Tablet cassette for automatic tablet sorting and counting machine

• US 6,170,229 B1
• Filed: 07/14/1999
• Issued: 01/09/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hyupshin Medical Co. Ltd., JV MEDI Company Limited
• Original Assignee: JV MEDI Company Limited
• Inventors: Kim, Jin Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Peter
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARADISO, JOHN ROGER
• Application Number:
  US09/353,199
• Time in Patent Office: 545 Days
• Field of Search: 531/68, 531/54, 531/55, 532/37, 532/38, 534/45, 534/74, 221/265
• US Class Current: 53/155
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 35/56 Orientating, i.e. changing the attitude of, articles, e.g. of non-uniform cross-section
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00

Abstract

A tablet cassette for an automatic tablet dispensing system is disclosed. The tablet cassette includes a cylindrical rotor received into a medicine case of the tablet cassette and engaged to a male gear fixed to a motor shaft located within a driving unit. The rotor has a waved guide formed along an conically tapered upper surface thereof and a protrusion formed on a central surface portion thereof so as to smoothly agitate the received tablets and preventing from tangling together with said waved guide. The cylindrical rotor has a plurality of guide teeth formed along an outer periphery of the rotor body and a plurality of insert openings regularly provided between said guide teeth to respectively receive one tablet therein. At least one auxiliary case has an upper and a lower engagement steps formed along the periphery thereof. The upper engagement step has thrust bumps along an upper periphery thereof to facilitate engagement onto an upper portion of the medicine case having a corresponding engagement step formed along an upper periphery thereof, and the lower engagement step of the said auxiliary case has thrust grooves formed in correspondence to the thrust bumps of the medicine case. A cover is provided onto an upper portion of the medicine case or said auxiliary case. The cover includes a porous compartment formed underneath a lower surface thereof, wherein preservatives or demoisturants can be placed.

Claims

1. An improved automatic tablet dispenser comprising a tablet dropping unit having a drum communicating with a plurality of release holes which open to a plurality of tablet cassettes storing therein and releasing therefrom a measured quantity of tablets, wherein each of said tablet cassettes comprising:

a) a medicine case having a cylindrical opening through a lower portion thereof;

b) a cylindrical rotor having an upper surface and a vertically formed outer periphery, wherein the upper surface has a central portion, wherein a plurality of guide teeth are formed along the outer periphery, wherein a plurality of insert openings are alternately formed among the guide teeth, wherein the cylindrical rotor is rotatably introduced through the cylindrical opening of the medicine case and serves to temporarily maintain the tablets within the medicine case, and wherein a waved guide having a vertex is formed on the upper surface of the cylindrical rotor;

c) a male gear disposed below the medicine case and rotatably engaged to the cylindrical rotor so that the cylindrical rotor can be rotated in correspondence to the male gear, whereby the tablets maintained in the medicine case are serially loaded in each of the insert openings and the measure quantity of the tablets are controllably dropped into a corresponding one of the release holes; and

d) a vertically raised protrusion formed on the central surface portion of said upper surface of said rotor so as to smoothly agitate the tablets received in the medicine case and prevent said tablets from tangling together with said waved guide while allowing the tablets to be evenly loaded into said each insert opening when the rotor is rotated by the male gear.

2. The automatic tablet dispenser of claim 1 further comprising a motor disposed below the male gear and connected to the male gear so that the rotation of the cylindrical rotor can be powered through the male gear by the motor.

3. The automatic tablet dispenser of claim 2 further comprising a cover detachably covering the medicine case, wherein the cover has a compartment with a porous covering, wherein the compartment is attached beneath the cover and stores therein tablet protecting agents.

4. The automatic tablet dispenser of claim 3 further comprising at least one auxiliary case wall flexibly provided between the medicine case and the cover for thereby increasing a tablet capacity of the medicine case.

5. The automatic tablet dispenser of claim 4, wherein the vertically raised protrusion is cylindrical.