Medicine supply apparatus

• US 20060163271A1
• Filed: 01/24/2006
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Healthcare Holdings Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Mori, Takashi, Kobayashi, Koichi, Takahashi, Hideyuki, Haraguchi, Manabu, Hatsuno, Akinorl, Inamura, Atsuo, Maruyama, Toshitake, Ogura, Masayoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,837 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 221/112
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/103 for packaging pills or tablets
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/70 in which the articles are formed in the apparatus from components, blanks, or material constituents
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00

Abstract

An object of a medicine supply apparatus which fills medicine bottles with medicines from a plurality of tablet cases is to improve a medicine filling performance and remove restrictions on the apparatus, and the apparatus comprises: a plurality of tablet cases which contain the medicines and into which the medicines can be thrown from above; a case storage section in which the respective tablet cases are juxtaposed in one stage on a plane and whose top is openably closed; and a filling device which is disposed under this case storage section and which fills the medicine bottle with the medicine dropping from each tablet case.

Claims

1. A medicine supply apparatus which fills a medicine bottle with a medicine, comprising:

a plurality of tablet cases which contain the medicines and into which the medicines are thrown from above;

a case storage section in which the respective tablet cases are juxtaposed in one stage on a plane and whose top is openably closed; and

filling means which is disposed under this case storage section and which fills the medicine bottle with the medicine dropping from each tablet case.

2. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filling means comprises:

medicine bottle holding means for holding the medicine bottle; and

conveyance means for moving the medicine bottle holding means in a horizontal direction to dispose the medicine bottle under the predetermined tablet case.

3. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 2, comprising:

discharge means for dropping the medicine from each tablet case,

the medicine bottle holding means comprising;

driving means for driving the discharge means;

raising and lowering means for vertically moving this driving means to disengageably engage the driving means with the discharge means; and

medicine detecting means for detecting the medicine dropping from the tablet case.

4. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

label attaching means for attaching a label to the medicine bottle filled with the medicine by the filling means;

lid closing means for closing the medicine bottle filled with the medicine with a lid; and

providing means for conveying the medicine bottle provided with the label and closed with the lid to a predetermined position for each person to be provided.

5. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

detecting means for detecting the presence of the tablet case.

6. A medicine supply apparatus which fills a medicine bottle with a medicine, comprising:

a plurality of tablet cases which contain the medicines;

filling means for filling the medicine bottle with the medicine discharged from each tablet case; and

providing means for closing the medicine bottle filled with the medicine with a lid and conveying the medicine bottle to a predetermined position to provide the medicine bottle,

the filling means comprising;

filling medicine bottle holding means for holding the medicine bottle; and

filling conveyance means for moving the filling medicine bottle holding means, the providing means comprising;

a medicine bottle storage section in which an empty medicine bottle is stored;

providing medicine bottle holding means for holding the medicine bottle; and

providing conveyance means for moving the providing medicine bottle holding means,

the filling means and the providing means receiving and transferring the medicine bottle via a predetermined transfer base.

7. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the providing means holds the empty medicine bottle of the medicine bottle storage section by means of the providing medicine bottle holding means, and moves the providing medicine bottle holding means to the transfer base by means of the providing conveyance means to dispose the empty medicine bottle on the transfer base,

the filling means holds the empty medicine bottle on the transfer base by means of the filling medicine bottle holding means, moves the filling medicine bottle holding means by means of the filling conveyance means to fill the medicine bottle with the medicine discharged from the tablet case, and moves again the filling medicine bottle holding means to the transfer base to dispose the filled medicine bottle on the transfer base, and

the providing means holds the filled medicine bottle on the transfer base by means of the providing medicine bottle holding means to convey the medicine bottle to a predetermined position.

8. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

height adjusting means for adjusting a height of the transfer base.

9. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the providing means comprises a plurality of medicine bottle storage sections detachably provided with medicine bottle units containing empty medicine bottles having different dimensions.

10. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the providing means conveys the filled medicine bottle to a predetermined providing position distinguished for each person to be provided to provide the medicine bottle.

11. A medicine supply apparatus which fills a medicine bottle with a medicine discharged from a tablet case, comprising:

discharge means for discharging the medicine from the tablet case;

label attaching means for printing a label to be attached to the medicine bottle to provide the label to a predetermined label attaching position; and

filling means for filling the medicine bottle with the medicine discharged from the tablet case,

the filling means comprising;

medicine bottle holding means for holding the medicine bottle by means of a holding roller;

conveyance means for moving this medicine bottle holding means to dispose the medicine bottle under the tablet case and in the label attaching position; and

driving means,

the driving means driving the discharge means, when the medicine bottle is positioned under the tablet case,

the driving means rotating the medicine bottle to attach the label to the medicine bottle, when the medicine bottle is disposed in the label attaching position.

12. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 11, comprising:

a driving gear and a driving roller which are disposed on a driving shaft of the driving means,

the filling means engaging the driving gear with the discharge means to drive the discharge means in a state in which the driving roller is detached from the medicine bottle, when the medicine bottle is positioned under the tablet case,

the filling means bringing the driving roller into contact with an outer face of the medicine bottle to rotate the medicine bottle, when the medicine bottle is disposed in the label attaching position.

13. The medicine supply apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the medicine bottle holding means comprises a pair of holding arms which are brought close to and detached from each other, each holding arm comprises a pair of holding rollers, and the respective holding arms are brought close to each other to rotatably hold the medicine bottle by means of each holding roller.