Appearance inspection machine for flat tablet

• US 20040130709A1
• Filed: 10/15/2003
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nisshin Kasei Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nisshin Kasei Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Taizo
• Granted Patent: US 7,079,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/237.1
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 5/342 according to optical properties, e.g. colour according to radiation transmittivity B07C5/3416
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/147 the analysis being performed on a sample stream
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/9508 Capsules; Tablets

Abstract

An appearance inspection apparatus is disclosed. A flat tablet (t) is placed in an uprightly erected posture on and between two adjacent ones of rollers (12) which form a roller belt (1), and is transported by the roller belt (1). During the transportation, a front surface image and a reverse surface image of the flat tablet (t) are fetched. Further, the two rollers (12) on which the flat tablet (t) is held are rotated by a rotatable roller (4) disposed on the lower side of the roller belt (1) to rotate the flat tablet (t). An image of the flat tablet (t) transported while being rotated in the uprightly erected posture is picked up from above to fetch an image of the overall circumference of the side face of the flat tablet (t).

Claims

1. An appearance inspection apparatus for a flat tablet which picks up and fetches images of a front surface, a reverse surface and an overall side face of a circular flat tablet, processes the fetched images to detect whether or not the flat tablet has a defective appearance, and separately recovers unacceptable flat tablets having a defective appearance and acceptable flat tablets having a non-defective appearance, comprising:

a roller belt including a plurality of rollers connected for rotation in a bridging manner between a pair of endless sprocket chains and being circulated at a predetermined speed;

a tablet supplying section for supplying any of the flat tablets in an uprightly erected posture with a diametrical direction of the flat tablets directed in an upward and downward direction onto said roller belt;

a guide path formed from and between a pair of guide walls disposed in a spaced relationship by a predetermined distance from each other in the proximity of an upper face of said roller belt on the downstream side in the circulation direction of said roller belt with respect to said tablet supplying section;

a front surface image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of the flat tablet placed in the uprightly erected posture on and transported by said roller belt to fetch a front surface image of the flat tablet;

a reverse surface image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of the flat tablet placed in the uprightly erected posture on and transported by said roller belt to fetch a reverse surface image of the flat tablet;

a side face image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of the flat tablet placed in the uprightly erected posture on and transported by said roller belt to fetch an image of an overall periphery of a side face of the flat tablet; and

a rotatable roller disposed in contact with a lower face of said roller belt at the position at which image pickup of the side face of the flat tablet is performed by said side face image pickup apparatus and rotatable at a predetermined speed to rotate those of said rollers of said roller belt with which said rotatable roller contacts; and

wherein

a flat tablet supplied from said tablet supplying section is held in an uprightly erected posture between adjacent ones of said rollers of said roller belt so that the flat tablet is transported in and along said guide path while keeping the uprightly erected posture, and while the flat tablet is transported, a front surface image of the flat tablet is picked up from one side in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction by said front surface image pickup apparatus whereas a reverse surface image of the flat tablet is picked up from the opposite side in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction by said reverse surface image pickup apparatus and besides an image of the flat tablet is picked up from above by said side face image pickup apparatus while the flat tablet is rotated on the rollers of said roller belt rotated by said rotatable roller to fetch an image of the overall periphery of the side face of the flat tablet.

2. An appearance inspection apparatus for a flat tablet according to claim 1, wherein a ring-shaped suction groove is formed along a circumferential direction on each of said rollers of said roller belt such that, at least at a location at which a tablet is supplied onto said roller belt from said tablet supplying section, the tablet is sucked through the suction grooves of the adjacent rollers from the lower side of said roller belt so that the tablet is held between the rollers by the suction force.

3. An appearance inspection apparatus for a flat tablet according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a image pickup window is formed in one of said guide walls which define said guide path while a suction slit is formed in the other of said guide walls at each of the locations at which image pickup is performed by said front surface image pickup apparatus and said reverse surface image pickup apparatus such that a flat tablet is sucked through said suction slit to keep the uprightly erected posture of the flat tablet while an image of the flat tablet is picked up through said image pickup window by said front surface image pickup apparatus or said reverse surface image pickup apparatus.

4. An appearance inspection apparatus for a flat tablet which picks up and fetches images of a front surface, a reverse surface and an overall side face of a non-circular flat tablet such as an elliptic flat tablet or an elongated elliptic flat tablet, processes the fetched images to detect whether or not the flat tablet has a defective appearance, and separately recovers unacceptable flat tablets having a defective appearance and acceptable flat tablets having a non-defective appearance, comprising:

a roller belt including a plurality of rollers connected for rotation in a bridging manner between a pair of endless sprocket chains and being circulated at a predetermined speed;

a tablet supplying section for supplying any of the flat tablets in an uprightly erected posture with a diametrical direction of the flat tablets directed in an upward and downward direction onto said roller belt;

a guide path formed from and between a pair of guide walls disposed in a spaced relationship by a predetermined distance from each other in the proximity of an upper face of said roller belt on the downstream side in the circulation direction of said roller belt with respect to said tablet supplying section;

a front surface image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of the flat tablet placed in the uprightly erected posture on and transported by said roller belt to fetch a front surface image of the flat tablet;

a reverse surface image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of the flat tablet placed in the uprightly erected posture on and transported by said roller belt to fetch a reverse surface image of the flat tablet;

a first side face image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of a half periphery portion of a side face of the flat tablet placed in the uprightly erected posture on and transported by said roller belt to fetch an image of an overall periphery of a side face of the flat tablet;

a posture changing section provided on said guide path on the downstream side in the transport direction with respect to the position at which side face image pickup by said first side face image pickup apparatus is performed and including an inclined portion along which said guide path is gradually inclined to one side and an increased width portion provided contiguously to said inclined portion and capable of placing the flat tablet in a horizontally lying posture with a thickness-wise direction of the flat tablet directed in an upward and downward direction onto said roller belt; and

a second side face image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of the flat tablet transported in the horizontally lying posture after the posture change by said posture changing section to fetch an image of the remaining half periphery portion of the side face of the flat tablet; and

wherein

a flat tablet supplied from said tablet supplying section is held in an uprightly erected posture between adjacent ones of said rollers of said roller belt so that the flat tablet is transported in and along said guide path while keeping the uprightly erected posture, and while the flat tablet is transported, a front surface image of the flat tablet is picked up from one side in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction by said front surface image pickup apparatus whereas a reverse surface image of the flat tablet is picked up from the opposite side in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction by said reverse surface image pickup apparatus and besides an image of a half periphery portion of a side face of the flat tablet is picked up from above by said first side face image pickup apparatus, whereafter an image of the flat tablet after the posture of the flat tablet is changed into a horizontally lying posture by said posture changing section from the one side in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction by said second side face image pickup apparatus to fetch an image of the remaining half periphery portion of the side face of the flat tablet.

5. An appearance inspection apparatus for a flat tablet according to claim 4, wherein a ring-shaped suction groove is formed along a circumferential direction on each of said rollers of said roller belt such that, at least at a location at which a tablet is supplied onto said roller belt from said tablet supplying section, the tablet is sucked through the suction grooves of the adjacent rollers from the lower side of said roller belt so that the tablet is held between the rollers by the suction force.

6. An appearance inspection apparatus for a flat tablet according to claim 4 or 5, wherein a image pickup window is formed in one of said guide walls which define said guide path while a suction slit is formed in the other of said guide walls at each of the locations at which image pickup is performed by said front surface image pickup apparatus and said reverse surface image pickup apparatus such that a flat tablet is sucked through said suction slit to keep the uprightly erected posture of the flat tablet while an image of the flat tablet is picked up through said image pickup window by said front surface image pickup apparatus or said reverse surface image pickup apparatus.