JPS6219698B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention detects foreign matter in the liquid by imaging the liquid in ampoules, vials, etc. (and liquor bottles, etc., if necessary) used for medical purposes with a television camera or the like. The present invention relates to an inspection device for ampoules and vials that inspects the presence and/or extent of fine particles of glass, fibers, etc.

This type of inspection has conventionally been typically carried out, for example, as follows. That is, a turntable capable of rotating at a predetermined speed is provided, and a plurality of ampoule rotating devices are individually attached to the periphery of the turntable at regular intervals along the outer circumference, and the ampoule rotation device is mounted on the rotating device. It is fixed. In this way, the ampoules are placed one after another on the turntable and advance in a row in the circumferential direction, and optionally the ampoules alone can be rotated independently of the rotation of the turntable.
On the other hand, a television camera is installed outside the turntable 3 to take an image of the ampoule, and the ampoule filled with the liquid to be tested is rotated in one direction, and then rotated in the opposite direction.
During this time, the content of the ampoule is imaged by the television camera. Thereafter, the output of the television camera is operated to automatically determine whether the ampoule is good or defective. There is Japanese Patent Publication No. 712 of 1973 which discloses such contents.

In the above-described general inspection process, the ampoule is fixed on a turntable with its top and bottom pressed down.
If this fixation is not proper, the ampoule will not rotate as desired. For example, an ampoule is placed on a thrust bearing and the upper part of the ampoule is held down by a cap connected to a rotating device.

The conventional inspection apparatus constructed as described above is sufficient in many cases and does not pose any problems. However, because of the above-described structure, there is a problem that the type of ampoule to be tested, that is, the external shape is limited to only one type. When testing ampoules with different external shapes (ampule length and outer diameter), at least the cap portion must be adjusted or replaced beforehand. This involves manufacturing ampoules of various shapes, and when these are subjected to inspection, this results in a considerable increase in costs.

The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems.
An object of the present invention is to provide an ampoule and vial inspection device that can suitably test various types of ampoules, etc. having different ampoule lengths and ampoule outer diameters, without performing any special adjustment operations.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings, ampoules according to the present invention,
The vial inspection device will be explained in detail.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a main part of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an ampoule rotating portion of one embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an ampoule rotating portion of another embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the inspection apparatus of the present invention, an ampoule 1 substantially passes in front of a lens system of a television camera 2, and at a certain moment during this passage, the liquid contained in the ampoule is imaged by the television camera 2. However, when the ampoule is imaged, the liquid to be inspected in the ampoule is given a rotation by the circular wheels 5, 8 and other rotating means that are in contact with the side surface of the body of the ampoule. In this example it is shown as a driven circular wheel.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the ampoule 1 sent from the ampoule inlet of the inspection device by an appropriate conveying means enters the holding part 4 of the turntable 3, and then moves in the direction of arrow A of the turntable 3. As a result of the rotation of , it is sequentially sent to the right in Figure 1. In this way, the ampoule 1 is first taken into the first set of circular wheels. The first set of circular wheels is, for example, three as shown in Figure 1.
The circular wheel 5 is a driving circular wheel for rotating the ampoule clockwise, for example, and is connected to a drive device. The remaining two floating circular wheels 6, 7 are idle wheels for holding the ampoule 1, and neither of these is connected to any drive device. In this embodiment, the floating circular wheel 6 is structurally integrated with the driving circular wheel 5, as shown in FIG. 1, and the floating circular wheel 7 is integrated with the turntable 3. Moreover, as shown more clearly in FIG. 2, each circular wheel 5, 6, 7 is arranged to contact and pivot around the side of the body of the ampoule 1.

The ampoule 1, which has been turned clockwise in the first set of circular wheels 5, 6, and 7 as described above, is moved to the next position as shown in FIG. A second set of circular wheels 8, 9, sent to and located at the position to be imaged.
10 (hereinafter the same as 7 in the drawing),
Here, the ampoule 1 is rotated in a direction opposite to the above-mentioned direction, ie, counterclockwise, for example, and during this time, the liquid contained in the ampoule is imaged by the television camera 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the second set of circular wheels is also composed of three circular wheels 8, 9, and 10 in principle, similar to the first set of circular wheels 5, 6, and 7, but the driving circular wheels are Since the ampoule between the driving circular wheel 8 and the floating circular wheel 9 is imaged, the distance between the driving circular wheel 8 and the floating circular wheel 9 must be sufficiently wide. The reverse rotation of the ampoule 1 in this position can be achieved, for example, by the drive circular wheel 8 shown in FIG.
The drive circular wheel 8 is connected to a drive device. The floating circular wheels 9, 10 (same as 7) are idle wheels like the first set of circular wheels 6, 7, and the circular wheel 9 is attached to the fixed part, and the floating circular wheel 10 (same as 7) is attached to the turntable 3. can be attached to.

The first set of circular wheels 5, 6, 7 and the second set of circular wheels 8,
The rotating shafts of the circular wheels 6, 5 and 9, 8 are configured to be variable in position in order to take in and take out the ampoule 1 into the ampoules 9 and 10, for example, as shown in FIG. Normal spring 11,1
This was achieved using 2, 13, and 14.

The ampoule 1 is held by the floating circular wheel 7 of the concave holding portion 4 on the peripheral edge of the turntable, the normally rotating drive circular wheel 5, and the floating circular wheel 6, and is stably rotated and transported. In addition, even when the ampoule 1 is being transferred to the position of the floating circular wheel 9 disposed at the photographing position of the television camera 2 and the driving circular wheel 8 in reverse rotation, the ampoule 1 is transferred to the forward rotating driving circular wheel 5, the floating circular wheel 10 ( 7) and the floating circular wheel 9, the ampoule 1 is stably held and transferred by the three circular wheels from beginning to end from the normal rotation position to the reverse rotation position, Accurate liquid content inspection will be achieved.

Since the ampoule 1 is held stably in this manner, the danger of it falling sideways or popping out even when forward and reverse rotations are applied during transport is prevented.

In addition, according to the rotation holding device for the ampoule 1 using three circular wheels of the device of the present invention, the inspection field of the television camera is secured over a long and wide area from the upper end to the lower end of the side surface of the ampoule or vial 1, and a wide range of It becomes possible to inspect the position.

As mentioned above, when the ampoule 1 is taken into the second set of circular wheels 8, 9, 10, the ampoule 1 is swiveled counterclockwise, while preferably the ampoule 1 is placed substantially below it. The ampoule is illuminated by parallel light from a light source along the long axis of the ampoule, and during this time the ampoule is imaged by the television camera 2.

The output from the television camera 2 obtained as above is then processed by a known method, for example,
Using the method described in No. 712, a computer performs a series of processes such as waveform manipulation, arithmetic, counting, and storage as necessary to determine whether the ampoule is good or not.
Defective products are determined. Defective products, for example, exit 1 for non-defective products.
An opening/closing gate installed on the ampoule traveling road on the way to No. 5 opens in accordance with a command, and the ampoule is removed from the system from there. In the case of a good product, this opening/closing gate is kept closed and the ampoule 1 reaches the non-defective product outlet 15 without going out of the system.

In the apparatus of the present invention, as already mentioned, the ampoule 1
The ampoule is sequentially taken into the first set of circular wheels and the second set of circular wheels and given a predetermined turning of the ampoule. In this case, springs 11 and 12 are attached to the circular wheels 5 and 6, and these springs 11 and 12 are easily expanded by the feeding operation of the ampoule 1 of the turntable 3, so that, for example, the first set of circular wheels 5, 6, 7 It is taken in and discharged. In this way, the positions of the circular wheels 5 and 6 can be moved over a certain range depending on the outer diameter of the ampoule, so that it can be used not only for ampules with one type of outer diameter.
Ampules with various outer diameters can be inspected within a certain range.

The first set of circular wheels 5, 6, 7 and the second set of circular wheels 8, 9, 10 mentioned above are in contact with the center of the ampoule body or its vicinity. There are formats as shown in Figure 3. This type of circular wheel is in contact with the upper and lower ends of the ampoule body, and these are circular wheels 5a, 5b,
Consisting of 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, the third
In the case of the first set of circular wheels in the figure, the circular wheels 5a, 5b are connected to the drive device, and the other circular wheels 6a, 6b, 7a,
7b is used as an idle wheel. With this type of circular wheel, the circular wheel does not touch any other part of the ampoule body except for the upper and lower ends. The same applies to the second set of circular cars.

As described above, in the present invention, a group of circular wheels for ampoule turning, for example, the first set of circular wheels 5,
6, 7 or 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b
Also, the second set of circular wheels 8, 9, 10 is in contact with the side surface of the ampoule, and is constructed such that the axis of rotation of a portion of each of these circular wheels can be moved, for example by a spring, so that the outer diameter Various types of ampoules with different sizes can be tested without requiring any special adjustment of the ampoule holder.

In addition, since letters and other information are not normally written on the side of the ampoule body, rollers 5, 6, etc. are placed in the center of the ampoule body, as shown in Figure 2.
7 is sufficient, but if letters or other characters are printed on the side of the cylinder and there is a risk that they will be smudged by the circular wheel, for example, if the ink or paint is still dry, If not, as shown in Fig. 3, there are circular wheels 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b touching the upper and lower ends of the ampoule, so you can see what kind of printing is done on the side of the body of the ampoule. Even if the printing surface is smudged, the printed surface can be prevented from getting dirty.

In the present invention, the first set of circular wheels and the second set of circular wheels only hold the body side of the ampoule, and do not restrict the top and bottom of the ampoule at all.
The upper part of the ampoule remains open even when the ampoule is held and rotated. Therefore, although there is a certain limit similar to the outer diameter of the ampoule, it is possible to easily test ampules of various lengths within this range.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of essential parts of an embodiment of the ampoule and vial inspection apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the state in which ampoules are taken into the first set of circular wheels, and FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the same state as FIG. 2, but showing another example in which the structure of the circular wheel is different. In the figure, 1... ampoule, 2... television camera,
3... Turntable, 4... Turntable concave holder, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... Circular wheel.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A device that inspects the liquid content of ampoules, vials, etc. 1 by photographing the liquid contents of ampoules, vials, etc. 1 placed in a large number of concave holding parts 4 provided on the periphery of the turntable 3 with a television camera 2. (1) A floating circular wheel 7 is provided on the back of the concave holding part 4 for fixing each sample of the turntable 3, and is in contact with the side surface of the body of the ampoule, vial, etc. 1, and (2) near the periphery of the turntable 3. The turntable 3
At one point outside, one position-following drive circular wheel 5 and one position-following movable circular wheel 6, which rotate normally in contact with the side of the body of the ampoule, vial, etc. 1, are arranged adjacent to each other. , (3) one piece of ampoule, vial, etc. 1 in contact with the side surface of the body of the turntable 3 at a point near the rear of the one point where the TV camera 2 installed outside the turntable 3 near the periphery of the turntable 3 takes pictures; An apparatus for inspecting liquid contents of ampoules, vials, etc., characterized in that a floating circular wheel 9 that can follow a position and a drive circular wheel 8 that can rotate in reverse are arranged adjacent to each other.