JP3334288B2 - Capsule band seal detection method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for automatically detecting the presence or absence of a band seal of a capsule in which a band is sealed between a body of a capsule and a cap. At this time, the present invention relates to a band seal detection method for irradiating a capsule contained in a capsule pocket of a PTP base material sheet with a beam of light and detecting the presence or absence of a band seal based on the intensity of reflected light, particularly the intensity of diffuse reflected light.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a capsule is filled with a liquid drug or an oxidatively decomposable drug, etc., a band is sealed between the body of the capsule and the cap. A so-called band seal is applied.

[0003] In such capsules, for example, capsules in which the main ingredient is an oxidatively decomposable substance, the lack of the band seal causes deterioration of the filling agent, resulting in a fatal defect. For this reason, for capsules provided with such a band seal, inspection for the presence or absence of the band seal is performed in addition to the usual inspection after production.

Conventionally, the band seal is inspected by a visual inspection as well as an automatic detection method in which a capsule is photographed with a camera, image processing is performed, and the presence or absence of the band seal is detected based on the shape and color of the capsule. .

In this case, the above-mentioned visual method requires a large amount of labor and does not always provide sufficient reliability. For this reason, it is desired to employ an automatic detection method capable of performing a highly reliable inspection and achieving an effective cost reduction. However, the automatic detection method by the image processing sufficiently satisfies such a demand. It cannot be done.

That is, in the detection method based on the image processing described above, a stable light amount is radiated from a halogen light source or the like to the capsule surface, and the amount of light reflected on the capsule surface (difference in color tone between the capsule body, cap, and band seal) is reduced. The difference in the intensity of the reflected light is determined by the camera as a difference in light and darkness, and the presence or absence of a band seal is determined. However, the device is very complicated and expensive, and a large amount of light is required to obtain stable reflected light. The installation location is limited due to the necessity of various lighting equipment and incidental equipment for stabilizing the illuminance, and equipment for aligning the capsules to take capsules in a stable posture is required. There is a problem that a section for band seal inspection must be specially provided in the production line.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and can automatically detect a band seal of a capsule, and can construct a system at a relatively low cost, as well as highly reliable detection. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of detecting a band seal of a capsule agent, which can be incorporated in a conventional production line without having to provide a special detection section in the production line.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a capsule pocket for a PTP base sheet when a capsule having a band sealed between a capsule body and a cap is packaged by PTP. The PTP base sheet is advanced along the longitudinal direction of the capsule, and the capsule contained in the capsule pocket is irradiated with a beam of light from a projector, and the reflected light is received by a receiver. The received light is compared with a binarized level previously set between the reflected light intensity of the band seal portion and the reflected light intensity of the capsule body and the cap portion, and the intensity of the reflected light received by the light receiver. Provided is a method for detecting a band seal of a capsule, characterized by detecting the presence or absence of a seal.

In a preferred embodiment of the band seal detecting method according to the present invention, a diffused reflected light of a beam of light radiated from a projector to the capsule is received by the light receiver as the reflected light. Provided is a band seal detection method.

That is, the color tone of a capsule having a band seal is usually changed between the capsule body and the cap and the band seal so that the presence or absence of the band seal can be easily discriminated visually. For example, it has been practiced to make the body of the capsule white, the cap light blue or the like, and the band seal dark blue or black. Therefore, when such a capsule is irradiated with a beam of light from a projector, the beam of light is moved from one end to the other along the longitudinal direction of the capsule, and the reflected light is received by a light receiver to measure its intensity. However, the reflected light intensity of the dark band seal portion is lower than that of the light capsule body or cap portion. On the contrary, when the dark band seal portion is applied to the dark body and cap (typically such a combination) Is not performed, but the reflected light intensity increases at the band seal portion. The detection method of the present invention detects the presence or absence of a band seal from the change in reflected light intensity.

In this case, the detection method of the present invention is particularly advantageous in that, when the capsules are packaged in PTP, the capsules accommodated in the capsule pockets of the PTP base sheet are irradiated with a beam of light to perform detection. There is no need to provide a mechanism for arranging capsules, and capsules are
By proceeding in one direction together with the base sheet, the light beam irradiated on the capsule can be moved on the surface of the capsule simply by arranging and fixing the light emitter and the light receiver. Automatic inspection. Therefore, it is possible to perform a highly reliable inspection on the existing PTP packaging section without having to provide a section for the band seal inspection.

Further, in the detection method of the present invention, the presence or absence of a band seal is detected by irradiating a light beam to the capsule agent and measuring the intensity of the reflected light. By setting a binarization level between the reflected light intensity of the band seal portion and the reflected light intensity of the body and the cap portion of the capsule and turning on / off the optoelectronic switch, the band seal can be easily and accurately performed. Can be determined, and the camera, lighting equipment,
It is possible to construct an inexpensive and highly reliable inspection means using a general-purpose optoelectronic switch without requiring expensive equipment such as equipment for stabilizing illuminance, a computer, and software for performing image processing and detection judgment. it can.

Furthermore, the detection method of the present invention is to irradiate the capsule with a light beam and measure the intensity of the reflected light. In this case, the reflected light is not the specular reflection (main reflection) of the light beam but the capsule. It is preferable to measure the intensity by receiving the diffuse reflected light from the surface of the agent, and thereby to determine the difference in the reflected light intensity (light amount) due to the color tone difference (shading) between the capsule (body and cap) and the band seal. Becomes clearer, and more reliable detection is achieved.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail.
As described above, the method for detecting a band seal of a capsule according to the present invention comprises irradiating the capsule with a beam of light and measuring the intensity of the reflected light when the capsule is PTP-packaged. This is to detect the presence or absence of.

[0015] Specifically, as shown in FIG.
When the capsule 1 is packaged in PTP, the light beam 5 is emitted from the light projector 4 to the capsule 1 accommodated in the capsule pocket 3 of the PTP base sheet 2, and the PTP base sheet 2 advances in the direction of the arrow in the figure. The light beam 5 is moved from one end to the other end along the longitudinal direction of the capsule 1, and the reflected light 6a, 6b is received by the light receiver 7 to measure the intensity (light amount) of the reflected light 6a, 6b. The presence or absence of the band seal 9 is detected based on the change in the intensity of the band seal 9.

Here, the capsule 1 to be tested is
As long as the band seal 9 is provided between the body 8a and the cap 8b of the capsule 8, the capsule 8 and the band seal 9 may have a color tone difference and a shading difference. In this case, in most cases, the capsules provided with a band seal have different colors between the capsule (body and cap) and the band seal so that the presence or absence of the band seal can be easily confirmed. Can be inspected.

The PTP substrate sheet 2 includes:
As shown in FIG. 3, the capsule pockets 3 containing the capsules 1 are continuous along the traveling direction of the PTP base material sheet 2 (the direction of the arrow in the figure) (five rows of the capsule pockets 3 are continuous in the figure). Formed) and the traveling direction of the PTP base sheet 2 when performing PTP packaging (the direction of the arrow in the figure).
Any one may be used as long as it matches the longitudinal direction of the capsule pocket 3, and a normal base sheet used for PTP packaging can be used.

The light projector 4 is not particularly limited as long as it can irradiate a light beam on the surface of the capsule agent, and is not particularly limited. It is preferable to use an LED, and more preferably, an LED with a small change in the amount of light, particularly a green LED that is sensitive to a change in color tone. The beam 5 emitted from the light projector 4 can detect the band seal 9 if the beam 5 is narrower than the width of the band seal 9. Preferably, the band seal width is about 1.8 to 2.5 mm, and specifically about 0.5 to 1 mm. In this case, it is preferable to irradiate light from a light source having a certain width and to converge the light on the surface of the capsule 1, so that the spot width becomes narrow in the above range, whereby the illuminance per unit area is reduced. As a result, the intensity change of the reflected lights 6a and 6b increases, and the influence of the surrounding reflected light can be prevented.

On the other hand, as the light receiver 7 for receiving the reflected light, any optical sensor can be used as long as it can receive the reflected lights 6a and 6b of the light beam 5 and measure or detect a change in its intensity. Specifically, a commercially available photodiode or phototransistor can be used, and a photodetector combined with a condenser lens having a focal point on a reflecting surface can preferably capture a large difference in light amount. used.

Here, as the light emitter 4 and the light receiver 7, as shown in FIG. 1, a reflection-type optoelectronic switch 10 in which these are integrated is commercially available, and is not particularly limited. Such a reflective optoelectronic switch 10
Can be suitably used as the light projector 4 and the light receiver 6, and among them, a color difference detection type reflection type photoelectric switch (such as a color difference detection type E3C-VS7R manufactured by OMRON Corporation) is particularly preferably used.

The light-emitter 4 and light-receiver 7 or the reflection-type optoelectronic switch 10 in which they are integrated are usually provided with a PTP.
Before the section for sealing the top material (usually a thermo-adhesive aluminum foil) of the packaging machine, each row of the capsule pockets 3 is arranged above the capsules 1 stored in the capsule pockets 3 of the PTP base sheet 2. The capsule 1 is irradiated with a light beam 5 from the light emitter 4 and the reflected light is received by the light receiver 7.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 1, the reflected light of the light beam 5 applied to the capsule agent 1 includes specularly reflected light (main reflected light) 6a by the surface of the capsule agent 1 and the surface of the capsule agent 1 and the capsule. There is a diffuse reflection light 6b which transmits through the surface 8 and is diffusely reflected by the medicine inside. Among these reflection lights, the specular reflection light 6a can be received by the light receiver 7 to perform band seal detection. In particular, it is preferable that the arrangement position of the light receiver 7 is shifted from the optical axis of the specular reflected light 6a, a part of the diffuse reflected light 6b is received by the light receiver 7, and the band seal is detected based on a change in the intensity (light amount). .

That is, when the light receiver 7 is made to coincide with the optical axis of the specular reflected light 6a, and when the specular reflected light 6a is received and its intensity change is detected, a large amount of diffused light 6 is added together with the specular reflected light 6a.
b and reflected light from other adjacent capsule emitters enter, and the resulting received light intensity is the average value of the reflections in the areas where the light reaches, so it is reflected with and without a band seal. In some cases, no significant difference can be obtained in light intensity. On the other hand, the arrangement position of the light receiver 7 is changed to the specular reflection light 6.
By receiving a part of the diffusely reflected light 6b shifted from the optical axis of a, the influence of the specular reflection 6a having high intensity and the light reflected by the adjacent projector can be extremely reduced, and a band seal is provided. A clear and significant difference in the reflected light intensity can be reliably obtained between the case and the case without the case.

As described above, it is preferable that the light receiver 7 is arranged so as to be shifted from the optical axis of the specular reflected light 6a. Specifically, the light receiver 7 can be arranged as shown in FIG. That is, it is preferable that both the axis a of the light emitter 4 and the axis b of the light receiver 7 are inclined from the vertical diameter extension line d of the capsule 1 in the axial and radial directions of the capsule. It is preferable to dispose it on the opposite side to the direction in which the specular reflection 6a occurs when viewed from the axis a of the light projector 4. In this case, the inclination r ^{1 of} the capsule in the axial direction (see FIG. 2A) mainly prevents light from entering the specular reflection 6a, and the inclination r ² of the capsule in the radial direction is mainly determined by the adjacent projector. To prevent the reflected light from entering. Note that these inclination angles r ¹ and r ² are not particularly limited, and are appropriately set according to the characteristics of the light projector 4 and the light receiver 7 or the reflection type optoelectronic switch 10 in which these are integrated, the situation of the installation location, and the like. However, usually, r ¹ = 1 ° to 30 ° and r ² = 1 ° to 20 °.

According to the band seal detecting method of the present invention, as described above, the surface of the capsule 1 is irradiated with the light beam 5 from the projector 4 and the reflected light 6a, 6b, preferably a part of the diffuse reflected light 6b, is emitted. The light is received by the light receiver 7, and the presence or absence of the band seal 9 is detected based on a change in the intensity. Less than,
The operation in this case will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

When the band seal is detected by the detection method of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1A, the capsule 1 contained in the capsule pocket 3 of the PTP base sheet 2 is The light beam 5 is radiated from the projector 4 disposed above the capsule pocket 3 to the capsule agent 1 in the capsule pocket 3 in this case. With the movement of the agent 1, the light beam 5 moves at a constant speed from one end of the capsule agent 1 to the other end through the middle band seal portion 9, and the reflected light 6a, 6b at this time, preferably diffuse reflection. A part of the light 6b is received by the light receiver 7 and its intensity change is detected.

Thus, the reflected light 6a, which is reflected at the band seal 9 by the color tone difference (shading difference) between the capsule 8 (the body 8a and the cap 8b) and the band seal 9.
The intensity (light amount) of 6b changes, and this change is detected by the light receiver 7, and if there is a change, it is determined that there is no change (there is no band seal).

More specifically, for example, if the capsule 1 is a capsule 8 in which the body 8a is white and the cap 8b is a sky blue capsule 8 with a dark blue band seal 9, a normal capsule (with band seal) is used. On the other hand, the reflected light intensity (light amount) decreases at the band seal portion 9, while the reflected light intensity at the band seal portion 9 does not decrease for the defective capsule (without band seal). The presence or absence of a band seal is determined by detecting a decrease in reflected light intensity. In this case, the intensity (light amount) of the reflected light
The white body portion 8a is the highest, the sky blue cap portion 8b is slightly lowered, and the dark blue band seal portion 9
Greatly reduced. Therefore, using the optoelectronic switch 10 in which the light projector 4 and the light receiver 7 are integrated, the change of the reflected light intensity is converted into the change of the voltage output, and the voltage level of the sky blue cap portion 8b and the voltage of the dark blue band seal portion 9 are changed. By setting the binarization level (the operating point of the optoelectronic switch) between the level and the level, the capsule 8 (body 8a
The cap 8b) is turned on, and the band seal 9 is turned off. As shown in FIG. 1B, if the off state is normal, the band seal is normal. It can be easily determined as defective (no band seal). In addition, capsule 8 (body 8
When a and the cap 8b) are dark and the band seal is light, the on / off state is the reverse of the above, and if the on state is present, it is determined that it is normal, and if the off state is continuous, it is determined as bad.

Here, as shown in FIG. 1, the capsule 1 usually has various symbols and company emblems (brand marks, etc.).
Mark 11 is printed in a darker color than the capsule 8. Therefore, if the light beam 5 is irradiated with the mark 11 happening to face upward, the intensity of the reflected light is also reduced at the mark portion 11. In this case, FIG.
As shown in (C), in the case of a normal capsule (with a band seal), only two off-states appear and there is no problem. However, in the case of a defective capsule (without a band seal), a mark portion is formed. The off state by 11 appears only in one place, which is the same as the case with a normal band seal (normal in (B) diagram). However, usually the mark 11 such as a company emblem is printed on the cap 8 b of the capsule 8 or the body 8.
a, which is much longer than the on-states e and f in the case where there is a normal band seal (normal in the figure (B)) (see the figure (B)).
Thus, it is possible to clearly identify whether the band seal 9 is off or the mark 11 is off. The mark 11 and the band seal 9
In the case where there is a significant color difference (shade difference) between the two, a binarization level (operating point of the photoelectric switch) is set between the voltage level of the mark 11 and the voltage level of the band seal 9. Only the off state by the band seal 9 can be detected.

As described above, the defective capsule material detected by the optoelectronic switch (without band seal) is used to determine which capsule material in which row of the PTP base material sheet is defective by using a programmable controller or the like.
The detection and removal can be performed manually or automatically by appropriate means.

The band seal detecting method of the present invention can be constituted by inexpensive equipment such as the above-mentioned optoelectronic switch and is incorporated in the PTP packaging machine. There is no need to provide it in the manufacturing process, and a highly reliable inspection system can be constructed easily and inexpensively. In addition, the detection method of the present invention has high reliability and can be sufficiently endured as a method for testing pharmaceuticals that require high reliability. In particular, it can be tested in the packaging process, which is the final process of capsule production. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent a defective capsule from being shipped, and it is suitably used as a final check of a capsule that has been subjected to a band seal inspection by a conventional inspection method.

[0032]

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to Examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following Examples.

A PTP packaging machine that accommodates capsules in capsule pockets of a PTP substrate sheet having 10 rows of capsule pockets at intervals of 16 mm, seals a top material on the PTP substrate sheet, and performs PTP packaging. Before sealing the top material, the reflection type opto-electronic switch for color difference detection (Omron, E) is located above each capsule pocket row of the PTP base sheet to be conveyed.
3C-VS7R) as shown in FIG. 2 (r ¹ =
10 °, r ² = 5 °).

Using this PTP packaging machine, a band seal (dark blue, width 2 m) was inserted into the capsule pocket of the PTP base sheet.
m) Capsule (white body, sky blue cap, dark blue company emblem mark printed on the cap part 2)
No. capsule) is accommodated with the company emblem mark on top, and the PTP base sheet is passed under the reflective photoelectric switch for color difference detection at a speed of 60 mm / sec. At this time, a light beam is applied to the capsule from the photoelectric switch. At the same time, a part of the diffuse reflected light was received, and the change in the intensity (light amount) of the diffuse reflected light entered was measured as a change in the voltage output.
As shown in FIG.

That is, a strong voltage is output (220 mV) in the white body portion of the capsule, and the output is greatly reduced (50 mV) in the dark blue band seal portion, and then increased in the sky blue cap portion (150 mV). An output curve was obtained which slightly decreased (120 mV) at the portion of the company emblem mark and then increased again. Therefore, the binarization level of the optoelectronic switch is set between the output value of the band seal portion and the output value of the emblem mark portion (about 80 to 100 mV), the switch is turned off in the band seal portion, and the other portions are switched off. Switched on.

In the state set as described above, the same capsule is continuously applied to the PTP substrate sheet (substrate sheet transport speed 60 mm / sec, processing speed 2000 cp /
Minutes) At the same time as PTP packaging, the presence or absence of a band seal of each capsule was determined by turning on / off the photoelectric switch. We experimented with 1.8 million capsules,
No misjudgment was seen at all, and a highly reliable band seal inspection was performed.

[0037]

As described above, according to the method of detecting a band seal of a capsule according to the present invention, the presence or absence of the band seal is determined by irradiating the capsule with light and determining the presence or absence of the band seal based on the difference in the amount of reflected light. Since it is performed at the time of PTP packaging, it does not require expensive auxiliary equipment such as equipment for specially controlling the alignment and posture of capsules, special lighting equipment, and illuminance stabilization equipment. Inspection equipment can be constructed at low cost using the photoelectric switch, and highly reliable inspection can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for detecting a band seal of a capsule according to the present invention, and FIGS. 1B and 1C are binarized changes in reflected light intensity between a normal capsule and a defective capsule. It is the graph which did.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an arrangement of optoelectronic switches (light emitter and light receiver) in the method for detecting a band seal of a capsule agent of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of a PTP base sheet used in the method for detecting a band seal of a capsule agent of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing a voltage output change (light quantity change) due to reflected light detected in the example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Capsule agent 2 PTP base material sheet 3 Capsule pocket 4 Projector 5 Light beam 6a Specular reflection light (main reflection light) 6b Diffuse reflection light 7 Receiver 8 Capsule 8a Body 8b Cap 9 Band seal 10 Optoelectronic switch 11

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-55-39001 (JP, A) JP-A-2-151746 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01N 21 / 85 B65B 57/10

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for detecting the presence or absence of a band seal of a capsule when the capsule having a band sealed between a body and a cap of the capsule is PTP-packaged, the method comprising: The PTP substrate sheet is advanced along the longitudinal direction of the capsule, and the capsule contained in the capsule pocket is irradiated with a beam of light from a projector, and the reflected light is received by a light receiver. Then, by comparing the binarized level set in advance between the reflected light intensity of the band seal portion and the reflected light intensity of the capsule body and the cap portion with the intensity of the reflected light received by the light receiver, the band seal is compared. A method for detecting a band seal of a capsule, comprising detecting the presence or absence of a band seal. 2. The method for detecting a band seal of a capsule according to claim 1, wherein the diffused reflected light of the beam of light radiated from the light projector to the capsule is received by the light receiver as reflected light. 3. The presence or absence of a band seal by using an opto-electronic switch as the light emitter and the light receiver and turning on / off the opto-electronic switch using the binarization level as a reference value. Band seal detection method.