Capsule filling apparatus

A powder filling machine for filling a powdery material into a capsule, which comprises

• a metering disc mounted on a vertical shaft,
• a plurality of work stations situated around said metering disc,
• means for intermittently rotating said metering disc about said vertical shaft past said work stations,
• said metering disc having a plurality of groups of metering cavities,
• the number of said cavity groups corresponding to the number of said work stations,
• a first one of said work stations being a compressing station,
• said compressing station including presser rods and means to move said presser rods up and down,
• said presser rods each are engageable in a respective cavity of said metering cavities and have an outer diameter appropriate to the diameter of said respective cavity, so that the powdery material is compressed within said cavities to provide pellets by the up and down movement of said presser rods,
• a second one of said work stations being a delivery station,
• a delivery plunger for each of said cavities is located at said delivery station,
• means for positioning a capsule cup body below said delivery plunger,
• means for lowering each said delivery plunger to press the respective pellet to fall into said capsule cup body positioned therebelow,
• means for subsequently delivering said capsule cup body to an associated apparatus,
• a first auxiliary presser rod for each said cavity,
• each said first auxiliary presser rod being located at a first stage of said compressing station, and having an outer diameter appropriate to the diameter of each said respective cavity,
• each said respective cavity having a bottom opening therein,
• means for inserting said first auxiliary presser rod from below into said respective cavity through said bottom opening, so as to occupy the entire space inside said respective cavity,
• means for lowering said first auxiliary presser rod to allow a layer of the powdery material formed on said metering disc to be drawn into said respective cavity to fill up said respective cavity,
• a third one of said work stations being a metering station located between a final stage of said compressing station and said delivery station,
• a second auxiliary presser rod, for each said respective cavity, located at said metering station,
• each said second auxiliary presser rod having an outer diameter appropriate to the diameter of each said respective cavity,
• means for inserting each said second auxiliary presser rod into said respective cavity through said bottom opening of said cavity to push a respective pellet upwards to such an extent that in the event that said pellet is of a quantity exceeding a predetermined value, an excessive portion of said pellet will be exposed above said metering disc, and
• means provided at said metering station for scraping off any excessive portion of the pellet.