US 7,726,095 B2Granted

Medicine dispensing/packaging apparatus

AssigneeYuyama Mfg. Co., Ltd.

InventorsShoji Yuyama, Hiroshi Hashimoto, Hiromichi Tsuda, Takashi Ueno

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A medicine dispensing/packaging apparatus is provided with a tablet feeder mechanism, a carrying mechanism, a supporting mechanism, and a dispensing/packaging mechanism. The tablet feeder mechanism further includes tablet accommodation parts, which contain tablets. The tablet accommodation parts are rotatably connected to each other. Each of the tablet accommodation parts further includes a rotatable bottom plate. The carrying mechanism carries the tablet feeder first in a horizontal direction and then in a vertical downward direction. The supporting mechanism provides support to the rotatable bottom plates for part of the time that the tablet feeder is carried in the horizontal direction, thus preventing the plates from opening. When the support to the bottom plate is removed, the bottom plates open, causing the tablets contained in the accommodation parts to be discharged. The discharged tablets are subsequently collected for packaging.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A medicine dispensing/packaging apparatus, comprising:

a tablet feed mechanism comprising a plurality of tablet accommodation parts rotatably connected to each other, each of the tablet accommodation parts having a bottom plate rotatable about an axis on one side of the tablet accommodation parts in a path along which the tablet accommodation parts move;
a carrying mechanism to carry the tablet feed mechanism in a direction that is generally horizontal, from a first point to a second point, and then, after reaching the second point, in a direction that is generally vertically downward;
a supporting mechanism which, when the tablet feed mechanism is carried by the carrying mechanism from the first point in the generally horizontal direction, supports the bottom plates of the tablet accommodation parts, and removes the support of the bottom plates before the tablet feed mechanism reaches the second point in the generally horizontal direction, and after the support of the bottom plates is removed, the respective bottom plates of the tablet accommodation parts open and tablets contained in the tablet accommodation parts are thereby discharged;
and
a dispensing/packaging mechanism to recover the tablets discharged by the supporting mechanism for packaging.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.