JP4952291B2 - Tablet transport guide method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a tablet conveyance guide method for facilitating the flow of tablets during conveyance .

The tablet after tableting is finally packaged in various forms, but is transported to the processing position by various transport means according to the processing purpose until packaging.
In the process of conveyance, the tablets are aligned and conveyed one by one while aligning a plurality of tablets in a line while conveying direction changing parts such as a discharge part in a conveyor, chute, hopper or other conveying means. In the part where the flow of the tablet changes (becomes worse) as in the case of shifting to the aligning and conveying unit, it is necessary to guide the tablet so that the flow of the tablet becomes smooth.

For example, while conveying a large number of tablets in a non-aligned state by a conveyor means consisting of a conveyor, the tablets are gradually aligned in a normal and stable state by an inclined side wall guide, and the tablets are moved from a predetermined position. There has been proposed a guide means in which sorting pins are arranged in a vertical manner with respect to the conveyance surface on the side of the alignment conveyance unit when the particles are arranged and conveyed in a line (see Patent Document 1 below).
The guide means causes the tablets being transported to collide with the sorting pins one by one at the transition section to the aligning and transporting section of a tablet transporting device such as a conveyor, and guides the tablets in the forward direction according to the collision position of the tablets with the sorting pins. The tablet is divided into a non-forward guided tablet, and the non-forward guided tablet is guided to the reducing and conveying apparatus and returned to the upstream position of the conveying apparatus.

  On the other hand, in order to inhibit smooth conveyance processing because excipients and the like are adhered to the tablet after tableting as fine powder, a bowl-shaped passage having a large number of suction holes on the bottom surface is provided in the middle of the conveyance path, There has been proposed an apparatus that sucks and removes differentials adhering to the tablet in the process of passing the tablet through the bowl-shaped passage (see Patent Document 2 below).

However, the guidance of sorting the tablets in the forward and non-forward directions with the sorting pins is not only smooth in the sorting and transporting but also guided in the non-forward direction when the fine powder as described above adheres to the tablets. The tablets must be returned to the original transport means by the reduction transport means, and chipping and other obstacles are likely to occur during the reduction transport process.
In addition, it is wasteful in the process to pass the tablet through a bowl-shaped passage having a large number of suction holes on the bottom surface, and sucking and removing the fine powder adhering to the tablet in advance, and the tablet is moved to a passage having suction holes on the bottom surface. The fine powder adhering to the tablet cannot be removed smoothly and completely by simply passing the filter.
JP 2006-131355 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-141051

An object of the present invention is to simultaneously achieve a guide to a smooth and forward method of tablets being transported and efficient removal of fine powder adhering to the tablets.
An object of the present invention is to provide a conveyance guide method for efficiently removing fine particles adhering to a tablet while reliably guiding the tablet in the forward direction in the process of conveyance .

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the tablet conveyance guide method according to the present invention is mainly used to suck and remove fine particles adhering to the tablet while guiding the tablet in a fast-feeding manner in the process of conveying the tablet. It is a feature.

According to the tablet conveyance guide method of the present invention, since the tablet is guided in a fast-feeding manner in the process of conveying the tablet, a slightly stronger impact is applied to the tablet than in a normal conveyance state. Since the separation and scattering of the fine powder adhering to the tablet is promoted, the fine powder scattered and the fine powder adhering to the tablet without being scattered are sucked and removed during the conveyance.
Therefore, the fine powder adhering to the tablet is more reliably removed, and the tablet is reliably guided in the forward direction without moving in the non-forward direction.

First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a first embodiment of a conveyance guide according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partial plan view showing an example in which the conveyance guide according to the first embodiment is used for an alignment conveyance section of tablets. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a guide portion in the conveying apparatus of FIG.

The conveyance guide a includes a cylindrical guide roller 1 in which a number of slit-like suction holes 10 are formed in the circumferential direction at one end, and each suction hole 10 of the guide roller 1 communicates with the suction case 2. is doing.
In this embodiment, the rotating shaft 11 is attached to the axial center portion of the end plate 12 of the guide roller 1 in a state along the axial direction, and one end portion of the rotating shaft 11 communicates with one end plate 20 of the suction case 2. It passes through the sleeve 23 attached so as to enter the suction case 2.

The portion of the rotary shaft 11 that has entered the suction case 2 is held via the bearings 25 and 24 on the support plate 22 that is radially attached to the suction case 2 and the other end plate 21 of the suction case 2. A bearing metal 13 is interposed between the end of the guide roller 1 and the sleeve 23.
A rotary blade 3 is attached to a portion of the rotary shaft 11 that has entered the suction case 2.
An appropriate number of air holes 22 a are formed in the support plate 22, and the vacuum suction means 4 is connected to the suction case 2 via a connection portion 40. Therefore, the operation of the vacuum suction means 4 causes the guide roller 1 to operate so as to suck the surrounding atmosphere through the suction hole 10 while rotating in a certain direction.

One form of the installation state of the said conveyance guide a is shown by FIG.2 and FIG.3.
Reference numeral 5 denotes a tablet transport device including a single belt conveyor. An upstream portion of the transport device 5 is an aligned transport transition portion 50, and a downstream portion is an align transport portion 51. On one side of the transfer device 5, a return transfer device 6 is installed.
The alignment transport transition unit 50 is a transport unit that guides the tablets T in a stable posture and in a row form by a guide member 500 having a guide surface 501 inclined to the side surface. The tablet T deviating from the left direction in FIG. 50 moves to the reducing transport device 6 and is returned to the upstream end side of the alignment transfer transport unit 50.

The alignment transport unit 51 includes an end portion of a guide member 500 having a diameter regulation guide surface 511 on the downstream side, and a guide member 512 having a diameter regulation guide surface 513 opposite to the diameter regulation guide surface 511. The distance between the diameter regulating guide surfaces 511 and 513 is set to be slightly larger than the diameter of the tablet T so that the tablets T can pass through one by one.
In the boundary portion between the aligned transport transition section 50 and the aligned transport section 51, the transport guide a of the above embodiment is arranged so that the guide roller 1 is perpendicular to the transport surface of the part toward the upstream end of the guide member 512. Is installed, and the guide roller 1 is rotated in a fast-feed manner along the conveying direction of the conveying device 5 by the vacuum sucking means 4.

The tablets T that are sequentially aligned substantially in a line in the aligned transfer transition unit 50 sequentially contact the guide roller 1 of the transfer guide a at the end of the aligned transfer transfer unit 50 and instantaneously suck (weak force) into the suction hole 10. Then, the guide rollers 1 are guided in a fast-feed manner and surely one by one by rotation of the guide roller 1 in the transport direction.
Since the tablets T are guided in a fast-forward manner to the aligning and conveying unit 51 in this way, they are not ejected to the reducing conveying device 6 side.
When each tablet T comes into contact with the guide roller 1 and is guided to the aligning and conveying unit 51 in a fast-feed manner, the tablet T is subjected to a slightly stronger impact than the normal conveying state. Most of the powder is separated from the tablet T and scattered, and is sucked from the suction hole 10 of the guide roller 1. In addition, fine powder that remains attached to the tablet without being separated from the tablet T is also sucked from the suction hole 10 during the instantaneous suction.
The fine powder sucked from the suction hole 10 of the guide roller 1 is sucked into the vacuum suction means 4 and collected.

In the conveyance guide a of the above embodiment (the same applies to the other embodiments below), instead of communicating the suction case 2 with the vacuum suction means 4 and rotating the rotary blade 3 and the rotary shaft 11, for example, a motor It can also be implemented by rotating the rotary blade 3 in the suction direction by M (FIG. 1).
In this case, the sucked fine powder is collected by connecting a collection container (not shown) to the connecting portion 40.

FIG. 4 shows another installation form in the conveyance guide a of the first embodiment.
A spiral chute 53 is vertically connected to the discharge portion of the transport device 52 including a chute, and the tablets T are guided from the transport device 52 to the spiral chute 53 in a line.
Since a large number of tablets T concentrate at the discharge portion of the transport device 52 that is a chute, the flow of the tablet group is deteriorated, and the guide of the tablets T to the spiral chute 53 is not smooth, so both inner sides of the discharge portion of the transport device 52 Conveying guides a and a are opposed to each other so that the guide roller 1 is substantially perpendicular to the conveying surface and rotates in the conveying direction.

Since the guide roller 1 rotates in the opposite direction in the conveyance direction of the tablet T, the tablet T is reliably guided in the direction of the spiral chute 53 in a fast-feeding manner in a weak suction state in the discharge unit of the conveyance device 52. In a line.
As described above, when the group of tablets T is guided in a fast-forward manner, the tablet group is in a slightly agitated state, so that most of the fine particles adhering to the tablets T are separated and scattered from the tablets T, and the guide rollers 1 It is removed by suction through the suction hole 10. The fine powder adhering without scattering from the tablet T is removed by suction when the tablet T is instantaneously sucked into the suction hole 10 of the guide roller 1.

Second Embodiment FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a second embodiment of the transport guide a.
A large number of suction holes 10 are formed in the cylindrical guide roller 1 along the circumferential direction, and a rotating shaft 11 is attached along the axial direction.
The suction hole 10 of the guide roller 1 communicates with the suction case 2 via a sleeve 23 formed at the lower end portion of the suction case 2.
The rotary shaft 11 is supported by a support plate 26 having a suction hole 26 a mounted in the sleeve 23 via a bearing 24, and is supported by a support plate 22 in the suction case 2 via a bearing 25. A rotary blade 3 is attached to the end of the rotary shaft 11 on the suction case 2 side.
An appropriate number of air holes 22 a are formed in the support plate 22, and the upper end portion of the suction case 2 communicates with the vacuum suction means 4 through the connection portion 40. The guide roller 1 is rotated along the conveyance direction of the tablet T via the shaft 11.
At the lower end of the sleeve 23, a shade-shaped ridge 23 a is formed so as to cover the upper outer periphery of the guide roller 1.

When the transport guide a according to the second embodiment is installed at the boundary between the aligned transport transition section 50 and the aligned transport section 51 of the transport apparatus 5 as shown in FIG. When the tablet T is guided in a fast-feed manner, the fine powder separated and scattered from the tablet T is sucked through the suction hole 10 of the guide roller 1 and also through the suction hole 26 a of the support plate 26 in the sleeve 23. At this time, the flange 23a of the sleeve 23 acts so that the fine powder is guided to the inside of the sleeve 23 without further scattering.
When the conveyance guide a of the second embodiment is installed in the discharge portion of the conveyance device 52 formed of a chute as shown in FIG.
Other operations and effects of the conveyance guide a of this embodiment are the same as those of the conveyance guide of the first embodiment.

Third Embodiment FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway view showing a third embodiment of a conveyance guide a according to the present invention, FIG. 7 is a partially developed plan view of a guide roller in the same embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a drawing case side of the guide roller. It is sectional drawing of a hollow shaft.
As shown in FIG. 7, the elongated cylindrical guide roller 1 is formed with a plurality of suction holes 10 in the circumferential direction over substantially the entire length, and each suction hole 10 is a suction case 2 installed at one end of the guide roller 1. The suction case 2 is connected to the vacuum suction means 4 via the connecting portion 40.

Hollow shafts 11 a and 11 b are respectively connected to both ends of the guide roller 1, and the hollow shaft 11 a at one end (on the suction case 2 side) is a boss portion 20 a provided on the end plate 20 of the suction case 2. The hollow shaft 11b at the other end is attached to the connection box 2a via a bearing 28.
The rotating shaft 11 is connected to the shaft center portion of one hollow shaft 11a via a connecting member 11c provided radially from the shaft center. A rotary blade 3 is attached.

The suction case 2 and the connection box 2a are communicated with each other by a suction pipe 2b provided in a detour shape at each of the connection socket portions 2c and 2d provided therein.
With the above configuration, the guide roller 1 is rotated in the tablet conveyance direction through the rotary blade 3 by the operation of the vacuum suction means 4, and at the same time, from the large number of suction holes 10 to the periphery of the guide roller 1 through the hollow shafts 11a and 11b. The atmosphere is sucked in both directions.
In this embodiment, in order to apply a suction force from both ends of the guide roller 1, the other end of the guide roller 1 is rotatably connected to the connection box 2 a via the hollow shaft 11 b. When no suction force is applied from the direction of the other end, the other end of the guide roller 1 is rotatably supported on an appropriate support member via a rotation shaft (not shown).

The conveyance guide a of the third embodiment slightly protrudes from the bottom of the conveyance surface to the conveyance surface to the discharge unit of the conveyance device 54 including a belt conveyor and a hopper as shown in FIG. 9 and is substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the conveyance device 54. Suitable for installation.
In the installed state of FIG. 9, since the shutter 540 is provided at the discharge portion of the transport device 54 formed of a hopper, the transport guide a is operated in synchronization with the opening and closing of the shutter 540. That is, the operation is controlled so that the guide roller 1 rotates and sucks through the suction hole 10 when the shutter 540 is open.
In the installed state of FIG. 9, the tablet T is guided in a fast-forward manner by rotating the guide roller 1, and the fine particles separated and scattered from the surface of the tablet T are sucked and removed through the numerous suction holes 10 of the guide roller 1.
In the conveyance guide a of the third embodiment, it is desirable to provide a flat lid (not shown) in each connection socket portion 2c, 2d in consideration of the case where the suction tube 2a is not used.

Fourth Embodiment FIG. 10 is a schematic plan view showing a fourth embodiment of the conveyance guide a according to the present invention.
Each conveyance guide a of this embodiment is a modification of the conveyance guide of the third embodiment, omitting the suction tube 2a of the conveyance guide a of the third embodiment, and the guide roller 1 of each conveyance guide a is in the conveyance direction. It is configured to suck in only one direction through a suction hole (not shown) while rotating in the direction of.
A large number of conveyance guides a are installed so that each guide roller 1 is parallel to the discharge portion of the conveyance device 54 including a conveyor and a hopper, and each odd-numbered guide roller 1 from the end of the discharge portion is one on the left side in the figure. The even-numbered guide rollers 1 communicate with one suction case 2 on the right side of the drawing, and each suction case 2 communicates with a vacuum suction means (not shown).
Other configurations are substantially the same as the conveyance guide a of the third embodiment, and the operation and effects thereof are substantially the same as those of the conveyance guide a of the third embodiment except that a large number of conveyance guides a are installed in parallel. It is the same.

Other Embodiments In the conveyance guide a of each of the above embodiments, the vacuum suction means 4 or the motor M (FIG. 1) and the rotation means of the guide roller 1 can be installed separately. If the vacuum suction means 4 and the like and the rotation means of the guide roller 1 are installed separately, there is an advantage that it is easy to control the rotation speed of the guide roller 1 separately from the suction action of the surrounding atmosphere.

  In each of the above embodiments, in order to reduce the impact on the tablet T when it contacts the guide roller 1, silicone or other cushioning material is applied to the surface of the contact portion of the guide roller 1 with the tablet T or the brush. Can be flocked.

It is sectional drawing which shows 1st Embodiment of the conveyance guide which concerns on this invention. It is a partial enlarged plan view which shows the example which used the conveyance guide of 1st Embodiment for the alignment conveyance part of a tablet. It is an expansion perspective view of the guide part in the conveying apparatus of FIG. It is a partial fracture front view showing the example which used the conveyance guide of a 1st embodiment for other conveyance devices. It is sectional drawing which shows 2nd Embodiment of the conveyance guide which concerns on this invention. It is a fragmentary broken view which shows 3rd Embodiment of the conveyance guide a which concerns on this invention. It is a partial expansion top view of a guide roller in a 3rd embodiment. It is sectional drawing of the hollow shaft by the side of the suction case in embodiment of FIG. It is a schematic side view which shows the installation form of the conveyance guide of 3rd Embodiment. It is a schematic plan view which shows 4th Embodiment of the conveyance guide which concerns on this invention.

a transport guide T tablet M motor 1 guide roller 10 suction hole 11 rotating shaft 11a, 11b hollow shaft 11c connecting member 13 bearing metal 2 suction case 20, 21 end plate 22 support plate 22a vent holes 24, 25, 27, 28 bearing 2a Connection box 2b Suction tube 3 Rotary blade 40 Connection unit 4 Vacuum suction means 5, 52, 54 Conveying device 50 Alignment conveyance transfer unit 51 Alignment conveyance unit 53 Spiral chute

Claims (4)

In the process of transporting tablets, the guide rollers that rotate along the tablet transport direction and have a large number of suction holes are being transported to suck and remove fine particles adhering to the tablets while guiding the tablets in a fast- feeding manner. A method for transporting a tablet, wherein the fine powder adhering to the tablet is removed by suction while the tablet is brought into contact with at least a part of the tablet while being guided in a fast-forward manner. The tablet conveyance guide method according to claim 1 , wherein the guide roller is brought into contact with the tablet being conveyed in a posture perpendicular to the conveyance surface. The tablet conveyance guide method according to claim 1 , wherein the guide roller is brought into contact with the tablet being conveyed in a state orthogonal to the conveyance direction from below the conveyance surface of the tablet. By aligning and conveying a large number of tablets in a row while aligning a number of tablets one by one in a row, the tablets rotate in the direction of tablet conveyance in the process of sequentially shifting to the alignment conveyance unit, and A guide roller having a large number of suction holes and arranged almost perpendicular to the transport surface is brought into contact with the tablet from one side to guide the tablet to the aligning and transporting part while fast-feeding the tablet. you aspirate the fines that, conveyance guide method of the tablet.

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