Material or article handling – Device for emptying portable receptacle – With container opening means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-19
2002-08-13
Lillis, Eileen D. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Device for emptying portable receptacle
With container opening means
C414S411000, C414S403000, C053S381500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06431813
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention 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 the 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. However, in such a case, preparation for the analysis will require a lot of effort if the examiner has to manually unwrap each slide.
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 off the upper wrapping sheet 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.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an unwrapping apparatus capable of automatically unwrapping a package containing a solid object such as the slide described above wrapped with a wrapping sheet.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an unwrapping apparatus for unwrapping a package containing a solid object tightly wrapped with a wrapping sheet, the package including an unsealed space where the solid object is contained and a sealed portion surrounding the unsealed space, comprising: paired rollers rotatable so that the package caught between the paired rollers is transferred along a predetermined transferring path; a cutter located behind the paired rollers along the transferring path for making a slit on the unsealed space at a position near the front edge of the package; and controlling means for controlling operations of the paired rollers and the cutter by setting nip pressure applied to the package by the paired rollers at a pressure suitable both for transferring the package containing the solid object and for transferring the wrapping sheet without the solid object, rotating the paired rollers in respective predetermined directions so that the package is forwarded along the predetermined transferring path, terminating rotation of the paired rollers when the rear edge of the package comes between the paired rollers, making a slit on the package, and rotating the paired rollers in the directions opposite to the predetermined directions so that only the wrapping sheet separated from the solid object is transferred back by the paired rollers.
When using the above unwrapping apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the rotation of the paired rollers is terminated when the rear edge of the package comes between the paired rollers after the paired rollers have run on a portion of the package where the solid object resides. Then, the paired rollers are rotated in the opposite directions after the slit is formed on the package. Now, the solid object within the package cannot be held between the paired rollers and thus cannot be transferred backward. Thus, only the wrapping sheet is transferred back to the area in front of the paired rollers. Therefore, the solid object within the package is gradually squeezed out from the slit formed on the package, and the solid object is separated from the wrapping sheet. That is to say, the unwrapping apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention automatically unwraps the package to separate the solid object therein from the wrapping sheet. In addition, as the wrapping sheet separated from the solid object is pressed between the paired rollers while being transferred backward, the bulk of the removed wrapping sheet is reduced to facilitate handling thereof.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an unwrapping apparatus for unwrapping a package containing a solid object tightly wrapped with a wrapping sheet, the package including an unsealed space where the solid object is contained and a sealed portion surrounding the unsealed space, comprising: paired rollers rotatable so that the package caught between the paired rollers is transferred along a predetermined transferring path; nip pressure altering means for altering nip pressure applied to the package by the paired rollers; a cutter located behind the paired rollers along the transferring path for making a slit on the unsealed space at a position near the front edge of the package; and controlling means for controlling operations of the paired rollers, the nip pressure altering means and the cutter by setting the nip pressure applied by the paired rollers at a first nip pressure, rotating the paired rollers in respective predetermined directions so that the package is forwarded along the predetermined transferring path, terminating rotation of the paired rollers when the rear edge of the package comes between the paired rollers, making a slit on the package, setting the nip pressure applied by the paired roller at a second nip pressure which is larger than the first nip pressure, and rotating the paired roller in the directions opposite to the predetermined directions so that only the wrapping sheet separated from the solid object is transferred back by the paired rollers.
The term “the front edge of the package” refers to the edge at the head of the package while being forwarded along the transferring path by the paired rollers rotating in the above predetermined directions. On the other hand, the term “the rear edge of the package” refers to the edge at the tail of the package while being forwarded by the paired rollers rotating in the above predetermined directions.
The term “a first nip pressure” refers to a relatively low nip pressure enabling the paired rollers to run on the portion of the package where
Endo Yoichi
Komatsu Akihiro
Sugaya Fumio
Takiue Tomoyuki
Fox Charles A
Lillis Eileen D.
Photo Film Co., Ltd.
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