Medicine feeder and tablet splitting apparatus

Abstract

An object is to modify, for example, an aligning mechanism such that in a disk rotation type medicine feeder and a tablet splitting apparatus, tablets are successively fed at appropriate Intervals which are not too sparse and not too dense. A turntable is divided into an inner part (50) and an outer part (40). The angular speed of a large-diameter turntable 40 is made higher than the angular speed of a small-diameter turntable 50, and a tablet transfer path 32 of a straightening guide 30 is configured to be a spiral path extending from an inner end portion 32a to an outer end portion 32b. This enables tablets to be successively fed at appropriate intervals. Additionally, a tablet contact, portion (64) of a tablet holding mechanism is reciprocated with respect to a temporary holding area 62 located before the outer end portion 32b. A tablet is temporarily held in the temporary holding area (62) and when a long narrow blade insertion slit 43 in the large-diameter turntable 40 reaches the temporary holding area (62), a tablet cutting blade of a tablet cutting mechanism is reciprocated with respect to the temporary holding area and a blade insertion notch (62, 63) to split the tablet. The resulting cutting dust is dropped from the blade insertion slit 43 or small holes 42 to be separated from the split tablets. The split tablets are then dropped from a discharge port 61.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.