TABLET PACKAGING CONTROLLING APPARATUS OF AUTOMATIC TABLET PACKAGING MACHINE

• US 20080042843A1
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JVM Company Limited
• Original Assignee: JVM Company Limited
• Inventors: KIM, Jun-ho
• Granted Patent: US 7,825,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/103 for packaging pills or tablets
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 57/00 Automatic control, checking, warning, or safety devices registering wrapping or container-forming material fed from rolls B65B41/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

Abstract

Disclosed is a tablet packaging controller of an automatic tablet packaging machine for recognizing information of tablets accommodated in tablet cassettes and tracking positions of the tablet cassettes. The controller includes RF tags recording tablet information, and tablet information access units receiving the tablet information via a wireless line, to transmit tablet information and identification information of cartridges to a host terminal, or to record new tablet information in the RF tags. The host terminal creates and stores position arrangement information of the tablet cassettes, estimates a quantity of remaining tablets, controls tablets to be discharged in a certain order of tablet cassettes, and controls the tablet information access units to package only the accommodated tablets when the remaining tablets are short, and displays the short tablet on an LCD, and controls the tablet information access units to package the remaining tablets when the short tablets are supplemented.

Claims

1. A tablet packaging controlling apparatus of an automatic tablet packaging machine comprising:

a plurality of radio frequency (RF) tags attached to sides of respective tablet cassettes to record information of tablets accommodated in a corresponding tablet cassette; and

a plurality of tablet information access units to receive the tablet information recorded in the RF tags via a wireless line, to transmit the tablet information and identification information of cartridges to which the tablet cassettes are mounted to a host terminal, or to record new tablet information transmitted from the host terminal in the RF tags;

wherein the host terminal;

a) creates position arrangement information of the tablet cassettes using the identification information of the respective cartridges and the tablet information, which are transmitted from the table information access units and stores the generated position arrangement information in a memory,

b) estimates a quantity of remaining tablets by subtracting a quantity of tablets discharged according to the prescription from a quantity of the tablets accommodated in the respective tablet cassettes to store the estimate quantity of the remaining tablets in the memory,

c) controls the discharge of the tablets according to the prescription such that the tablets are discharged in the order of tablet cassettes accommodating a large quantity of the tablets when prescribed tablets are accommodated in the plurality of tablet cassettes, and

d) controls operations of the tablet information access units to package only the accommodated tablets when the prescription is compared with the quantity of the remaining tablets and a result of the comparison to the remaining tablets are short, and displays the quantity of the short tablets on a liquid crystal display while alarming a prescription inability, and

e) controls operations of the tablet information access units to package the remaining tablets whose prescription stops when the short tablets are supplemented.

2. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the tablet information access units comprises:

an antenna installed at a position facing the RF tags to transmit and receive radio frequency (RF) signals to/from the RF tags;

an RF module to demodulate and output the RF signals received through the antenna into tablet information and to modulate tablet information, which is required to be updated, into RF signals to be outputted;

a main control unit to transmit the tablet information demodulated by the RF module and cartridge information stored in the memory to the host terminal, to transmit the tablet information required to be updated by the host terminal to the RF module, and to control prescribing operation under the control of the host terminal; and

an interface unit to interface information transmitted and received between the main control unit and the host terminal to and from each other.

3. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the tablet information access units comprises:

a tablet discharge detecting unit to detect whether tablets accommodated in the tablet cassette are discharged or not and to output a detecting signal to the main control unit; and

a motor driving unit to drive a motor to rotate a rotation member which is accommodated in the tablet cassette.

4. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the tablet information access units are accommodated in respective tablet cassette supports.

5. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tablet information comprises cassette identification information to identify the tablet cassettes.

6. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the host terminal comprises:

an interface unit to interface transmission and reception of data to and from the tablet information access units;

a position arrangement information generator to generate position arrangement information of a tablet cassette for determining a cartridge to be driven for the prescription using the cartridge information and the tablet information, which are transmitted from the tablet information access unit;

a central processing unit to store the generated position arrangement information in the memory, to estimate a quantity of remaining tablets by subtracting a quantity of tablets discharged according to the prescription from a quantity of the tablets accommodated in the respective tablet cassettes to store the estimated quantity of the remaining tablets in the memory, to control the discharge of the tablets according to the prescription such that the tablets are discharged in the order of tablet cassettes accommodating a large quantity of the tablets when prescribed tablets are accommodated in the plurality of tablet cassettes, to control operations of the tablet information access unit to package only the accommodated tablets when the prescription is compared with the quantity of the remaining tablets and a result of the comparison to the remaining tablets are short, to display the quantity of the short tablet on a liquid crystal display while alarming of a prescription inability, and to control operations of the tablet information access unit to package the remaining tablets whose prescription stops when the short tablet is supplemented;

a liquid crystal display to display the position arrangement information of the tablet cassettes on a screen under the control of the central processing unit; and

a prescription inability alarming unit to alarm a case when the tablets are short and due to this the prescription cannot be performed to the exterior of the device under the control of the central processing unit.

7. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the position arrangement information of the tablet cassettes comprises:

identification information of the cartridges to determine a cartridge to be driven;

tablet information of the tablet cassettes mounted in corresponding cartridges;

tablet information of the previously mounted tablet cassettes;

status information of the tablet cartridges;

information whether there is tablet cassettes with the same number; and

link information of the same tablet cassettes.

8. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the position arrangement information generator updates the position arrangement information whenever an event is generated and provides the updated position arrangement information to the central processing unit.

9. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the prescription inability alarms of a status when the prescription cannot be performed in a visual and audible manner.

10. The tablet packaging controlling apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the central processing unit controls the table information access unit to perform the packaging of only tablets capable of being packaged when the tablets are short for a certain prescription, to perform the packaging for a next prescription when the quantity of the remaining tablets to be packaged is in a standby mode, and to perform the packaging of the remaining tablets for the certain prescription in the standby mode right after the packaging of the currently performed prescription is completed when the short tablets are supplemented by checking whether the short tablets are supplemented or not.