The present invention relates to a medicine-bag printing apparatus, in particular to a medicine-bag printing apparatus characterized by a conveying structure of medicine bags after printing information on them.
As a mechanism for conveying paper, there is one that is enabled to convey paper while changing a position of the paper (e.g., see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: JP-60-6553(A)
However, when the above construction is applied to a medicine-bag printing apparatus equipped with a plurality of printers, its construction becomes complicated and such a printing apparatus inevitably becomes expensive.
An object of the present invention is to provide a medicine-bag printing apparatus including a conveying mechanism that can smoothly convey medicine bags and align them in spite of its simple and inexpensive construction.
As a means of solving the above problem, the present invention provides a medicine-bag printing apparatus in which a medicine bag is printed by any one of a plurality of printers and collected in a collecting portion via a conveying route, wherein comprising
a medicine-bag direction converting means which converts the direction of medicine bags printed by the respective printers so that printing surface and the printing direction become same.
With this construction, it always becomes possible to align medicine bags in the same direction and collect them regardless of the type of printer used.
The medicine-bag direction converting means comprises a first conveying route in which a medicine bag fed downward from the printer is conveyed downward; and a second conveying route in which a medicine bag is conveyed upward and then this conveying direction is converted downward.
With this construction, even if warping and the like occur with medicine bags when they pass through the printer, it becomes possible to collect them in a collecting portion in a stable state while taking the direction of the warping into account.
If a part of the first conveying route comprises a first conveying path directed obliquely downward, a part of the second conveying route comprises a second conveying path directed obliquely upward, and the rest of both of the conveying routes comprises a common conveying path including a plurality of conveying rollers disposed in parallel in an up-and-down direction and a conveying belt provided along the conveying rollers, which can be driven both normally and reversely, it becomes possible to take an inexpensive construction that suppresses the occupation space and the number of components, which is preferred.
If auxiliary rollers for biasing the conveying belt toward the conveying rollers are provided, it becomes possible to convey the medicine bags, in particular convey them upward smoothly, which is preferred.
If a guiding piece for guiding medicine bags is provided at a bottom edge portion of the common conveying path, it becomes possible to surely align the medicine bags that fall onto the collecting portion from the common conveying path, which is preferred.
If the guiding piece is rotatable only when a medicine bag passes through in a manner so as to guide the medicine bag, it becomes possible to smoothly take out the medicine bag from the collecting portion without being obstructed by the guiding piece, which is preferred.
According to the present invention, since the medicine-bag direction converting means is provided, medicine bags can always be aligned in the desired direction to be taken out, which is preferred.
An embodiment according to the present invention will hereinafter be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In
That is, in the medicine-bag forming portion 3, a plurality of medicine-bag rolls 8 of different sizes, each of which rolls is obtained by winding a medicine-bag sheet 7 that has been previously folded in two in a longitudinal direction, are freely detachably attached as shown in
In the medicine-bag printing portion 4, a plurality of printers is disposed in an up-and-down direction as shown in
Each of the printers 11, 12 receives prescription information from an unshown control portion and prints medicine information, such as a patient name, medicine name, dosage time, effectiveness and side effect, on a medicine bag 2 fed from the corresponding medicine-bag forming portion 3 in accordance with the prescription information. In addition to such prescription information, images of medicines can be printed.
Medicine-bag discharge paths 13 are formed, extending from the respective printers 11, 12 to the medicine-bag conveying portion 6.
The medicine-bag conveying portion 6 includes medicine-bag conveying paths 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d that communicate with the respective medicine-bag discharge paths 13, a plurality of conveying rollers 15 and a conveyer 16.
As shown in
As shown in
The conveyer 16 is formed by hanging a plurality of round belts 19 on driving rollers 18 disposed above and below. Annular grooves 18a are formed in the circumference of each driving roller 18, so that displacement of the round belts 19 is prevented. Thereby, each round belt 19 is disposed in a manner so as to be opposed to the respective conveying rollers 15 that are disposed in the up-and-down direction. Further, the driving roller 18 positioned on the lower side is rotated by driving of a motor 20 via gears 21a, 21b, 21c as shown in
The round belt 19 is biased to each conveying roller 15 by an auxiliary roller 22 as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Medicine-bag detecting sensors 34a-34d, 35, 36 for detecting medicine bags 2 passing through are provided midway in the respective medicine-bag conveying paths 14a-14d, as well as in two places of the upper and lower parts of the common conveying path.
Next, operation of the medicine-bag printing apparatus will be described.
When prescription information is inputted by an operator or from an unshown host computer, the size of a medicine bag 2 is selected based on the type and amount of medicine to be prescribed, and the medicine-bag forming portion 3 feeding medicine bags 2 of the size is designated.
In the designated medicine-bag forming portion 3, the medicine-bag sheet 7 is drawn out of the medicine-bag roll 8 and sealed at predetermined intervals by the seal cutting device 10 and cut simultaneously, thus forming a medicine bag 2. The medicine bag 2 is sorted into any one of the printers that are ready and waiting through any one of the conveying paths to be conveyed. In the printer 11, 12, medicine information such as a patient name, medicine name, dosage time, effectiveness and side effect is printed in accordance with the prescription information.
In the ink jet printers 11, information is printed on a top surface of a medicine bag 2. The printed medicine bag 2, which is directed downward from a medicine bag discharge path 13, passes through any one of the medicine-bag conveying paths 14a-14c and is then conveyed to the medicine-bag conveying portion 6. At this time, the medicine bag 2 is detected by any one of the medicine-bag detecting sensors 34a-34c.
In the medicine-bag conveying portion 6, the auxiliary rollers 22, which have been biased by the springs 23, are pressing the round belts 19 against the conveying rollers 15. Then, based on detected signals of the medicine bag detecting sensors 34a-34c, the motor 20 is driven and the driving rollers 18 are rotated. Thereby, the round belts 19 are moved downward at positions opposing the conveying rollers 15. Therefore, as shown in
In the case where the laser printer 12 is designated, the medicine-bag sheet 7 fed from the medicine-bag roll 8 is sealed at predetermined intervals by the seal cutting device 10 and cut simultaneously to form a medicine bag 2. Medicine information such as a patient name, medicine name, dosage time, effectiveness and side effect is printed on a lower surface of the medicine bag 2 in accordance with the prescription information. As shown in
In the medicine-bag conveying portion 6, based on the detected signals in the medicine-bag detecting sensor 34d, the motor 20 is reversed, so that the driving rollers 18 are rotated in the opposite direction to that in which the medicine bag 2 is printed by the ink jet printer 11. Thereby, the medicine bag 2 conveyed to the medicine-bag conveying portion 6 is directed upward temporarily. Thereafter, when the medicine bag 2 is completely conveyed to the medicine-bag conveying portion 6 from the medicine-bag conveying path 14d, it is detected by the medicine-bag detecting sensor 35. Then, the motor 20 is stopped and normally rotated again so that the driving rollers 18 are normally rotated, whereby the conveying direction of the medicine bag 2 is switched from up to down. This enables the printing surface of the medicine bag 2 to be directed to the left side in
The medicine bag 2, whose direction has thus been converted, is guided by the guiding piece 27 when conveyed from the medicine-bag conveying portion 6 to the medicine-bag collecting tray 32. That is, as shown in