Automatic picking machine for filling a transport container
AssigneeBecton Dickinson Rowa Germany GmbH
InventorChristoph HELLENBRAND
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic picking machine for pharmaceutical drug packages includes at least one storage rack, at least one storage and retrieval machine, a control apparatus for controlling the storage and retrieval machine, and a filling apparatus for successively filling each of a plurality of transport containers with a group of pharmaceutical drug packages corresponding to one order, wherein the filling apparatus includes a plurality of collection containers, first transport apparatuses, each having a transport channel for conveying the pharmaceutical drug packages towards the respective collection container, and a receiving apparatus for receiving a transport container to be filled at a filling location of the filing apparatus.
Claims20
A pharmaceutical dispensing machine, comprising:
- at least one transport channel extending from a storage location storing pharmaceutical drugs toward a delivery region;
- a filling apparatus configured to receive the pharmaceutical drugs, when removed from the storage location, from the at least one transport channel at the delivery region, and configured to fill one or more transport containers with the pharmaceutical drugs received from the at least one transport channel as the one or more transport containers are moved to a filling location adjacent the filling apparatus;
- and
- a control apparatus configured to determine when the pharmaceutical drugs are removed from the storage location to the at least one transport channel, and configured to cause the one or more transport containers to be placed at the filling location to be filled by the filling apparatus.
A method, comprising:
- receiving, at a filling apparatus, pharmaceutical drugs from a storage location via at least one transport channel, the at least one transport channel extending toward the filling apparatus from a receiving region configured to accept the pharmaceutical drugs from the storage location;
- automatically causing, by a control apparatus, one or more transport containers to be placed at a filling location adjacent the filling apparatus to receive at least a portion of the pharmaceutical drugs from the filling apparatus;
- and
- automatically causing, by the control apparatus, the one or more transport containers to be filled with the pharmaceutical drugs received from the at least one transport channel.
A control apparatus configured to:
- cause a filling apparatus to receive pharmaceutical drugs from at least one transport channel, the at least one transport channel extending toward the filling apparatus from a receiving region configured to accept the pharmaceutical drugs from a storage location storing the pharmaceutical drugs;
- successively move one or more transport containers into a filling location adjacent the filling apparatus to receive at least a portion of the pharmaceutical drugs from the filling apparatus;
- and
- cause the one or more transport containers to be filled with the pharmaceutical drugs received from the at least one transport channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.