Medicine feeder

• US 4,903,861 A
• Filed: 12/29/1988
• Issued: 02/27/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/1988
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yuyama Seisakusho
• Original Assignee: Shoji Yuyama
• Inventors: Yuyama, Shoji
• Primary Examiner(s): Rolla, Joseph J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bollinger, David H.
• Application Number:
  US07/291,785
• Time in Patent Office: 425 Days
• Field of Search: 221/265, 221/263, 221/277, 221/258, 221/203, 221/202, 221/82, 221/76, 221/182, 222/370, 222/367
• US Class Current: 221/265
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/1457 Rotating movement in the plane of the rotating part
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00

Abstract

A feeder or dispenser for feeding tablets, capsules or the like. A rotor is mounted in a container or feeder body. The capsules put into the container are guided into channels formed at outer edge of the rotor at angular spacings and then into pockets formed nearer to the center of rotation than the channels. The capsules are discharged from the pockets one by one each time the pockets are aligned with a feed opening provided in the bottom plate of the container as the rotor rotates.

Claims

1. A medicine feeder for feeding capsules of medicine or the like, comprising:

a container having a funnel-shaped bottom plate tapered toward the center thereof;

a rotor rotatably mounted in said container on said bottom plate and having a conical top surface tapered toward its peripheral edge;

said rotor having formed in its peripheral edge a plurality of medicine feed channels angularly spaced from one another and having a bottom surface tapered so as to be complementary with said funnel-shaped bottom plate of said container, said bottom surface of said rotor being formed with a plurality of pockets angularly spaced from one another, said pockets being in communication with said medicine feed channels;

said bottom plate of said container being formed with a feed opening with which said pockets are brought into alignment one after another when said rotor rotates, thereby discharging the capsules in said pocket out of the medicine feeder one by one; and

a tongue member provided to cover the pocket in alignment with said feed opening to prevent more than one capsule from being discharged out of said pocket at a time.