APPARATUS FOR HANDLING AND COUNTING PILLS AND THE LIKE

• US 3,837,139 A
• Filed: 07/05/1973
• Issued: 09/24/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rx Count Corporation
• Original Assignee: Harry G. Roseberg
• Inventors: Roseberg, Harry G.
• Primary Examiner(s): McGehee, Travis S.
• Application Number:
  US05/376,708
• Time in Patent Office: 446 Days
• Field of Search: 53/59R,78 133/8R,8C,3A,3G 198/40 221/7
• US Class Current: 53/501
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/02 Pill counting devices
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 57/20 Applications of counting devices for controlling the feed of articles other applications B65B65/08

Abstract

To improve the reliability and speed of handling and counting pills, such as for filling prescriptions, an apparatus is provided in which a rotatable turn-table member and coaxial rotatable inner member centrally located of the turn-table and having an upper surface coplanar therewith serve to rotate and agitate the pills into a single file formation whereupon the pills are passed outwardly through a discharge passage equipped with a photo-electric sensor for developing an exact count of the number of pills discharged. Overlying the horizontal surface of the inner member and the coplanar surface of the turn-table member is a barrier which circumscribes an interior pill receiving region or area of the rotating surfaces into which unprocessed or uncounted pills are dumped. The outer rotating surface of the turn-table member causes the pills to be rotated toward an inlet of a discharge passage which interrupts the circumferential barrier substantially tangent to the perimeter of the inner member surface. Adjacent the entry point to the discharge passage the pills assume a single file formation by virtue of the rotating coplanar surface of the inner member, which rotates at a higher speed than the turn-table member, so as to automatically remove excess pills at the discharge entry and return them to the outer and slower rotating surface. The discharge passage itself extends in a continuous uniform curvilinear path tending in the direction of rotation of the turn-table to the outer perimeter thereof where the pills are discharged into a container. The photo-electric sensor for counting is mounted adjacent the outlet point of the discharge passage. To provide reliable and high speed counting, the curvilinear discharge passage causes a continuously increasing separation of adjacent pills as they progress outwardly from the center of the table toward the outer perimeter where the greatest separation is achieved as the pills pass by the photoelectric sensor. One of the walls forming the inlet to the discharge passage is provided with an upper surface which slopes downwardly away from the inlet opening to define a prow-like projection which causes bunched pills or capsules to ride up such surface and fall to one side thereof so as to either enter the discharge passage or return to the rotating surface of the inner member, thereby breaking up any log jamming which may occur at the inlet. An adjustable pill '"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"'decapper'"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"' and guide finger member is provided adjacent the entry point of the discharge passage to knock-off or dislodge occasionally stacked pills, especially in the case of tablets, and to guide or force a portion of an onrushing jam of tablets outwardly away from the discharge inlet and onto the inner rotating member so as to again eliminate congestion at the inlet.

Claims

1. An apparatus for handling and counting pills such as tablets, capsules and other pill-like objects, comprising:

coaxially mounted rotatable members defining inner and outer horizontal coplanar upper surfaces of substantially circular shape;

drive means for rotating said members in different relative modes to provide a means for agitating pills placed on said coplanar upper surfaces;

pill receiving and entrapping means including an outer circumferential barrier mounted in non-rotating disposition adjacent the upper surfaces of said rotating members to circumscribe an interior area thereof into which uncounted pills may be placed and thus entrapped while being agitated by said rotating surfaces;

pill discharge means including spaced parallel walls partially over-lying and adjacent to said outer rotating surface and defining therewith an elongated discharge passage having a pill inlet interrupting said wall barrier adjacent the perimeter of said inner rotating surface for receiving pills in single file from said interior area, said discharge passage extending from said inlet in a continuous uniform curve tending in the direction of rotation of said outer surface to an outlet disposed adjacent the perimeter of said outer rotating surface such that the single file pills entering said discharge passage at said inlet are subjected to differential acceleration and separation with increasing outward radial position;

pill collecting means disposed in pill receiving relation to said outlet of said discharge passage; and

pill counting means including sensor means mounted adjacent said discharge passage.

2. In the apparatus set forth in claim 1, said drive means rotating said inner surface member at a rate substantially greater than that of said outer surface member to provide said different relative modes of rotation.

3. In thE apparatus set forth in claim 2, said drive means being further defined by said rate at which said inner surface member is rotated is selected to centrifugally, outwardly force any pills placed on said inner rotating surface toward and onto said outer rotating surface.

4. In the apparatus set forth in claim 1, said drive means rotating said inner surface member at a rate substantially greater than that of said outer surface member and in a direction opposite thereto to provide said different relative modes of rotation.

5. In the apparatus of claim 1, said inlet of said discharge passage means being defined on one side by a junction of said barrier and a radially outward one of said vertical walls forming said discharge passage and on the other side by a prow means extending away from said inlet of said discharge passage substantially tangentially to the perimeter of said inner rotating surface so as to force pills to either enter said inlet of said discharge means or return to the interior area bounded by said barrier.

6. In the apparatus of claim 1, said outer barrier including a vertical wall substantially encircling said inner rotating surface and being spaced therefrom to a radially outermost disposition remote from said inlet of said discharge passage means and extending radially inwardly therefrom in the direction of rotation of said outer rotating surface to a junction with a radially outward one of said parallel walls forming said discharge passage.

7. In the apparatus set forth in claim 6, said vertical wall forming said barrier being further defined by said junction thereof with said radially outward wall of said discharge passage being radially outwardly spaced from the outer perimeter of said inner rotating surface to define a single file formation area on said outer rotating surface adjacent the perimeter of the inner rotating surface in which pills are assembled into single file for entering said discharge passage inlet.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising;

prow means provided at said inlet and extending from a radially inward wall of said discharge passage substantially tangentially with the perimeter of said inner rotating surface to cause pills to either enter said inlet in single file or return to the interior area circumscribed by said barrier.

9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8, said prow means being further defined as comprising an end extension of the radially inward wall of said discharge passage and having an upper surface sloping downwardly and away from said inlet, whereby excess or surplus pills in a jam of pills approaching said inlet ride up said upper sloping surface and fall to either side thereof.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising;

de-capper means disposed within said circumscribed interior area adjacent said inlet of said discharge passage for providing an adjustable height limit for pills approaching said inlet, whereby stacked pills are blocked from entering the discharge passage means.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, said pill collecting means including spring clips disposed beneath said outlet of said discharge passage for detachably receiving and holding pill containers in pill receiving relation therewith.

12. In an apparatus for handling and counting pills such as tablets, capsules and other pill-like objects, in which such apparatus is of the type including means for arranging an uncounted batch of pills into single file formation and moving such formation past a pill sensor means, the improvement characterized by;

coaxially mounted rotatable members defining inner and outer horizontal coplanar upper surfaces of substantially circular shape; and

drive means for rotating said outer surface member at a relatively slow rate and for rotating said inner surface member at a substantially faster rate such that any pills located on said inner rotating surface are centrifugally forced radially outwardly onto the slower rotating coplanar outer surface to provide a means for agItating and rotationally circulating pills placed in batches on said rotating surfaces.

13. In an apparatus for handling and counting pills such as tablets, capsules and other pill-like objects, in which such apparatus is of the type including means for arranging an uncounted batch of pills into single file formation and moving such formation past a pill sensor means, the improvement characterized by;

coaxially mounted rotatable members defining inner and outer horizontal coplanar upper surfaces of substantially circular shape;

drive means for rotating said outer surface member at a relatively slow rate and for rotating said inner surface member at a substantially faster rate such that any pills located on said inner rotating surface are centrifugally forced radially outwardly onto the slower rotating coplanar outer surface to provide a means for agitating and rotationally circulating pills placed in batches on said rotating surfaces; and

pill discharge means including spaced parallel vertical walls adjacent said outer rotating surface and defining therewith an elongated discharge passage having a pill inlet disposed tangentially to the outer perimeter of said inner rotating surface to receive pills in single file, said discharge passage extending outwardly from said inlet in a continuous substantially uniform curve tending in the direction of rotation of said outer surface to an outlet adjacent the outer perimeter of said rotating surface such that the single file pills entering said inlet are subjected to increasing separation as they progress through said discharge passage culminating in the greatest separation adjacent said outlet, whereby a pill counting sensor mounted adjacent said outlet can readily resolve and sense each pill individually for reliable counting thereof.