly of corresponding tablets when the prescription is input into a computer, and serves to dispense the per-dosage assembled tablets.
Such an automatic tablet dispensing system includes: a main computer for enabling an appropriate prescription on the basis of proper medicine, intake method, daily intake frequency and intake duration depending upon each patient; a tablet dropping unit having a plurality of tablet cassettes and a drum for storing therein and releasing therefrom the tablets in correspondence to the prescription set up in the computer; and a packaging unit disposed below the tablet dropping unit and serving to package the output tablets and releasing the same to an exterior of the automatic tablet dispenser.
The packaging unit is made up of: a release hopper for assembling the tablets being dropped from the tablet drop unit; a heater assembly for packaging the tablets being discharged through the release hopper; a printer for printing respective information on packaging paper; and a release conveyer for externally discharging the medicine bags containing tablets.
Meanwhile, a tablet cassette serves to discharge to-be-packaged tablets on the basis of information input in the main computer. In general, the tablet cassette is comprised of a driving unit, a tablet case and a rotor, wherein the conventional tablet cassette includes a slanted rotor which rotates in accordance with the driving unit while contained in the tablet cassette.
Although a predetermined space sufficient to house the tablets therein is provided from the bottom surface of the tablet case, the room for the rotor and tablet case relatively becomes narrow due to the assembly clearance which occurs during the assembly of the driving unit, medicine case and rotor, thereby disadvantageously incurring difficulty in tablet release.
That is, a space is provided between a plurality of guide teeth formed along the outer periphery of the rotor, wherein the tablets are flowed into the space one by one and released by the rotor through the outlet and the hopper formed in the medicine case and the driving unit onto the drum.
As described above, the tablets should be smoothly supplied using the rotor rotated by the motor while contained in the medicine case but the conventional system has a disadvantage in that, since the space between the rotor and the medicine case cannot be constantly maintained during the assembly or for other reasons, a timely release of the tablets may not be accomplished resulting from jamming or tangling when the tablets in the medicine case are supplied toward the rotor.
In particular, the identical medicine cases are provided in fixed measurement regardless of tablet size, thereby differentiating quantity received in each case depending upon tablet sorts and size and accordingly requiring frequent tablet supplementation.
Further, when a large quantity of tablets are contained resulting from smallness of the tablets, the release duration becomes relatively larger, whereby the contained tablets may be subject to moisture and deformation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present utility model is contrived to overcome the conventional disadvantages. Therefore, it is an object to provide an automatic tablet dispensing system according to the utility model, capable of easily adjusting the size of a medicine case, preventing the internally contained medicine from deforming, and facilitating the tablet release by improving function of a rotor related thereto.
To achieve the above-described object, an improved automatic tablet dispenser comprising a tablet dropping unit having a drum communicating with a plurality of release holes which open to a plurality of tablet cassettes storing therein and releasing therefrom a measured quantity of tablets, wherein each of said tablet cassettes comprises: a medicine case having a cylindrical opening through a lower portion thereof; a cylindrical rotor having an upper surface and a vertically formed outer periphery, wherein the upper surface has a central portion, wherein a plurality of guide teeth are formed along the outer periphery, wherein a plurality of insert openings are alternately formed among the guide teeth, wherein the cylindrical rotor is rotatably introduced through the cylindrical opening of the medicine case and serves to temporarily maintain the tablets within the medicine case, and wherein a waved guide having a vertex at the center thereof is formed on the upper surface of the cylindrical rotor to guide the tablets into the insert openings without tangling, the waved guide is conically tapered in acclivity toward the vertex which belongs to the central portion of the upper surface, wherein the waved guide is partitioned into a plurality of sectors respectively defined by the vertex, two side lines each initiating from the vertex, and an arc sectioned from a circumference of the waved guide, wherein the sectors are alternately raised and flattened; a male gear disposed below the medicine case and rotatably engaged to the cylindrical rotor so that the cylindrical rotor can be rotated in correspondence to the male gear, whereby the tablets maintained in the medicine case are serially loaded in each of the insert openings and the measured quantity of the tablets are controllably dropped into a corresponding one of the release holes; and a vertically raised protrusion formed on the central surface portion of said upper surface of said rotor so as to smoothly agitate the tablets received in the medicine case and prevent said tablets from tangling together with said waved guide while allowing the tablets to be evenly loaded into said each insert opening when the rotor is rotated by the male gear.
An advantage of the present invention is to smoothly load the tablets temporarily maintained in the medicine case downwardly into each of the insert openings by providing the vertically raised protrusion on the vertex of the waved guide, wherein each of the alternately raised and flatted sectors together with the protrusion further escalates the smooth loading of the tablets into the insert openings. Another advantage is to enable the protrusion and the alternately raised and flattened sectors to prevent an unwanted tablet deformation such as indentation, which may occur due to tablet tangling and weight pressure of the randomly stacked tablets in the medicine case.
Although the present invention is briefly summarized, the fuller understanding of the invention can be obtained by the following drawings, detailed description and appended claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6170229 (2001-01-01), Kim
Paradiso John
Park John K.
Park & Sutton LLP
Vo Peter
LandOfFree
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