Patent Grant
7721510
The present invention relates to a vial capping device endowed with a function by which rotation of a cap is locked through engagement of a cap engagement portion and a rotation restricting portion of a vial, and to a capping method.
As shown in
The cap 210 and the vial 220, which are constructed as described above, involve a rather bothersome operation. As a result, in recent years, a combination of a vial 1 and a cap 2 as shown in
The vial 1 has a disc-like flange 10 which is partially cut-away so that it may substantially come into contact with the lower edge of the cap 2 when the cap inner periphery thread 6 of the cap 2 is threadedly engaged with the vial outer periphery thread 4. Further, the vial 1 has, in the cut-away portion of the flange 10, a lever 11 whose distal end can be pushed down, with the lever 11 being equipped with a rotation restricting member 12 formed of an elastic latch member protruding obliquely upwards. Further, the cap 2 has a protrusion-like engagement portion 13 at the lower end of the inner surface thereof; when the inner periphery thread 6 of the cap 2 is threadedly engaged with the vial outer periphery thread 4 of the vial 1, the engagement portion 13 climbs over the rotation restricting member 12 while pushing it down and, afterwards, the rotation restricting member 12 protrudes upwardly again due to its elasticity. Even if an attempt is made to turn the cap 2 in the opening direction, the engagement portion 13 abuts the rotation restricting member 12 to restrict the rotation of the cap 2. Thus, in order to detach the cap 2 from the vial 1, it is necessary to turn the cap 2, with the lever 11 being pushed down to downwardly retract the rotation restricting member 12 below the engagement portion 13. Since an infant is incapable of performing such an operation, it is possible to prevent accidental swallowing. Further, when there is no fear of an infant touching the vial 1, the cap 2 is turned upside down, and the outer periphery thread 9 of the cap 2 is threadedly engaged with the vial inner periphery thread 5 of the vial 1. As a result, the rotation restricting member 12 is not engaged with the engagement member 13, and the cap can close the vial so as to easily allow its detachment, so the user feels no bother.
In conventional vial capping devices, it is necessary to rotate one of a mechanism for holding the vial and the other mechanism for holding the cap to lock or threadedly engage the cap to or with the vial, resulting in a rather complicated device structure. Further, in some cases, the holding of the cap is rather insufficient, and the cap spins, resulting in a rather insufficient tightening of the cap. In particular, in the case of a capping device for threadedly engaging the cap 2 with the vial 1 shown in
In view of the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vial capping device and a vial capping method allowing the cap to be reliably fastened to the vial with a simple construction.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, a vial capping device according to the present invention relates to a vial capping device, in which a thread is provided respectively on an inner peripheral surface and an outer peripheral surface of a cap, a thread being provided on an outer peripheral surface of a vial opening, the cap being equipped with an engagement portion, the vial being equipped with a rotation restricting portion, the vial being closed by threadedly engaging the thread of the inner peripheral surface of the cap with the vial opening, rotation of the cap being locked through engagement of the engagement portion of the cap and the rotation restricting portion of the vial, the vial capping device including: a cap installation ring equipped with an inner periphery thread to be threadedly engaged with the thread of the outer peripheral surface of the cap; a holding device for holding the vial; a movement device for bringing at least one of the thread of the inner peripheral surface of the cap attached to the cap installation ring and the opening of the vial close to the other; and a tightening motor for rotating at least one of the cap and the vial.
Further, a plurality of cap installation rings may be provided, and a plurality of kinds of diameter sizes of the cap installation rings may be provided in correspondence with the kinds of diameters of vials.
Further, when a torque limiter is provided somewhere between the tightening motor for rotating at least one of the cap and the vial and the cap or the vial, it is possible to prevent damage of the motor.
Further, when there are provided below the cap installation ring a cap supply portion to which the cap is supplied so as to be substantially coaxial with the cap installation ring and an approach device for moving at least one of the cap supplied to the cap supply portion and the cap installation ring so as to bring them close to each other, it is possible to automatically attach the cap to the cap installation ring.
Further, when there is provided an installation motor which rotates at least one of the cap and the cap installation ring to threadedly engage the cap installation ring with the cap supplied to the cap supply portion, it is possible to attach the cap supplied to the cap supply portion through threaded engagement by rotating the installation motor.
Further, when there is provided a torque limiter in the rotation transmission route from the installation motor to the cap or the cap installation ring, it is possible to attach the cap to the cap installation ring with an appropriate torque, thereby preventing damage of the motor.
Further, when there is provided a retraction mechanism which causes the cap supply portion to retract from between the threadedly engaged cap and the vial opening after the cap supplied to the cap supply portion and the cap installation ring have been threadedly engaged with each other, it is possible to close (cap) the vial immediately after the cap supplied is threadedly engaged with the cap installation ring.
When there are provided a chute for supplying a stored cap to the cap supply portion, and a stopper for stopping the cap between the cap supply portion and the chute, and when the stopper is detached to supply a cap if there is no cap at the cap supply portion, it is possible to perform vial capping reliably one by one.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a vial capping method for a vial capping device in which a thread is provided on each of an inner peripheral surface and an outer peripheral surface of a cap, a thread being provided on an outer peripheral surface of a vial opening, the cap being equipped with an engagement portion, the vial being equipped with a rotation restricting portion, the vial being closed by threadedly engaging the thread of the inner peripheral surface of the cap with the vial opening, rotation of the cap being locked through engagement of the engagement portion of the cap and the rotation restricting portion of the vial, by which cap tightening can be reliably effected by the following procedures:
a) a procedure to threadedly engage the thread provided in the inner periphery of a cap installation ring and an outer periphery thread of the cap;
b) a procedure to bring the thread of the outer peripheral surface of the vial opening close to the thread portion of the cap inner peripheral surface; and
c) a procedure to rotate the cap installation ring in the closing direction by a motor.
Further, in the above-mentioned procedure a), when the cap installation ring is rotated until the cap engagement portion and the rotation restricting portion of the vial are engaged with each other to lock the cap, it is possible to exert a function by which accidental swallowing by an infant is prevented.
Further, when, after the cap has been locked, it is possible to successively perform capping on the next vial by performing the following procedure:
d) a procedure to rotate the cap installation ring in the reverse direction to cancel the threaded engagement of the thread of the cap installation ring and the outer periphery thread of the cap.
Further, it is possible to automatically attach the cap to the cap installation ring by performing the following procedures:
e) a procedure to mount the cap to a cap supply portion provided under the cap installation ring so as to be coaxial with the cap installation ring;
f) a procedure to bring the cap installation ring close to the cap supply portion; and
g) a procedure to rotate at least one of the cap mounted to the cap supply portion and the cap installation ring to threadedly engage the cap and the cap installation ring with each other.
According to the vial capping device of the present invention, the cap outer periphery thread of the cap is threadedly engaged with the ring inner periphery thread of the cap installation ring, so it is possible to reliably hold the cap. Further, when engaging the cap threadedly engaged with the cap installation ring threadedly with the outer periphery thread of the vial, the torque of the cap or of the cap installation ring is exerted so as to threadedly engage the cap with the cap installation ring, so the cap holding state is stabilized, and it is possible to perform capping on the vial reliably with a simple configuration.
Further, in the vial capping device of the present invention, when a plurality of cap installation rings are provided, it is possible to perform capping on vials of different diameters, and when a torque limiter is provided, there is no fear of excessively tightening the cap to damage the cap or burning the motor.
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vial capping device and a vial capping method allowing a cap to be fastened to a vial reliably with a simple configuration.
In the following, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Each vial accommodating portion 22 has a door 27 on one side thereof as shown in the drawing, which door is opened to accommodate vials 1. The vials 1 accommodated in the vial accommodating portions 22 are extracted one by one and are conveyed to a robot arm (not shown).
The cassette accommodating portion 23 is provided on either side of the tablet filling device 21; a robot arm (not shown) directly moves the vial 1 to the back surface of the target tablet cassette, and imparts dispensing power to the drug cassette from the back side of the tablet cassette to introduce the requisite number of tablets into the vial 1. The vial 1 filled with tablets is conveyed to a capping device described below by means of the robot arm.
The cap accommodating portion 24 is equipped with a cap supply unit 100 described below, and conveys caps 2 one by one to the capping device with their orientations aligned. The replenishment of the cap accommodating portion 24 with caps 2 is effected through a door 28.
The vial discharge portions 25 are windows through which the vials 1 completely filled with tablets are discharged while classified into different groups for different patients.
The PC accommodating portion 26 accommodates a PC, which is connected to a pharmacy host computer through a LAN; it transmits prescription data that is received from the pharmacy host computer to a main body control portion, and displays operational information of the corresponding data through an operation monitor 29.
The capping device is composed of a cap installation unit 31 and a robot arm 71.
Above the cap supply portion 33, there is provided a cap installation ring 35 at a position where it is substantially coaxial with the cap 2 supplied to the cap supply portion 33. One end portion of a support shaft 36 is inserted into a hole that is provided in the cap installation ring 35, and the cap installation ring 35 is rotatable around the support shaft 36 and axially slidable along the support shaft 36. The other end of the support shaft 36 is supported by a motor bracket 37. Substantially in the middle of the support shaft 36, there is provided a drive gear 39 that is supported by a bearing 38. Since an E-ring is attached to the cap installation ring 35 side of the drive gear 39, the drive gear 39 does not fall from the support shaft 36. The drive gear 39 is driven by being in mesh with a motor gear 40. The motor gear 40 is driven by a rotation motor (which serves as both tightening motor and installation motor) 42 via a speed reduction gear 41 and a torque limiter 41a. The cap installation ring 35 is suspended from the drive gear 39 by a pair of ring support shafts 43 that are situated on both sides of the support shaft 36. The ring support shafts 43 slidably extend through holes provided in the drive gear 39; their upper ends are larger than the holes of the drive gear 39, and their lower ends are fixed to the upper surface of the cap installation ring 35 by screws. Further, a compression spring 44 is provided around the portion of the support shaft 36 which is between the cap installation ring 35 and the bearing 38 provided on the drive gear 39, pressing the cap installation ring 35 downwardly. The cap installation unit 31 including the motor bracket 37 form a structure that is capable of ascending and descending, so they are mounted to a bracket 46 capable of ascending and descending along an ascent/descent slide shaft 45, and the bracket 46 is caused to ascend and descend by a screw of an ascent/descent drive shaft 47 (approach device). The ascent/descent drive shaft 47 is equipped with a bevel gear 48; a bevel gear 49 of a motor 50 is in mesh with the above-mentioned bevel gear 48, and the ascent/descent drive shaft 47 rotates through driving of the motor 50, causing the bracket 46 to ascend and descend. Both end portions of the ascent/descent drive shaft 47 are rotatably supported by bearings, and the bearings and the ascent/descent slide shaft 45 are mounted to a structure 51, whereby the cap installation unit 31 as a whole is supported.
A protrusion 52 for position detection is provided on the bracket 46, and the structure 51 is equipped with a position detecting sensor 53 for detecting a protrusion 62 at an upper limit position and a lower limit position of the bracket 46. The position detecting sensor 53 is a transmitted-light detecting sensor; when the protrusion 52 reaches a gap portion of the main body of the sensor 53, light is intercepted, whereby the position of the bracket 46 is detected. The upper limit position is of a height not hindering the charging of the cap 2 to the cap supply portion 33, and the lower limit position is of a height allowing the thread portions 4, 6 of the cap 2 and the vial 1 to come into contact with each other when they are to be threadedly engaged with each other.
Further, in the present invention, the drive gears 39 are provided on each side of the motor gear 40 being centered, and the cap installation rings 35 of different diameters are provided on the drive gears 39 so as to be in conformity with the kinds of vial 1 to be treated by the cap installation unit 31. The structures on both sides, however, are as described above except that they differ from each other in diameter.
Further, a solenoid 54 is provided above the cap supply portion 33 and on the front side thereof with respect to the cap supply direction, and the plunger of the solenoid 54 is connected to a lever 55a, and a stopper 55 is mounted to the forward end of the lever 55a. In order that the next cap 2 that is on standby on the chute 32 may not move to the cap supply portion 33 at the time of cap installation to hinder the cap tightening, the stopper 55 abuts the upper portion of the next cap 2 to cause it to stop at that position. The chute 32 is equipped with a sensor 32a, which detects whether there are any cap 2 at the cap supply portion 33. When there is no more cap 2 at the cap supply portion 33, an electric current flows through the solenoid 54, and the stopper 55 ascends, canceling the abutment of the cap 2 and causing the cap 2 to move to the cap supply portion 33.
The slide transmission rail 61 is mounted so as to extend through a structure support plate 51, and is provided so as to be longitudinally slidable along a guide (not shown). Substantially at the center of the slide transmission rail 61, there is provided an elongated hole 66 engaged with a position regulating bearing 65 supported by the structure support plate 51. When no power is being supplied to the solenoid 63, the position regulating bearing 65 is in contact with the arm 64 side of the elongated hole 66 a shown in
On the unit casing portion 72, there is provided a horizontal rotation gear 74 horizontally rotatable around a rotation shaft (not shown). The horizontal rotation gear 74 is engaged with a horizontal rotation drive gear 75; when a horizontal rotation drive motor 76 rotates, the horizontal rotation gear 74 is rotated via the horizontal rotation drive gear 75 owing to a drive force thereof. Further, the horizontal rotation gear 74 has an encoder (not shown) on its rotation shaft, and an origin protrusion 74a on the back surface thereof; the rotating position where a sensor (not shown) provided in the unit casing portion 72 detects the origin protrusion is used as the origin. By using the encoder, it is possible to control the stop position, etc. according to the number of slits and blinds as counted from the origin. Further, on the planar rotation gear 74, there is provided a slide rail support plate 77, and a slide rail (not shown) is provided between the slide rail support plate 77 and an arm unit support plate 78. Further, on the slide rail support plate 77, there is arranged a rack gear 79 so as to be substantially parallel to the slide rail; the slide rail is expanded and contracted by an expansion/contraction gear 80 in mesh with the rack gear 79, and an expansion/contraction drive motor 81 supported on the arm unit support plate 78 side, causing the slide rail support plate 78 to move. Further, the robot arm 71 is equipped with a sensor 82 for detecting the slide limit.
Further, an auxiliary guide pin 94 is provided substantially parallel to the grasping shaft 85. This guide pin performs auxiliary guide so that the arm members 83 may not be vertically inclined around the arm shaft 84 portion. The range of the vertical inclination can be adjusted by an E-ring fixed to the elongated hole 92 in the expanding/contracting direction. At the forward ends of the arm members 83, there are supported grasping members 93 so as to be rotatable around rotation shafts 95, and are urged by arm urging springs 96 such that the forward ends of the grasping members 93 are urged toward each other. When no vial 1 is being grasped, the rear ends of the grasping members 93 are in contact with the wall surfaces of the arm members 83. When the vial 1 is grasped, the rear ends of the grasping members 93 are separated from the surface portions of the arm support portions, and can hold the vial 1 by virtue of the urging force of the arm urging springs 96.
In the robot arm 71, the nuts 86 of the left-handed screw and the right-handed screw provided on the grasping drive shaft 85 are supported by the right and left attitude correction shafts 87, and are constructed to be supported by the arm shaft 84, so the robot arm 71 can be produced at lower cost than the slide unit. Further, in the support by the arm shaft 84 alone, grasping operation is effected along the arc during the grasping operation of the grasping members 93. However, the grasping members 93 support the nuts 86 of the left-handed screw and the right-handed screw provided on the grasping drive shaft 85 by the right and left attitude correction shafts 87. As a result, the arm 84 moves along the elongated hole 92 extending in the expanding/contracting direction, and the grasping embers 93 move to the right and left substantially linearly.
The accommodating portion 104 is a rectangular box-shaped container accommodating at random a large number of caps charged through the cap introduction duct 101, 102.
The discharge unit 105 has an endless belt 108 stretched between two rollers 107a, 107b from the rear side wall to the bottom wall of the accommodating portion 104, with support members 109 being provided at fixed intervals in the endless belt 108. The endless belt 108 is composed of a vertical portion 108a and an inclined portion 108b extending obliquely downwards from the lower end of the vertical portion 108a. Between the vertical portion 108a and the inclined portion 108b of the endless belt 108, a tension roller 110 is held in contact with the back side of the endless belt from the inside. By driving the upper roller 108a by a motor 111 via gears 111a, 112, the front side of the endless belt 108 ascends obliquely upwards from the lower end, and further ascends in the vertical direction to be turned back at the upper end. As shown in
In the vicinity of the upper end of the endless belt of the discharge unit 105, there are provided a detection lever which operates when the cap 2 supported by the support member 109 is turned back, and a sensor 114 which is turned on and off according to the operation of the detection lever 113.
Behind the discharge unit 105, there is formed a discharge path 115 so as to be parallel to the vertical portion 108a of the endless belt 108. The discharge path 115 receives the cap 2 having been conveyed by the discharge unit 105 to reach the turn-back portion at the upper end, and guides it downwards. At the upper end of the discharge path 115, there is provided a guide plate 116 for guiding the cap 2 to the discharge path 115.
The agitation unit 106 has an agitation plate 118 provided so as to be capable of vertically reciprocating along the inner side wall of the accommodating portion 104 by means of a plurality of guides 117. In the lower portion of the agitation plate 118, a plurality of lock holes 118a to which the caps 2 accommodated in the accommodating portion 104 are locked and which extend in the horizontal direction are formed at fixed intervals in the vertical direction. Instead of forming the lock holes 118a of the agitation plate 118 as holes, it is also possible to form them as protrusions. The lock holes 118a are preferable in that they do not decrease the capacity of the accommodating portion 104. In the side edge of the upper portion of the agitation plate 118, there is formed a cutout 118b; a roller 121 at the forward end of a cam 120 provided integrally with a gear 119 in mesh with the drive gear 111a of the motor 111 of the discharge unit 105 abuts the upper side edge of the cutout 118b. As a result, the agitation plate is interlocked with the endless belt 108 of the discharge unit 105 and periodically reciprocates in the vertical direction.
Next, the operation of the vial capping device will be described.
When the robot arm 71 grasps the vial 1, a robot arm ascent/descent motor (not shown) is driven to raise the robot arm along the rail members 73. Subsequently, the expansion/contraction drive motor 81 is rotated to contract the arm unit support plate 78 along the slide rail. In the example shown in the drawing, the vial 1 being grasped is of a large diameter, so the expansion contraction motor 81 is stopped when the vial reaches the cap supply portion 33 directly below the cap installation ring 35 of the cap installation unit 31, which maches the large diameter caps 2. The robot arm ascent/descent motor (not shown) is stopped when the standby position shown in
When the cap installation ring 35 is lowered to a predetermined height, the cap 2 is completely threadedly engaged with the cap installation ring 35 as shown in
While in the example described above the robot arm 71 is raised to the closing position, it is also possible to further lower the cap installation unit 31 with the robot arm 71 remaining stationary at the standby position and capping the vial, or to bring both units close to each other.
When the cap 2 is completely tightened, the operation stops in the state as shown in
A remarkable feature of the present invention is that, before attaching the cap 2 to the vial 1, the cap 2 is firmly held through threaded engagement of the cap outer periphery thread 9 of the cap 2 and the ring inner periphery thread 56 of the cap installation ring 35. While in the above embodiment the cap installation unit 31 is lowered onto the cap 2 on the L-shaped guides 34, it is also possible to provide the L-shaped guides 34 with an ascent/descent means and to press the cap 2 against the cap installation ring 35, or to move both to attach the cap 2 to the cap installation ring 35. Further, while in the above embodiment the cap 2 is rotated when attaching the cap 2 to the vial 1, it is also possible to rotate the vial 1, or to rotate both the vial 1 and the cap 2.
1: vial
2: cap
31: cap installation unit
33: cap supply portion
34: L-shaped guide
35: cap installation ring
42: rotating motor (as both tightening motor and installation motor)
56: ring inner periphery thread
71: robot arm (as both holding device and movement device)
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-030508 | Feb 2005 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2006/302002 | 2/6/2006 | WO | 00 | 8/6/2007 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2006/082969 | 8/10/2006 | WO | A |
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| 62 146193 | Jun 1987 | JP |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20090013642 A1 | Jan 2009 | US |
