JP2024085208A - Packaging Equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a packaging device capable of performing conveyance without applying an excessive burden on packaging paper while retaining tension.SOLUTION: A packaging device 130 includes: a packaging band holding part wound with a packaging band to be held; a plurality of rollers 159 wound with the packaging band taken out from the packaging band holding part; a feed roller repeatedly drawing out the packaging band by a length required for one package; and a tension adjustment mechanism provided at a downstream side of the packaging band holding part and an upstream side of the feed roller to keep the tension of the packaging band taken out by the feed roller constant. The tension adjustment mechanism has a movable roller supported so as to make a rotation axis movable in a direction orthogonal to the rotation axis, and an energization member for drawing the movable roller into a reference position by predetermined force, and detects that tensile force equal to or stronger than the predetermined force is added to the packaging band so as to make the movable roller move.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 14

Description

This invention relates to a packaging device for packaging medicines.

2. Description of the Related Art There is a widely known packaging device that encapsulates powder or solid matter in a long piece of packaging paper that is divided into pieces of predetermined length and seals the wrapped material by heat (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In addition, configurations are also known in which a tablet discharge device for discharging a specified amount of the aforementioned medicines and a powder dispensing device are added to these packaging devices to operate them as a medicine packaging machine (see, for example, Patent Documents 2 to 4, etc.).
In such packaging devices, a typical configuration is that the packaging paper is wound around a number of rollers, and is transported under tension, and at a predetermined position, the medicine is poured in using a hopper or the like to seal the package.

However, in such a packaging device, in a configuration in which the transport is performed while maintaining tension, if the roll diameter changes due to consumption of wrapping paper, the path becomes longer and the tension fluctuates, so a configuration in which the tension is adjusted according to the roll diameter has been considered (see Patent Document 5, etc.).
Even with this configuration in which the tension is adjusted based on the amount of consumption, the tension increases when the wrapping paper is pulled in and is relaxed when the wrapping paper is sent out, so timing control of this sending out and retracting can easily become complicated.
Furthermore, if such a timing deviation occurs, problems may arise such as overloading the wrapping paper, causing damage or transport problems.

JP 2014-51305 A JP 2014-188101 A JP 2004-168427 A Japanese Patent No. 3524680 JP 2005-343699 A

The present invention is intended to solve these technical problems and aims to provide a packaging device that can maintain tension and transport the wrapping paper without placing excessive strain on it.

The packaging device of the present invention is a packaging device for packaging medicines inserted from an input hopper, which supplies the medicines to a two-fold packaging strip through an opening of the packaging strip and seals the opening to close the packaging strip. The packaging device has a packaging strip holder around which the packaging strip is wound and held, a number of rollers around which the packaging strip pulled out from the packaging strip holder is wound, a feed roller that repeatedly pulls out the packaging strip by the length of one package at a time, and a tension adjustment mechanism that is provided downstream of the packaging strip holder and upstream of the feed roller and keeps the tension of the packaging strip pulled out by the feed roller constant. The tension adjustment mechanism has a movable roller supported so that its rotation axis can move in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis, and a biasing member that pulls the movable roller to a reference position with a predetermined force, and the movable roller moves when it detects that tension equal to or greater than the predetermined force is applied to the packaging strip.

With this type of packaging device, problems such as overloading the packaging paper and causing damage or transport problems are less likely to occur.

1 is a diagram showing an external appearance of a medicine packaging device as an example of an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the medicine packing device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of the tablet processing unit shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the internal structure of the tablet processing unit shown in FIG. 1 . FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a main part of the powder medicine dispensing device of FIG. 1 that dispenses powder medicine. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a drive source and a configuration of the vibrating feeder shown in FIG. 5 . 6 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a transfer section of the vibrating feeder shown in FIG. 5 . 6A to 6C are diagrams illustrating an example of the operation of the vibrating feeder and the transport unit illustrated in FIG. 5 . FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the positional relationship between a distribution disk and a vibrating feeder. This is an enlarged view of the scraping section for transporting powdered medicine downward. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an internal structure of a medicine packaging device. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of the packaging device shown in FIG. 1 . FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of individually packaged medicines in the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a packaging device. FIG. 15 is a plan view showing an example of the packaging device shown in FIG. 14 . 5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating an example of a configuration of a tension adjustment mechanism of the packaging device. 11 is an operation diagram of the tension adjustment mechanism. FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conventional configuration.

A specific embodiment of a powdered medicine packaging device according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.
For the sake of simplicity, the drawings omit details of fasteners such as bolts, driving sources such as electric motors, transmission members such as gears, electric circuits such as motor drivers, and electronic circuits such as controllers, and instead focus on what is necessary or relevant to explain the invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, when viewed from the front side of the drug packaging device 100 where an operator P is standing, for convenience, the direction from left to right is indicated as the X direction, the direction from the front to the back is indicated as the Y direction, and the direction from bottom to top is indicated as the Z direction.

First, an external view and an internal configuration diagram of a medicine dispensing and packaging device 100 of the present invention are shown in FIG. 1 and FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the drug packaging device 100 is a packaging device having: a tablet processing unit 110, which is a manual distribution unit located at the top of a housing 101 and into which an operator P manually inserts drugs such as tablets and prepares them for packaging; a conveying unit 12 for guiding the drugs placed in the manual distribution unit 10 to a packaging device 130 located at the bottom, which will be described later; a powdered drug processing unit 120, which is equipped with a distribution disk 20 into which the operator P inserts a weighed amount of drug such as powdered drug for one prescription and distributes it to a specified amount specified by the prescription; and a packaging device 130 for individually packaging the drugs, including tablets and powdered drug, sent from the tablet processing unit 110 or the powdered drug processing unit 120 in packaging paper, and the device also functions as a powdered drug packaging device or a tablet packaging device.

In this embodiment, a configuration is described that integrally includes the tablet processing unit 110, the powdered medicine processing unit 120, and the packaging device 130, however, the medicine packaging device 100 may also be configured to have a tablet cassette for storing tablets and sending them one by one to the tablet drop path 11, and similarly, may be configured to have a medicine cassette and storage shelf for storing powdered medicine.
In this embodiment, the medicine packaging device 100 also has a control unit 140 in which applications and the like for controlling the various functions of the control unit, which will be described later, are installed.

As shown in Figure 3, the tablet processing unit 110 is located at the top of the drug packaging device 100 and has a removable tray 111, a conveyor 112 below the tray 111 which transports tablets inserted into the tray 111 and transfers them to the lower part of the drug packaging device 100, and a tablet input port 114 which allows tablets to be input without passing through the tray 111.
The tray 111 can be pulled out from the housing 101 to the front side of the operator P, and by manually distributing tablets into each of the multiple divided compartments 111a and then reattaching the tray 111 inside, the floor of each compartment 111a opens up and the operator P can be guided to the conveying section 12 below.
The conveying section 12 may have any configuration, but is known as a conveying section having a structure including, for example, a plurality of drug containers 113 and a conveyor 112 composed of rollers and belts for moving the drug containers 113, as shown in Figure 4.

The tablets transported by the transport unit 12 in this way are merged with the powdered medicine at the tablet merging unit 60 (described later) and moved to the input hopper 70 (not shown) in the packaging device 130, where they are packaged.

As shown in FIG. 5, the powdered medicine processing unit 120 has a circular distribution disk 20, two hoppers 21 that are storage units attached to the operator side of the distribution disk 20, troughs 22 that are positioned below each hopper 21 and serve as transport units for the powdered medicine put into the hopper 21, and a feeder drive unit 40 that is adjacent to the hopper 21 and trough 22 and is positioned parallel to the transport direction of the trough 22.

The powdered medicine processing unit 120 also has a scraping unit 50 on the distribution disk 20 downstream in the rotation direction from the trough 22. Here, the distribution disk 20 is described as rotating counterclockwise when viewed from above, but is not limited to this configuration.
In this embodiment, a plurality of pairs of hoppers 21 and troughs 22 are arranged in parallel, and the scraping unit 50 is located at the most downstream side of the hoppers 21 and troughs 22. The scraping unit 50 operates to scrape the powdered medicine placed on the distribution disk 20 toward the tablet junction 60, as described below.

Powder medicine processor 120 is held inside housing 101 so as to be slidable and removable.
According to this configuration, by pulling out powder medicine processing section 120 from housing 101 of medicine packaging device 100, cleaning properties are improved.

The hopper 21 and trough 22 are vibrated by the feeder drive unit 40 as described below, and function as a vibrating feeder that transfers powdered medicine placed inside the hopper 21 to the distribution disk 20 via the trough 22.

5 and 6, the hopper 21 is supported by the hopper holding frame 41 from the feeder drive unit 40, and its side is tapered downward, so that the powdered medicine fed in is fed into the trough 22 from the lowest opening 23. The outer side of the hopper 21 is provided with a triangular protrusion 21a that protrudes outward, and the hopper is supported by being caught between the hopper holding frame 41 and this protrusion 21a.
As shown in Figures 6 and 7, the trough 22 is supported by a vibration unit 42 from a feeder drive unit 40, and gently slopes from the rear end toward the operator toward the front end toward the distribution disc 20, and at its tip has a powdered medicine cutting section 24 arranged so that the powdered medicine falls into the center of the distribution disc 20, and a sloped section 25 formed so as to taper toward the powdered medicine cutting section 24 and with a greater slope.

The vibration unit 42 is a vibration plate that can be vibrated by the feeder drive unit 40, and by vibrating finely according to a signal from the feeder drive unit 40, it vibrates the trough 22 placed above it and transfers the powdered medicine in the direction in which the trough 22 extends, that is, in the Y direction in this embodiment.

The hopper holding frame 41 is formed of a cylindrical pipe, is a rectangular frame body with an open front end side on the Y direction side of the hopper 21, and supports from below the protruding portion 21a of the hopper 21. As shown in Fig. 8, the hopper holding frame 41 rotates in the vertical direction around the rear end side, thereby allowing the hopper 21 to move up and down in an arc around the rotation axis O1.
As shown in Figure 8, when the hopper holding frame 41 operates to lift the hopper 21 upward, the gap between the opening 23 and the trough 22 increases, and the powdered medicine contained in the hopper 21 is efficiently discharged into the trough 22 below.
At the same time, the trough 22 is vibrated by the vibration section 42, so that the powdered medicine discharged onto the trough 22 falls along the wall surface, via the slope section 25 and the powdered medicine cutting section 24, onto the distribution disk 20.

The powdered medicine cutting section 24 is a recess formed in the center of the width of the trough 22, and is a narrow portion in which both sides narrow as the powdered medicine converges toward the end of the transport direction. The powdered medicine cutting section 24 is arranged so as to be located directly above the lowest part 20a of the recess recessed in the center of the ring of the distribution disk 20, most preferably the recess shown by the broken line in FIG. 5, and with this configuration, the powdered medicine transported through the trough 22 falls into the center of the ring of the distribution disk 20. At this time, the amount of powdered medicine falling from the powdered medicine cutting section 24 can be adjusted by controlling the vibration of the vibration section 42. Normally, the powdered medicine falls from the powdered medicine cutting section 24 in a predetermined amount at a time, as shown in FIG. 9.
Therefore, by rotating the distribution disk 20 at a predetermined speed for one or more revolutions, a pile of powdered medicine is evenly distributed on the distribution disk 20.

Now, the powdered medicine that falls onto the lowest part 20a, which is the center part of the ring of the distribution disc 20 in this manner, is evenly dispersed over the ring of the distribution disc 20 by the rotation of the distribution disc 20 and the vibration of the vibrating part 42.
When the powdered medicine is evenly distributed on the distribution disk 20, the control unit 140 rotates the distribution disk 20 at a predetermined angle. Specifically, when 360° is one prescription, if the medicine is to be divided into 10 packets, the distribution disk 20 is rotated at 36° so that an appropriate amount for one packet is collected near the scraping unit 50, and the scraping unit 50 puts the powdered medicine into the input hopper 70.

The scraping section 50 has a circular disk 51 arranged so that its peripheral edge abuts the distribution disk 20 as shown in Figure 10, and a scraper 52 attached to the disk 51 and rotates to scoop up and scrape out a packet of powdered medicine that is on the distribution disk 20 and is blocked by the disk 51.
The scraping unit 50 is also supported by a lever 53 so as to be movable up and down in the Z direction, and can be switched between a state in which the disk 51 abuts against the distribution disk 20 and a state in which it is separated from the distribution disk 20 and removed upward. By configuring it so as to be movable up and down, the operator P can easily clean the distribution disk 20 after packaging one prescription.

As shown in a schematic cross section in Figure 11, the tablet junction 60 is a junction for guiding tablets that have fallen from the tablet processing unit 110 via the conveying unit 12 and powdered medicine cut out in individual packets at the powdered medicine processing unit 120 from their respective separate paths to the input hopper 70, which serves as a common falling path.
The tablet merging section 60 has a tablet drop path 61 that extends obliquely towards the operator within the housing 101, and a closure member 62 which is a lid section arranged to close the drop opening of the tablet drop path 61 and which rotates around the rotation axis O2 to open and close the drop opening of the tablet drop path 61.
The tablet merging section 60 is formed integrally with the closure member 62 and has an arm portion 63 extending to the back side of the tablet drop path 61 so as to move the closure member 62 in the opening direction when pressed, a pressing portion 64 abutting against the arm portion 63 and pushing the arm portion 63 forward to rotate the closure member 62 and open the drop port of the tablet drop path 61, and a biasing member 69 located above the closure member 62 and biasing the closure member 62 in the direction of closing the drop port.

A driving source 65 that is a driving source for the pressing portion 64 serving as a driving portion is provided on the rear side of the housing 101 of the pressing portion 64. When the pressing portion 64 is driven forward by the driving source 65, the tip of the pressing portion 64 comes into contact with the arm portion 63, and operates to push out the closing member 62.
When this operation causes the force applied by the pressing portion 64 to exceed the biasing force applied by the biasing member 69, the closing member 62 opens, opening the drop port of the tablet drop path 61, and the tablets that were trapped at the lower end of the tablet drop path 61 fall into the input hopper 70.
On the other hand, since the pressing portion 64 is always biased so as to be pulled back toward the rear, when the signal to the drive source 65 is removed, the biasing member 69 causes the closing member 62 to return to a position blocking the drop opening of the tablet drop path 61.

Around the closing member 62 at the lower end of the tablet drop path 61 and the powdered medicine drop port, an enclosing member 80 as a scattering prevention member is formed so as to rise upward and surround the powdered medicine drop port. The enclosing member 80 has a function of preventing scattering of the powdered medicine scraped out by the scraper 52 when it falls into the input hopper 70 above the input hopper 70.
The shape of the enclosing member 80 is not limited to the configuration shown in the figure, but may take various shapes, and may be movable so as to be tilted to the left or right or forward, etc.

In its initial standby state, the tablet merging section 60 maintains the closure member 62 in a closed state, and when tablets are discharged from the tablet processing section 110, the discharged tablets are blocked by the closure member 62 at the end of the tablet drop path 61.
When the tablet confluence section 60 discharges the tablets, the driving source 65 is operated as already described to rotate the closing member 62 and drop the tablets into the input hopper 70 .
In addition, this ejection of tablets and the scraping out of powdered medicine by the scraper 52 as already mentioned are not generally performed at the same time; rather, when the closing member 62 is closed, the ejection of powdered medicine is performed, and when the closing member 62 is open, the ejection of tablets is performed.
Such control is performed, for example, by the control unit 140 controlling the driving source 65 to be driven after scraping out the powdered medicine by the scraper 52 is completed and the packaging device 130 has completed the required packaging. Alternatively, scraping out by the scraper 52 and tablet discharge may be performed alternately, but if the powdered medicine is scraped out during the opening operation of the closure member 62, there is a risk that the powdered medicine will adhere between the tablet drop path 61 and the closure member 62, and there is also a high concern of so-called contamination, which is not desirable.

The tablets or powdered medicine thus dropped into the input hopper 70 are packaged in packaging paper 131 by a packaging device 130 as shown in FIG.
The packaging device 130 is provided with a wrapping strip feeding section 132 which holds a roll of the packet paper 131 and applies appropriate tension to send it out in sequence from the tip along the feed path of the packet paper 131, a printer 133 which prints on the packet paper 131, a vertical sealing section 134 which has a heating element extending in the width direction of the packet paper 131, i.e., in the vertical direction in this embodiment, and heats and fuses the seal section 131a of the packet paper 131, an input hopper 70 which moves up and down to insert and remove the tip into the packet paper 131 which has been folded in half, a horizontal sealing section 135 which has a heating element extending laterally and heats and fuses the packet paper 131, a roller section 136 which pulls the packet paper 131, and a cutter 137 which perforates and cuts the packet paper 131.

With this configuration, as shown in Figure 13, the packet paper 131 is filled with medications such as tablets and powdered medicine in sections of a specified length, and is discharged in a continuous manner to the downstream discharge outlet 139 with the seal portions 131a shown in shaded areas fused by heat.
Packaging paper 131 is folded in half with its upper end open and is pulled out from packaging strip feeder 132. Here, packaging strip feeder 132 is a packaging strip holder that feeds out packaging paper 131 wound up in a roll, for example, in a reel shape.
The packet paper 131 sent out from the wrapping belt supply section 132 is printed by the printer 133, moves to the bottom of the input hopper 70, and is sealed at the front and rear in the conveying direction by the vertical seal section 134. After that, the input hopper 70 inputs the medicine, the top is sealed, and the paper is cut or perforated by the cutter 137 before being discharged.

As shown at the tablet junction 60, one packet's worth of either tablets or powdered medicine falls into the input hopper 70, so one packet's worth of medicine is enclosed inside each of the packaging papers 131. Note that while Figure 13 shows an example of tablets, powdered medicine and other powdered medicines are also enclosed in each heat-sealed compartment.

When the feeding hopper 70 detects that the medicine has been added to the packet paper 131, the horizontal seal section 135 seals the top of the packet paper 131, and the roller section 136 pulls the packet paper 131 in a predetermined amount, so that the packet paper 131 is transported the length of one packet.
By repeating this operation, the packaging paper 131 is transported to the discharge port 139 as a series of medicine bags, each of which contains one packet of medicine.

The medicine packaging device 100 is a packaging device capable of packaging medicines such as tablets or powdered medicine into individual packets in packaging paper 131 by using the configuration of each part as described above.
In this embodiment, the configuration of the packaging device 130 is described only as a type in which the packaging paper 131 is transported horizontally, but any other configuration is acceptable as long as the packaging machine is capable of dividing the packaging paper into sections of a specified width and sealing medicine in the divided chambers, and the configuration is not limited to this.

The configuration of such a packaging device will be described with reference to FIG.
In this embodiment, the packaging paper 131 is folded in half and held in a roll by the packaging paper feed section 132 .
The packaging paper 131 is wound around multiple rollers 159 from the wrapping band feeding section 132 and discharged to the discharge outlet 139 via the printer 133, vertical sealing section 134, input hopper 70, horizontal sealing section 135, and roller section 136 as already described.
When stationary, the packing paper 131 is maintained at a constant tension, and when the roller section 136 to which the drive source is attached rotates a predetermined distance, for example the length of one packet, 80 mm, to pull out the packing paper 131, the roll-shaped portion of the packing paper 131 rotates and the same length is pulled out from the packaging strip feed section 132.

As shown in FIG. 15 , near the exit of the wrapping band feeding section 132, there are provided a movable roller 151 whose rotation axis is supported so as to be movable in the X or Y direction, a tension spring 153 which is a biasing member connecting the movable roller 151 to the housing 101, and a sensor 152 for detecting the position of the movable roller 151.
The wrapping strip feeding section 132 has a driving rotation mechanism 1321 provided in the center of the rolled up wrapping paper 131, and this rotation mechanism 1321 drives the motor to rotate when the signal from the sensor 152 turns off.
By the operation of the rotation mechanism 1321, the packet paper 131 held by the wrapping strip feeding section 132 is rotated counterclockwise in the figure and sent out.

Sensor 152 is a sensor for detecting the position of movable roller 151, and as shown in FIG. 16, turns off a signal when movable roller 151 moves on the XY plane, and turns on the signal when movable roller 151 is at a reference position.
In this embodiment, the sensor 152 is switched on/off when the microswitch 1521 is in contact with a bent portion 1541 formed around the rotation axis O5 of the movable roller support portion 154, and when the sensor 152 rotates beyond the bent portion 1541, the microswitch 1521 separates from the side surface of the bent portion 1541, thereby turning the sensor 152 off. In this manner, in this embodiment, a contact sensor is used that switches on/off when the side surface of the bent portion 1541 separates from or comes into contact with the microswitch 1521, and the range in which the sensor 152 is on can be controlled by, for example, changing the magnitude of the curvature of the bent portion 1541 or the position at which the sensor 152 is provided.
In other words, the range where the bent portion 1541 and the microswitch 1521 abut is treated as the reference position of the movable roller 151, and when the movable roller 151 moves on the XY plane to the extent that the bent portion 1541 and the microswitch 1521 are separated from each other, the control unit 140 determines that the movable roller 151 has moved, as described below.
In addition to such a contact sensor, the sensor 152 may be an optical sensor that is disposed at a position opposite the movable roller 151 and is switched off when the sensor moves a predetermined distance or more.
The on/off determination may be reversed as long as it is possible to detect whether the position of the movable roller 151 is at the reference position. However, if the sensor 152 fails for some reason, and the rotation mechanism 1321 is turned on when the sensor 152 is on, the rotation mechanism 1321 will continue to rotate in the event of a current-carrying failure. On the other hand, if the rotation mechanism 1321 rotates when the sensor 152 is off, the rotation mechanism 1321 will not continue to rotate in the event of a power outage because the rotation mechanism 1321 does not operate, and the rotation mechanism 1321 will stop in the event of a current-carrying failure of the sensor 152, so this is preferable.

The movable roller 151 is a movable roller having a rotation axis O4 on the Z axis and supported rotatably around the wrapping band feeding section 132 by a movable roller support section 154 extending along the XY plane.
In this embodiment, the movable roller 151 is biased by a tension spring 153 in the direction indicated by the arrow B so that the movable roller 151 is kept in the reference position shown in FIG. 15 where the sensor 152 is in the ON state.
Packing paper 131 is wound around movable roller 151, and when packing paper 131 is pulled by roller portion 136, it receives a force in the pulling direction shown by arrow A in Figure 15 as the tension increases.

At this time, when the force FA in the tensile direction reaches or exceeds a predetermined value, the movable roller 151 rotates together with the movable roller support portion 154 in the C direction around the rotation axis O5 as shown in FIG.
The threshold value of the tensile force FA for performing such an operation can be set to an appropriate value, for example, by tightening the movable roller support portion 154 or the biasing force of the tension spring 153, and can be freely changed; however, in line with the objective of preventing overloading of the tension of the packing paper 131, it is preferable to set it to a value smaller than the tension that the packing paper 131 can withstand without tearing.

In this way, if the movable roller 151 located near the exit of the wrapping strip feeding section 132 is made movable in the XY plane, when the movable roller 151 rotates in the C direction, as shown in Figure 17B, the transport path of the packet paper 131 will be shortened.
The tension on packaging paper 131 is strong when the length of packaging paper 131 is insufficient compared to the length of the transport path, and conversely, slack occurs when packaging paper 131 is longer. In other words, the tension is alleviated by shortening the transport path in this way, causing the paper to temporarily slacken.
In an extreme example, the shortening of the conveying distance is set to an upper limit equal to the movable range of the movable roller support portion 154, as shown in Figure 17C. In reality, however, since the amount by which the packet paper 131 is pulled out by the roller portion 136 in this embodiment is set to 80 mm, the paper will move only an amount that relieves tension in accordance with this amount of pulling.

The distance traveled by the movable roller 151 is not necessarily 80 mm, for several reasons, including the fact that it moves on an arc, that it changes depending on how the sachet paper 131 is wrapped, and that it also changes depending on the tightening torque of the movable roller support part 154 and the tension of the sachet paper 131. In any case, the rotation and movement of the movable roller support part 154 changes the position of the movable roller 151, shortening the transport path of the sachet paper 131, so that the tension on the sachet paper 131 is reduced, and the movable roller 151 stops at a position where the tension falls below the force required to move the movable roller 151.

Now, assuming that movable roller 151 is not used and that roller 159 is in a fixed position, the roll diameter of packing paper 131 varies depending on the amount of packing paper remaining in the roll, and when the roll is fully loaded immediately after replacement, the packing paper is wound around the conveying path shown by the dashed line, whereas once a certain amount has been consumed, the conveying path extends to the path during use shown by the solid line. In this way, it was known that the tension would change even if roller portion 136 retracts the same length due to the conveying path differing depending on the roll diameter, i.e., the amount of packing paper remaining in the roll.
In order to suppress such fluctuations in tension during use, for example, in JP 2005-343699 A, a means for detecting the amount of winding is provided on the core of the sheet roll, and the amount of rotation is varied depending on the amount of winding to adjust the tension.

However, in a configuration in which the tension is varied according to the amount remaining on the roll, it is first necessary to understand the relationship between the amount taken up and the tension applied to the packaging paper. Also, since the amount of change per roll differs depending on the thickness of the packaging paper 131, when multiple types of packaging paper 131 are used, the amount of rotation adjusted for each type must be different, complicating the control.
In addition, because the tension is increased or decreased by controlling the amount of rotation of the wrapping band feeding section 132, there was concern that the configuration of the motor and control section required for controlling the rotation would become complicated.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a movable roller 151 that can move in the X and Y directions is provided as a configuration that reduces the load by keeping the tension on the packaging paper 131 constant without the need to know the amount of winding.
The movable roller 151 moves on the XY plane due to the rotation of the movable roller support portion 154 and the tension of the wrapping paper 131 around it.

Specifically, when the packet paper 131 is pulled by the roller section 136 and the tension of the packet paper 131 wrapped around the movable roller 151 reaches or exceeds a predetermined value, the movable roller 151 itself moves on the XY plane in the direction in which it is being pulled by the tension, thereby relieving the tension and shortening the conveying path.
By shortening the conveying path in this manner, the movable roller 151 creates "slack" in the packaging paper 131 so as to counteract the increased tension.

The slack generated by the movement of the movable roller 151 in this manner is only temporary, and when the movable roller 151 returns to the reference position, the tension again remains increased.
This state is caused by an increase in tension as a result of the roller portion 136 pulling out a predetermined amount of the packet paper 131 in the first place.

Therefore, in this embodiment, as already mentioned, when the movable roller 151 moves from the reference position, the wrapping strip feeding section 132 rotates in direction D to pay out the wrapping paper 131, thereby sending out the wrapping paper 131 so as to counteract this increase in tension.
In other words, this embodiment has a sensor 152 as an operation detection means for detecting that the movable roller 151 has moved from the reference position, and while the sensor 152 is detecting the movement of the movable roller 151 from the reference position, the rotation mechanism 1321 of the packaging strip feeding section 132 rotates in the direction of feeding out the packet paper 131, as shown in direction D in Figure 17.
When the movable roller 151 is at the reference position, the feeding is stopped.
At this time, since the packing paper 131 is temporarily loosened by the movement of the movable roller 151, the speed at which the packing strip feeder 132 rotates may be constant. With this configuration, the control unit 140 only needs to rotate the rotation mechanism 1321 in accordance with the detection results of the sensor 152 without complex rotation control, which contributes to lower costs and also reduces the risk of failure by simplifying the drive unit.

Now, after the movable roller 151 is moved from the reference position by the packet paper 131 being pulled in by the roller portion 136, the movable roller 151 is subjected to tension from the packet paper 131 and a biasing force from the tension spring 153, and the positions of the movable roller 151 and the movable roller support portion 154 can change depending on the balance of these forces.
As described above, when the packaging paper 131 is being unwound by the rotation of the rotation mechanism 1321 of the wrapping strip feeding section 132, the tension of the packaging paper 131 decreases.

In other words, if the roller portion 136 initially pulls in the packet paper 131 by a length of 80 mm, when the packet paper 131 is sent out by approximately the same length of 80 mm, the tension applied to the movable roller 151 will also be the same as the tension when the movable roller 151 was initially in the reference position as shown in Figure 17A.
After a predetermined amount has been pulled out, the roller section 136 temporarily stops rotating until the next section is filled with medicine from the feeding hopper 70. As a result, as the wrapping band feeding section 132 rotates and pays out the packet paper 131 at a predetermined speed, the position at which the tension is balanced gradually changes, and the movable roller 151 moves from the position shown in Figure 17B toward the reference position by the biasing force of the tension spring 153 and is maintained there.

In this way, the movable roller 151 is returned to the reference position by the force of the tension spring 153 before the next drug is dispensed and the roller portion 136 pulls in the packet paper 131.

In this way, by repeating the series of operations for each packet, from pulling out the roller unit 136, to moving the movable roller 151 from the reference position, and then returning the movable roller 151 to the reference position by the rotation of the rotation mechanism 1321 of the packaging belt feed unit 132 and the biasing force of the tension spring 153, the packaging device 130 can seal the medicine in the packaging paper 131 one packet at a time and send it out.

At this time, the position to which the movable roller 151 moves is automatically determined by the length to which the roller section 136 is retracted and the corresponding increase in tension of the packet paper 131, and it is also determined that the movable roller 151 will be returned to the reference position by the force of the tension spring 153. Therefore, the rotation mechanism 1321 does not need to manage the tension during operation, and the control configuration can be simplified so that the movable roller 151 rotates when it moves from the reference position and stops rotating when it returns to the reference position.
As described above, the movable roller 151, the movable roller support part 154 that supports it, and the tension spring 153 operate as a tension adjustment mechanism to prevent overloading of the tension when the packet paper 131 is pulled in by the roller part 136.

In this way, the movable roller 151, the movable roller support part 154, and the tension spring 153 operate to prevent overloading of the packaging paper 131, making it less likely that problems such as breakage or transport problems will occur.

＜1＞
In this embodiment, the packaging device 130 is a packaging device for packaging medicines dispensed from the input hopper 70, and has a packaging strip feeding section 132 on which the packet paper 131 is wound in a roll and held, a plurality of rollers 159 around which the packet paper 131 pulled out from the packaging strip feeding section 132 is wound, a roller section 136 which repeatedly pulls out the packet paper 131 at a length that makes up one packet, and a tension adjustment mechanism which is provided downstream of the packaging strip feeding section 132 and upstream of the roller section 136, for maintaining a constant tension in the packet paper 131 pulled out by the roller section 136.
The tension adjustment mechanism has a movable roller 151 supported so that the rotation axis O4 can move in the X and Y directions perpendicular to the rotation axis, and a tension spring 153 that pulls the movable roller 151 to a reference position with a predetermined force, and the movable roller 151 moves when it detects that a tension greater than the predetermined force is applied to the packet paper 131.
With this configuration, excessive load on the packaging paper 131 can be prevented, making it less likely that problems such as breakage or transport problems will occur.

＜2＞
In this embodiment, in addition to the configuration described in <1>, the movable roller 151 is held so as to be movable in a direction that shortens the distance of the movement path around which the packing paper 131 is wrapped.
With this configuration, problems such as overloading the wrapping paper, which can cause damage or transport problems, are less likely to occur.

＜3＞
In addition to the configuration described in <2>, this embodiment also has a sensor 152 for detecting the movement of the movable roller 151, and while the sensor 152 is detecting the movement of the movable roller 151, the wrapping strip feeding section 132 rotates in the direction of feeding out the packet paper 131.
With this configuration, the packet paper 131 is fed out only while the movable roller 151 is moving, so that the movable roller 151 moves in a manner that reduces the load on the packet paper 131 when it is pulled hard enough to move, and the packet paper 131 is fed out in a manner that counteracts the increase in tension that caused the movement, thereby reducing the overload on the packet paper 131.

＜4＞
In addition to the configuration described in <3>, this embodiment is characterized in that the movable roller 151 returns to its reference position by the tension spring 153 when the tension on the packing paper 131 falls below a predetermined force.
According to this configuration, the feeding stops when the packing paper 131 returns to the reference position due to the biasing force of the tension spring 153, so that the packing paper 131 is not excessively loosened.

＜5＞
In addition to the configuration described in <4>, in this embodiment,
The wrapping strip holding unit stops feeding the wrapping strip when the motion detection unit detects that the movable roller has returned to the reference position.
According to this configuration, the start and stop of feeding can be controlled only by the position of the movable roller 151 detected by the sensor 152, so that complicated rotation speed control and the like are not required, which contributes to cost reduction.

20...Distribution disk 60...Tablet confluence section 61...Dropping path (tablet dropping path)
62... Closing member 66... Partition plate 70... Input hopper 100... Medicine packaging device 102... Placement surface 110... Tablet processing unit 120... Powdered medicine processing unit 130... Packaging device 131... Packaging strip (packaging paper)
132...Wrapping band holding unit (wrapping band feeding unit)
159...Roller 151...Movable roller (tension adjustment mechanism)
152...Motion detection unit (sensor)
153...Tension spring (biasing member)
154... Movable roller support part (tension adjustment mechanism)
O4, O5...Rotation axis

Claims (5)

A packaging device for packaging medicines input from an input hopper, comprising:
A packaging device that supplies the medicine to a packaging strip folded in half through an opening of the packaging strip and seals the opening to close the packaging strip,
a wrapping band holding section around which the wrapping band is wound and held;
a plurality of rollers around which the wrapping strip pulled out from the wrapping strip holding section is wound;
A feed roller that repeatedly pulls out the packaging strip by a length that corresponds to one package at a time;
a tension adjustment mechanism provided downstream of the wrapping band holding section and upstream of the feed roller for maintaining constant tension on the wrapping band drawn out by the feed roller;
the tension adjustment mechanism includes a movable roller supported such that a rotation axis of the movable roller is movable in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis of the movable roller, and a biasing member that draws the movable roller to a reference position with a predetermined force;
A packaging device characterized in that the movable roller moves when it detects that a tension equal to or greater than the predetermined force is applied to the packaging strip. 2. The packaging device according to claim 1,
The packaging device is characterized in that the movable roller is held so as to be movable in a direction in which the distance of the moving path around which the packaging strip is wound becomes shorter. 3. The packaging device according to claim 2,
the tension adjustment mechanism has a motion detection unit for detecting that the movable roller has moved,
A packaging device, characterized in that while the motion detection unit detects the movement of the movable roller, the packaging band holding unit rotates in a direction in which the packaging band is fed out. 4. The packaging device according to claim 3,
The packaging device is characterized in that the movable roller is returned to the reference position by the urging member when the tension on the packaging strip falls below a predetermined force. 5. The packaging device according to claim 4,
A packaging device characterized in that, when the motion detection unit detects that the movable roller has returned to the reference position, the packaging strip holding unit stops feeding out the packaging strip.

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