JP2020174902A - Secant line information acquisition device and tablet printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a score information acquisition device capable of acquiring score information of a tablet correctly.SOLUTION: A score information acquisition device is provided for acquiring score information of a tablet F having a score S only in one side of front and back sides. The score information acquisition device includes: a conveying device 10 for conveying the tablet F in a state where the front and back sides are exposed; an imaging device 20 for imaging the front and back sides of the tablet F conveyed by the conveying device 10; and a calculation device for calculating the score information of the tablet F on the basis of the imaging data of the imaging device 20. The imaging device 20 includes: a pair of reflectors 21, 22 arranged in response to the front and back sides of the conveying tablet F, respectively; and a camera part 23 for simultaneously imaging the front and back sides of the tablet F through the pair of reflectors 21, 22. The calculation device determines whether the score side having the score S is either of the front and back sides of the tablet, and acquires the score information in the non-score side on the basis of the score S extracted from the image data of the score side.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

The present invention relates to a score line information acquisition device and a tablet printing device, and more particularly to a score line information acquisition device for acquiring score line information of a tablet having a score line on only one of the front and back surfaces, and a tablet printing device including the score line information acquisition device.

When printing characters, symbols, etc. on a single-sided secant lock that has a groove-shaped secant on only one side, avoid the secant not only on the secant surface with the secant but also on the non-secant surface without the secant. It has been conventionally used to print on.

For example, the printing apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a transport unit that sucks and transports tablets on a transport belt, and a plurality of image pickup units and prints that image and print the upper and lower surfaces of the tablets transported by the transport unit, respectively. It is provided with a portion, and based on the score line data obtained by imaging the score line surface of the tablet by the imaging unit, printing can be performed with the non-split line surface avoiding the portion corresponding to the score line.

International Publication No. 2014/013973

However, in the above-mentioned conventional printing apparatus, since the upper surface and the lower surface of the tablet are imaged by different imaging units at different transport positions of the transport unit, alignment deviation occurs between the imaging units, or a plurality of image pickup units are used. When the orientation of the tablet changes during transportation between the imaging units, it becomes difficult to grasp the position and direction of the score line on the score line surface on the non-split line surface. Therefore, there is a risk that the printing orientation cannot be accurately aligned on the front and back surfaces of the tablet.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a dividing line information acquisition device capable of accurately acquiring dividing line information on the front and back surfaces of a tablet, and further, tablet printing capable of accurately aligning the printing direction on the front and back surfaces of a tablet. The purpose is to provide the device.

The object of the present invention is a wire dividing information acquisition device for acquiring tablet line dividing information having a dividing line on only one of the front and back surfaces, the transport device for transporting the tablet with the front and back surfaces exposed, and the transport device. The imaging device includes an imaging device that images the front and back surfaces of the tablet to be transported, and an arithmetic device that calculates the allocation line information of the tablet based on the imaging data of the imaging device, and the imaging device corresponds to the front and back surfaces of the tablet being transported. A pair of reflectors and a camera unit that simultaneously images the front and back surfaces of the tablet via the pair of reflectors are provided, and the arithmetic apparatus has a split line surface having a split line on the front and back surfaces of the tablet. This is achieved by a split line information acquisition device that determines which one is used and acquires split line information on the non-break line plane based on the split line extracted from the image data of the split line surface.

In this secant information acquisition device, the transport device preferably includes a pair of pulleys and a plurality of endless strip-shaped transport belts wound between the pair of pulleys at intervals, and the plurality of transports. The belt preferably holds the tablet between the opposing sides.

It is preferable that the camera unit is arranged so that the imaging axis penetrates between the front and back surfaces of the tablet in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction.

Further, the object of the present invention is achieved by the above-mentioned dividing line information acquisition device and a tablet printing device that prints on the front and back surfaces of a tablet based on the dividing line information acquired by the dividing line information acquisition device.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a dividing line information acquisition device capable of accurately acquiring dividing line information on the front and back surfaces of a tablet, and further, a tablet capable of accurately aligning the printing direction on the front and back surfaces of the tablet. A printing device can be provided.

It is a schematic front view of the tablet printing apparatus provided with the secant information acquisition apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a main part plan view of the tablet printing apparatus. It is a side view which shows the main part of the transport device included in the secant line information acquisition device. It is sectional drawing which shows the other main part of the said transport device. It is sectional drawing which shows the other main part of the said transport device. It is a top view which shows the other main part of the transfer device. It is a side view of the image pickup apparatus included in the said secant information acquisition apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the imaging data of the imaging apparatus.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of the tablet printing device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of a main part of the tablet printing device shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the tablet printing device 1 uses the score line information acquisition device 2 for acquiring the score line information of a tablet having a score line on only one of the front and back surfaces and the score line information acquired by the score line information acquisition device 2. A printing device 3 for printing on the front and back surfaces of the tablet based on the tablet is provided.

The allocation line information acquisition device 2 is based on the transfer device 10 that conveys the tablet with the front and back surfaces exposed, the image pickup device 20 that images the front and back surfaces of the tablet conveyed by the transfer device 10, and the image pickup data of the image pickup device 20. It is provided with a calculation device 100 for calculating the dividing line information of the tablet as a main component.

The transport device 10 includes a first pulley 11 and a second pulley 12, and two endless strip-shaped transport belts 13 and 14 wound around the first pulley 11 and the second pulley 12. The first pulley 11 can be rotationally driven in the direction indicated by a drive motor (not shown) to drive the transport belts 13 and 14. As shown in FIG. 2, the transport belts 13 and 14 are arranged so that their straight portions are parallel to each other, and a gap for holding a tablet is formed between them. In the present embodiment, the transport belts 13 and 14 are flat belts made of a soft material such as silicon rubber, but they may be V-belts, toothed belts, or the like.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the first pulley 11 of FIG. 1 as viewed in the direction of arrow A. The transport belts 13 and 14 are arranged along the rotation shaft 11a of the first pulley 11, and a gap adjusting member 15 is interposed in the gap G between them. The gap adjusting member 15 is composed of a pair of gap-up rollers rotatably supported by a bracket (not shown), is arranged at substantially the same height as the rotating shaft 11a, and passes through the gaps G of the transport belts 13 and 14. Push it out. Flange-shaped holding portions 11b and 11b are formed on both sides of the first pulley 11 in the axial direction, and the outer side surfaces of the transport belts 13 and 14 are held by the holding portions 11b and 11b.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the second pulley 12 of FIG. 1 as viewed in the direction of arrow B. The second pulley 12 has the same configuration as the first pulley 11, and is provided with flange-shaped holding portions 12b and 12b on both sides in the axial direction for holding the outer side surfaces of the transport belts 13 and 14, respectively. There is. Further, the second pulley 12 has two support portions 12c and 12c around which the transport belts 13 and 14 are wound, respectively, and between the support portions 12c and 12c, between the transport belts 13 and 14. A space 12d for accommodating the sandwiched tablet F is formed. The side surfaces of the transport belts 13 and 14 in contact with the tablet F are formed to be flat in the present embodiment, but may have an uneven shape.

As shown in FIG. 1, the transport device 10 is further provided with two guide devices 110, 120 arranged between the first pulley 11 and the second pulley 12 to guide the transport belts 13, 14. There is. FIG. 5 is a side view of the guide device 110 of FIG. 1 as viewed in the direction of arrow A. As shown in FIG. 5, the guide device 110 includes two block-shaped guide members 111 provided corresponding to the two transport belts 13 and 14, respectively. The two guide members 111 are arranged with a gap from each other, and a notch-shaped groove 111a is formed in the upper part of the facing surfaces thereof.

The guide device 110 further includes each guide member 111, a first sliding belt 112 slidably arranged, and a second sliding belt 113. The first sliding belt 112 and the second sliding belt 113 are formed in an endless band shape, and are wound around a plurality of pulleys 112a and 113a so as to slide along the bottom surface and the side surface of the groove portion 111a, respectively. Has been done. The first sliding belt 112 and the second sliding belt 113 abut on the lower surfaces and outer surfaces of the transport belts 13 and 14, respectively, and are driven so as to travel in the same direction as the transport directions of the transport belts 13 and 14. The belt. The configuration of the guide device 120 is the same as that of the guide device 110, and the two guide members 121, the first sliding belt 122 and the second sliding belt 123 slidably arranged with each guide member 121. And have.

As shown in FIG. 1, tablets are supplied to the transport device 10 from the supply device 30. The supply device 30 aligns a fixed quantity supply unit 32 including a hopper 31 into which tablets are charged, a straight-ahead feeder or the like that quantitatively supplies tablets supplied from the hopper 31, and tablets supplied from the fixed quantity supply unit 32 in a row. It is provided with an alignment unit 33 composed of a bowl feeder, a turntable, or the like, and a suction conveyor 34 that vacuum-sucks tablets aligned by the alignment unit 33 from above through the suction holes of the conveyor belt 34a and conveys them to the transfer device 10. There is.

As shown in the plan view of FIG. 6, the tablet F held and conveyed from above by the suction conveyor 34 is moved along the surface (lower surface) of the conveyor belt 34a by the pair of centering guides 34b and 34c to be positioned. The adjustment is performed, and the conveyor belts 13 and 14 are guided from above to the gap G. Since the gap G is gradually narrowed in the transport direction T by the gap adjusting member 15 (see FIG. 1), the tablet F adsorbed on the suction conveyor 34 is sandwiched between the transport belts 13 and 14 during transport. Then, it is sequentially delivered to the transfer device 10.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the image pickup apparatus 20 has a pair of reflectors 21 and 22, which are arranged corresponding to the front and back surfaces of the tablet sandwiched between the transport belts 13 and 14, respectively. The camera unit 23 that images the front and back surfaces of the tablet via the reflectors 21 and 22 and the light source units 24 and 25 that illuminate the tablet imaged by the camera unit 23 are provided. The pair of reflectors 21 and 22, the camera unit 23 and the light source units 24 and 25 are supported by brackets (not shown).

FIG. 7 is a side view of the image pickup apparatus 20 shown in FIG. 1 as viewed in the direction of arrow B, and the light source units 24 and 25 are not shown. The pair of reflectors 21 and 22 are composed of prisms, and the illumination light emitted from the light source unit and reflected on the front and back surfaces of the tablet F is reflected by the pair of reflectors 21 and 22 and received by the camera unit 23. The camera unit 23 is arranged so that the imaging axis Ia penetrates between the front and back surfaces of the tablet F along the transport surface in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction (penetration direction in FIG. 7), and is a front surface of the tablet F. The imaging range Ib is set so that the back surface can be imaged at the same time. The pair of reflectors 21 and 22 may be a mirror, a reflector, or the like in addition to the prism.

The imaged data captured by the camera unit 23 is input to the arithmetic unit 100. Based on the input imaging data, the computing device 100 determines the presence or absence of a score line on the front and back surfaces of the tablet F, the position and direction of the score line on the surface having the score line (secant line surface), and the score line on the surface without the score line (non-secant line surface). Calculates secant information related to secant, such as the position and direction corresponding to.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing apparatus 3 includes a first printing unit 4 and a second printing unit 5 composed of an inkjet printing apparatus. The first printing unit 4 and the second printing unit 5 are arranged above the transport belts 13 and 14 on the upstream side in the transport direction and the downstream side in the transport direction with respect to the second pulley 12, respectively, and are arranged on the arithmetic unit. Based on the score line information calculated by 100, printing is performed on the front and back surfaces of the tablet F being transported. On the downstream side of the first printing unit 4 and the second printing unit 5 in the transport direction, printing inspection devices 6 and 7 for performing a printing inspection or the like after printing are arranged. The printing device 3 may be, for example, a laser printing device other than the inkjet printing device. In this case, by arranging the laser printing devices above and below the predetermined tablet transport position, printing on the front and back surfaces of the tablet can be performed at the same position at the same time.

A discharge device 50 is arranged on the downstream side of the transport device 10 in the transport direction. The discharge device 50 guides the discharge conveyor 51 that conveys the tablets delivered from the transfer device 10, the sorting device 52 that sorts the good products of the tablets conveyed by the discharge conveyor 51, and the good products of the tablets via the damper 53. A non-defective product conveyor 54 and a discharge chute 55 for discharging non-defective products of tablets conveyed by the non-defective product conveyor 54 are provided. Above the discharge conveyor 51, a side surface inspection device 8 for inspecting the side surface of the tablet is provided.

The sorting device 52 sorts whether the tablets to be conveyed are non-defective products based on the detections of the print inspection devices 6 and 7 and the side surface inspection devices 8, and supplies the selected tablets as non-defective products to the non-defective product conveyor 54 by air injection. To do. The damper 53 can be switched so as to supply the tablets supplied from the sorting device 52 to the extrabox 56. The discharge device 50 further includes a defective product discharge chute 57 that discharges defective tablets that have passed through the sorting device 52 to the defective product box 58.

According to the tablet printing device 1 having the above configuration, the tablet F having a score line on only one of the front and back surfaces is charged into the hopper 31 of the supply device 30 in advance, and is supplied from the supply device 30 to the score information acquisition device 2. The tablet F is imaged by the image pickup device 20 during the transfer by the transfer device 10, and the score line information is acquired by the calculation device 100. The printing device 3 prints on the front and back surfaces of the tablet F based on the acquired score line information, and after the inspection, it is handed over to the discharge device 50, and only the non-defective product of the tablet F is collected. Since the transfer device 10 keeps the holding position of the tablet F being conveyed constant by the transfer belts 13 and 14, it is possible to secure a wide range of exposed areas other than the holding position of the tablet. Therefore, imaging and printing on the front and back surfaces of the tablet F can be easily performed.

FIG. 8 shows an example of imaging data of tablet F by the imaging device 20. Since the images of the front and back surfaces of the tablet F are simultaneously acquired by the score line information acquisition device 2 at the same transport position, the score lines formed on the score line surface of the tablet F are formed by cutting out and superimposing the images of the front and back surfaces of the tablet F. The secant information regarding the position and direction of S can be accurately reflected on the non-secant surface of the tablet F. Therefore, the score line information on the non-secant line surface of the tablet F (information on the position and direction corresponding to the score line S on the score line surface as shown by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 8) is accurately acquired by a single camera unit 23. be able to.

By printing on the front and back surfaces of the tablet F based on the score line information acquired by the score line information acquisition device 2, the printing device 3 can accurately align the printing orientation on both the front and back surfaces of the tablet F. Therefore, for example, characters, symbols, etc. can be printed along the score line on the score line surface of the tablet F, while printing is performed on the non-secant line surface of the tablet F while avoiding the position corresponding to the score line on the score line surface. be able to.

The transport device 10 included in the secant information acquisition device 2 of the present embodiment is configured to sandwich the tablet F between the side surfaces of the plurality of transport belts 13 and 14, and transport the tablet F. The configuration is not particularly limited as long as it can be transported with the front and back surfaces exposed. For example, in a state where the tablet is upright, the side surface of the tablet is adsorbed and held on a transport surface such as a transport roller or a belt conveyor, and the tablet is imaged via a pair of reflectors arranged on both sides in the transport direction. You can also.

1 Tablet printing device 2 Split line information acquisition device 3 Printing device 10 Conveying device 11 1st pulley 12 2nd pulley 13, 14 Conveying belt 20 Imaging device 100 Arithmetic device F Tablet

Claims (4)

It is a score line information acquisition device that acquires score line information of tablets having a score line on only one of the front and back surfaces.
A transport device that transports tablets with the front and back exposed
An imaging device that captures the front and back surfaces of tablets transported by the transport device, and
It is provided with an arithmetic unit that calculates the score line information of the tablet based on the imaging data of the imaging apparatus.
The imaging device includes a pair of reflectors arranged corresponding to the front and back surfaces of the tablet being transported, and a camera unit that simultaneously images the front and back surfaces of the tablet via the pair of reflectors.
The arithmetic unit determines which of the front and back surfaces of the tablet is the score line having the score line, and acquires the score line information on the non-secant line surface based on the score line extracted from the image data of the score line surface. .. The transport device includes a pair of pulleys and a plurality of endless strip-shaped transport belts wound between the pair of pulleys at intervals.
The score line information acquisition device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of transport belts sandwich a tablet between opposite side surfaces. The score line information acquisition device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the camera unit is arranged so that an imaging axis penetrates between the front and back surfaces of the tablet in a direction orthogonal to a transport direction. The secant information acquisition device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 and
A tablet printing device including a printing device that prints on the front and back surfaces of a tablet based on the dividing line information acquired by the dividing line information acquisition device.

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