AUTOMATIC PILL COUNTING AND PACKAGING APPARATUS
The present invention relates to an automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus which may automatically count and package pills into a pouch having a sealable inlet. The automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus includes a bottom transfer part for supplying a pouch, a top transfer part disposed at an upper portion of the bottom transfer part for supplying pills, a counting part for counting the pills supplied by the top transfer part, and a packing part for inputting and packing the pills supplied by the top transfer part into the pouch supplied by the bottom transfer part.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2015-0105548, filed on Jul. 27, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUNDField of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus capable of automatically performing a series of processes for providing pills and pouches, counting the pills, and inputting the pills into the pouches for packaging.
Discussion of Related Art
Generally, a typical pill counting and packaging technique includes a supplier for simultaneously supplying a plurality of pills; a transfer unit including an upper transfer device, which is connected to the supplier, having a plurality of main tracks arranged in parallel in a transverse direction so as to transfer the plurality of pills supplied from the supplier through paths different from each other, a first lower transfer device having a plurality of first sub-tracks, each of which has an upper portion connected to a lower portion of each of the main tracks and a plurality of first guide rails arranged in parallel in the transverse direction so as to transfer the plurality of pills supplied from the main tracks by dividing the pills into paths different from each other, and a second lower transfer device having a plurality of second sub-tracks, each of which has an upper portion connected to a lower portion of each of the first sub-tracks and a plurality of second guide rails formed therein corresponding to the first guide rails; and a discharger for discharging the pills, which are supplied from the transfer unit along the paths different from each other, through paths different from each other. Here, the supplier is formed of a hollow, an internal lower portion of the supplier is formed of a hollow and a supply hopper divided into a plurality of spaces so as to correspond to the number of the main tracks, an upper portion of the supplier is connected to a lower portion of the supply hopper, and a lower portion of the supplier is connected to each of the main tracks, wherein the supplier includes a connection hopper having an inside divided into a plurality of spaces so as to correspond to the supply hopper.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONTherefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus provided with a sequence of an automatic processing system for counting pills which are supplied, inputting a target number of the pills into a pouch, and simultaneously closing an inlet of the pouch and sealing the inlet when the inputting is completed, then separating and discharging the pouch from a pouch roll.
In other to achieve the above object, in accordance with the present invention, an automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus includes a bottom transfer part configured to supply a pouch; a top transfer part disposed at an upper portion of the bottom transfer part and configured to supply pills; a counting part configured to count the pills supplied by the top transfer part; and a packing part configured to input and pack the pills supplied by the top transfer part into the pouch supplied by the bottom transfer part, wherein the bottom transfer part includes a bottom body; a store roller installed at a lower portion of a rear side of the bottom body and wound with a pouch roll in which sheets of pouches are connected in a row; upper and lower transfer rollers installed at an upper portion of a front side of the bottom body and configured to vertically support the pouch; and a transfer roller drive unit configured to deliver a rotational power to the upper transfer roller or the lower transfer roller to release the pouch roll wound on the store roller, thereby providing and transferring the pouch to the front side of the bottom body, and wherein the packing part includes a blowing unit installed at an upper portion of the upper transfer roller on a front surface of the bottom body and configured to open an inlet of a sheet of the pouch supplied by the bottom transfer part; a relay unit having a relay hopper configured to provide a pill input path from the top transfer part to the pouch, a shutter plate rotatably provided at an outlet of the relay hopper, and a plate drive unit configured to rotate the shutter plate to control an opening and a closing of the outlet of the relay hopper; and a sealing unit disposed at a lower portion of the lower transfer roller on the front surface of the bottom body and configured to heat and seal the inlet of the pouch.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by describing exemplary embodiments thereof in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Prior to describing the preferred embodiments of the present invention, terms or words used in this disclosure and claims are not to be construed by limiting to ordinary or dictionary meanings, and these should be construed as meanings and concepts meeting the technical spirit of the present invention on the principle that inventors may appropriately define concepts of terms in order to describe their own invention in the best possible way. Therefore, embodiments disclosed herein and configurations shown in the accompanying drawings may be merely a single preferred embodiment and may not represent all technical spirits of the present invention, and it should be understood that numerous other equivalents and modifications may exist and may be devised by those skilled in the art at the time of applying this application.
On the basis of
As shown in
Looking at each component, as shown in
Here, the bottom body 11 includes a bottom frame 111, a vertical frame 112 erected at one side of an upper portion of the bottom frame 111, and a horizontal frame 113 disposed at an upper portion of the vertical frame 112 on front and rear sides.
And, the store roller 12 is laterally and horizontally disposed at a rear side of the bottom frame 111 of the bottom body 11, and the upper and lower transfer rollers 13 and 14 are laterally and horizontally disposed to be vertically parallel at a front side of the horizontal frame 113 of the bottom body 11.
In addition, the bottom body 11 further includes a plurality of guide rollers 16 disposed at each of the frames 111, 112, and 113 to guide a transferring of the pouch 1. Moreover, the bottom body 11 further includes a front cover 114 disposed at the front side of the horizontal frame 113 to have a form covering some portions of the upper and lower transfer rollers 13 and 14 and the plurality of guide rollers 16.
As shown in
Here, the transfer plate 22 includes a top transfer plate 221 disposed at a lower portion of an outlet of the main hopper 21, and a bottom transfer plate 222 on which a plurality of pill movement paths are formed by a partition wall and one end of which is disposed at a lower portion of a front side of the top transfer plate 221.
Additionally, the vibration unit 23 is disposed at a lower portion of the bottom transfer plate 222 to vertically vibrate the bottom transfer plate 222, and to this end it may be preferable to arrange the bottom transfer plate 222 to be inclined downward toward the front side. The vibration unit 23 may include an eccentric cam supporting the lower portion of the bottom transfer plate 222, and a cam driver for rotating the eccentric cam. Therefore, the vibration unit 23 may be modified and changed in a variety of forms within the range which satisfies conditions for vertically vibrating the bottom transfer plate 222.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Here, a nozzle 411 having a downward discharge type structure so as to discharge air into the inlet of the pouch 1 located at a lower side thereof is preferable.
In addition, as shown in
Moreover, as shown in
With such a configuration, opening and closing operations of the shutter plate 422 may be possible based on the second hinge 423d by the forward and backward movement of the piston 423b2 of the pneumatic cylinder 423b. At this point, a lower portion surface of the outlet of the relay hopper 421 has a structure which is inclined from the front side more as it nears the rear side, and the shutter plate 422 has a size capable of blocking the outlet of the relay hopper 421. When the pills are input into the inlet of the pouch 1, the shutter plate 422, which is rotated to be opened by the plate drive unit 423, having a rotational angle so as to support an inward side of the inlet of the pouch 1 toward an outward direction thereof may be preferable.
As a result, the opened outlet of the pouch 1 may be supported by the shutter plate 422, which is rotated to be opened, to maintain an open state.
In addition, as shown in
As a result, when the inputting of the pills into the inlet of the pouch 1 is completed, the heating bar 433 positioned at the rear surface of the sealing body 432, which is advanced by the sealing drive unit 434, heats and seals the inlet of the pouch 1.
In addition, the packing part 40 further includes a guide unit 44 pushing both ends of the inward side of the inlet of the pouch 1 to induce a closing of the inlet of the pouch 1 when being sealed by the sealing unit 43 after the inputting of the pills into the inlet of the pouch 1 is completed. As shown in
Moreover, a guide unit 44 is further provided at the other side of the upper transfer roller 13 in the front cover 114 of the bottom body 11, wherein the two guide units 44 are provided in a structure facing each other such that the both ends of the inward side of the inlet of the pouch 1 are pushed toward the outward direction thereof to induce a closing of the inlet of the pouch 1.
Meanwhile, when the inlet of the pouch 1 is sealed by the sealing unit 43, the upper or lower transfer roller 13 or 14 is rotated in reverse by the transfer roller drive unit 15 to separate and drop a sheet of the pouch 1 from the pouch roll when the heating bar 433 of the sealing unit 43 pressurizes and fixes the inlet of the pouch 1.
Looking at an operation of the automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus with such a configuration, pills accommodating in the main hopper 21 of the top transfer part 20 are transferred to the bottom transfer plate 222 after passing the top transfer plate 221 of the transfer plate 22; the bottom transfer plate 222 being vertically vibrated by the vibration unit 23 transfers the pills to a front side; the photo-coupler 32 counts the pills passing through the pill input pipe 31; the controller 33 controls the plate drive unit 423 based on the counted value to rotate the shutter plate 422, thereby closing the outlet of the relay hopper 421; and the controller 33 simultaneously controls the sealing drive unit 434 to move the sealing body 432 backward such that the heating bar 433 positioned at the rear side of the sealing body 432 heats and seals the inlet of the pouch 1 and simultaneously pressurizes the inlet. The controller 33 simultaneously controls the guide cylinder 441 to advance the guide piston 442 such that the guide pushrod 443 connected to the guide piston 442 is rotated based on the guide pin 444 to be vertically erected and to close the inlet of the pouch 1. At this point, a rotational operation of the guide pushrod 443 is completed before the sealing body 432 begins a backward movement operation and the heating bar 433 reaches the inlet of the pouch 1, that is, before pressurizing the inlet.
After the sealing is completed, the controller 33 controls the transfer roller drive unit 15 to rotate the upper or lower transfer roller 13 or 14 in reverse to separate the sheet of the pouch 1 from the pouch roll, and then the guide pushrod 443 and the sealing body 432 are respectively restored to their original positions. Also, the controller 33 controls the transfer roller drive unit 15 to rotate the upper or lower transfer roller 13 or 14 to provide a sheet of the pouch 1 to the front side. In addition, the controller 33 controls an air supply unit 412 to open an inlet of the pouch 1 using air discharged from the nozzle 411 at the same time as opening the outlet of the relay hopper 421 through the shutter plate 422, thereby restarting an input of the pills into a newly supplied pouch 1.
At this point, when the outlet of the relay hopper 421 is closed by the shutter plate 422, the pills supplied to the relay hopper 421, which have been counted by the counting part 30, and the controller 33 reflects the counted value of the pills when restarting the input of the pills into the newly supplied pouch 1, thereby an input of a target value of pills is performed.
In accordance with the present invention, a primary effect of the automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus may be the possibility of packaging pills in a vinyl type pouch instead of a typical vessel used in pill packing.
Also, in accordance with the present invention, when pills are packed in a pouch, each process for opening and fixing an inlet of the pouch, closing and sealing the inlet of the pouch, discharge the pouch, and the like may be automatically performed in the packing part.
Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings by focusing on “the automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus” having an inventive form and structure, numerous other modifications and alternations can be devised by those skilled in the art and these should be construed as falling within the spirit and scope of the principles of the present invention.
Claims
1. An automatic pill counting and packaging apparatus comprising:
- a bottom transfer part configured to supply a pouch;
- a top transfer part disposed at an upper portion of the bottom transfer part and configured to supply pills;
- a counting part configured to count the pills supplied by the top transfer part; and
- a packing part configured to input and pack the pills supplied by the top transfer part into the pouch supplied by the bottom transfer part,
- wherein the bottom transfer part includes:
- a bottom body;
- a store roller installed at a lower portion of a rear side of the bottom body and wound with a pouch roll in which sheets of pouches are connected in a row;
- upper and lower transfer rollers installed at an upper portion of a front side of the bottom body and configured to vertically support the pouch; and
- a transfer roller drive unit configured to deliver a rotational power to the upper transfer roller or the lower transfer roller to release the pouch roll wound on the store roller, thereby providing and transferring the pouch to the front side, and
- wherein the packing part includes:
- a blowing unit installed at an upper portion of the upper transfer roller on in a front surface of the bottom body so as to opening an inlet of a sheet of the pouch supplied by the bottom transfer part;
- a relay unit having a relay hopper configured to provide a pill input path from the top transfer part to the pouch, a shutter plate rotatably provided at an outlet of the relay hopper, and a plate drive unit configured to rotate the shutter plate to control an opening and a closing of the outlet of the relay hopper; and
- a sealing unit disposed at a lower portion of the lower transfer roller on in the front surface of the bottom body and having a heating bar to heat and seal the inlet of the pouch.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, the shutter plate which rotated by the plate drive unit, when the pills are input into the inlet of the pouch, has a rotational angle so as to support an inward side of the inlet of the pouch toward an outward direction thereof.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the packing part further includes:
- a guide unit configured to bidirectionally push both ends of the inward side of the inlet of the pouch to induce a closing of the inlet of the pouch when the inputting of the pills into the inlet of the pouch has been completed and the inlet of the pouch is sealed by the sealing unit.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pouch is fixed by the heating bar of the sealing unit when the inlet of the pouch is sealed by the sealing unit, and the upper or lower transfer roller is rotated in reverse by the transfer roller drive unit to separate the sheet of the pouch from the pouch roll.
Type: Application
Filed: May 12, 2016
Publication Date: Feb 2, 2017
Inventor: Dong Bin SHIM (Incheon)
Application Number: 15/153,363