JPH0467984B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing seamless capsules.

"Prior Art" A typical conventional seamless capsule manufacturing apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 36-3700. This device has a composite nozzle with a small diameter nozzle installed inside a large diameter nozzle facing downward into the cooling liquid in a capsule forming tank, and the large diameter nozzle is coated with an outer coating that has been heated and fluidized. The small-diameter nozzle is supplied with a fluidized filling material from each tank through its respective feed pipe, and the coated material and filling material are fed as a composite jet stream from the composite nozzle. The composite jet stream is continuously extruded into the cooling liquid in the capsule forming tank, and the extruded composite jet stream is sequentially cut into a predetermined size from the tip, so that the internal cooling liquid flows in a fixed direction. The structure is such that the capsules are collected and cooled while being guided to the collected capsule collection pipe. Each cut piece is in a state where the outer coating material wraps around the filling material due to its surface tension, and while the outer coating material remains in a fluid state, it becomes rounded in the flow of coolant. The capsule is formed into a capsule by cooling the coated material with a cooling liquid and forming a film.

In the case of using a water-soluble polymeric substance such as gelatin as the coating material, the manufacturing apparatus having the above structure is configured to supply an aqueous solution of the coating material heated to 70°C to 80°C in a tank through a feeding pipe. However, depending on the installation environment of the device and other circumstances, it often takes a considerable amount of time for the outer coating material to reach the composite nozzle from the tank.

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" Some coated substances, such as gelatin, have the disadvantage that if their aqueous solutions are kept at the above-mentioned high temperatures for a long period of time, they will deteriorate due to heat, resulting in a decrease in molecular weight and discoloration. There are various problems such as these that cause various problems in capsule manufacturing.

An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing apparatus that can prevent deterioration of the outer coating material in such cases.

``Means for solving the problem'' The coating substance being fed is placed in the middle of the feed pipe between the coating substance tank and the large-diameter nozzle that extrudes the coating substance in the composite nozzle. The point is that a heating means for heating is provided.

"Effect" The outer coating substance reaches the heating means and heats up to 70℃~
Heated to 80℃. That is, by heating the outer coating material to 70°C to 80°C using the heating means, the outer coating material is not kept in a high temperature range such as 70°C to 80°C for a long time. This will prevent the deterioration of a film-forming material, which has a property of being easily deteriorated by heat, such as gelatin, in the capsule manufacturing process.

``Embodiment'' The drawings show a preferred embodiment of the device of the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a tank containing a coating substance a made of an aqueous gelatin solution, and 2 a tank containing a capsule filling substance b.Each tank 1 and 2 is equipped with a heating jacket (not shown) to hold the coating substance a and the filling substance b inside.
The coating material a and the filling material b inside the tanks 1 and 2 are replenished from other sources as needed to maintain a substantially fixed amount at all times.

The coated material a in the tank 1 is heated to 45°C to 50°C, and is transferred to the composite nozzle 5 via the feeding pipe 31 and the final temperature adjustment tank 4 by the pressure from the pressurizing pipe 11.
However, in the present invention, the outer coating material a is supplied to a large-diameter nozzle 51 (FIG. 3) in the middle of the feeding pipe 31.
It is configured to be heated to 70°C to 80°C by In addition, if the pressure tube 11 is not used,
The coating material a is fed through the above-mentioned route by the metering pump 33 of the bypass pipe 32 in the feeding pipe 31.

In this embodiment, the heating means 3 is a heating tank 35 surrounded by a heating jacket 34 equipped with a heater (not shown), as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. The temperature of the coated material a is constantly detected by a temperature detector 36 provided in the heating tank 35, and the temperature of the coated material a is controlled by controlling the heater based on the detected value. It is configured to maintain the temperature at an appropriate value between 70°C and 80°C.

The heating means 3 may be configured to heat with hot water instead of a heater.

Capsule filling material b in tank 2 shown in FIG.
The feeding pump 21,
The liquid is supplied to the nozzle 52 of the compound nozzle 5 through a movable feed pipe 23 that is connected to the small diameter nozzle 52 (FIG. 3) and can be raised and lowered. In FIG. 1, numeral 24 is an accumulator that prevents minute pulsating flow of the filling material b caused by the metering pump 22 and keeps the internal pressure constant in the small diameter nozzle 52, and 25 is a relief amount adjustment valve for the filling material b.

The final temperature control tank 4 adjusts the temperature of the outer coating material a to the final extrusion appropriate temperature (the appropriate temperature when extruding the outer coating material a from the large diameter nozzle 51 of the composite nozzle 5).
It is equipped with a heating jacket 41 that has a built-in heater (not shown), and a temperature detector 42 provided in the tank 4 detects the temperature of the outer coating substance a in the tank 4, and the temperature is adjusted based on this detected value. The temperature of the outer coating material a is adjusted to the appropriate extrusion temperature.

As shown in FIG. 3, the composite nozzle 5 includes a large-diameter nozzle 51 for extruding the outer coating substance a, and a small-diameter nozzle 52 located inside this nozzle 51 for extruding the capsule filling substance b. Both substances a and b are continuously extruded from this composite nozzle 5 into a cooling liquid c made of liquid paraffin in a capsule forming tank 6 as a composite jet stream. Further, the composite nozzle 5 is configured such that the width of the gap between the large diameter nozzle 51 and the small diameter nozzle 52 can be adjusted by slightly raising and lowering the small diameter nozzle 52 together with the movable feeding pipe 23. This makes it possible to control the amount of the outer coating material a extruded from the large-diameter nozzle 51, that is, the thickness of the outer coating a' after the capsule d is formed. In this composite nozzle 5, a plurality of small-diameter nozzles 52 for extruding the filling material b may be provided within the large-diameter nozzle 51 in a spaced apart state. The capsule formed in this case has multiple nuclei.

The composite jet flow of the filling material b and the coating material a that is continuously extruded from the composite nozzle 5 is supplied with a cooling liquid from an intermittent flow nozzle 60 that surrounds the jet flow from the side in the capsule forming tank 6. An intermittent flow of is applied regularly, and the impact of this intermittent flow causes depressions to be formed at predetermined intervals from the tip of the composite jet flow.

The coolant c is supplied from the coolant tank 7 by a pump 70 to a heat exchanger 71, a feeding pipe 72, a capsule forming tank 6, a vertically movable funnel tube 8 vertically installed below the composite nozzle 5 in the forming tank 6, Since the composite jet flow is circulated to the capsule collection pipe 81, the collection hopper 9, and the coolant tank 7, it is drawn toward the funnel pipe 8 below and is sequentially cut from the recessed portion. Each cut piece is sequentially formed into a rounded capsule d by the flow of the cooling liquid c in the funnel tube 8, reaches the recovery hopper 9 through the capsule recovery tube 81, and is laterally separated by the mesh 91. is supplied to a conveyor (not shown) or the like.

The coolant that adds an intermittent flow to the composite jet flow is transferred from the coolant tank 7 to the feed pipe 7 by a pump 73.
The intermittent flow generator 75 supplies the intermittent flow through the feed pipe 76 to the intermittent flow nozzle 60 as a regular intermittent flow, and flows along with the cooling liquid c in the capsule forming tank 6 into the above-mentioned path. cycle.

In this embodiment, in order to sequentially cut the composite jet stream into predetermined sizes from the tip, instead of adding an intermittent flow to the composite jet stream from the side as described above, a cooling liquid in the capsule forming tank 6 is used. c.
The flow rate may be increased intermittently.

In FIG. 1, 77 is an accumulator for keeping the pressure of the coolant constant for the intermittent flow generator 75, and 61 is an overflow pipe leading from the capsule forming tank 6 to the coolant tank 7.

"Effects of the Invention" According to the present invention, there is no need to heat the coated substance to a high temperature of 70°C to 80°C in the tank for the coated substance, and between the tank for the coated substance and the composite nozzle. It is sufficient to heat the material to the above temperature using a heating means in the middle of the feed pipe, so the outer coating material can be heated to 70%
It is not kept in a high temperature range such as ℃ to 80℃ for a long time, and therefore it is possible to prevent deterioration in the capsule manufacturing process of a coated material that is easily deteriorated by heat, such as an aqueous gelatin solution. can.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the seamless capsule manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is an overall system diagram with a partial cross section, and Fig. 2 shows a heating means in the middle of a feeding pipe for the coating material. FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a capsule forming part in the embodiment of FIG. 1. Explanation of main symbols in the figure: 1 is a tank for the outer coating material, 2 is a tank for the capsule filling material, 21, 23
3 is a feeding pipe for the capsule filling material; 31 is a feeding pipe for the coating material; 3 is a heating means in the middle of the coating material feeding pipe; 5 is a composite nozzle;
51 is a large diameter nozzle, 52 is a small diameter nozzle, 6 is a capsule forming tank, a is a coating material, b is a capsule filling material, c is a cooling liquid, and d is a capsule.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A composite nozzle consisting of a large-diameter nozzle and one small-diameter nozzle or several nozzles spaced apart from each other is placed facing into the cooling liquid in the capsule forming tank, and the large-diameter nozzle is coated with a fluidized outer coating. A fluidized capsule filling material is fed to the small diameter nozzle from each tank through a respective feed pipe, and the coating material and capsule filling material are fed into a composite jet stream from the composite nozzle. In the capsule manufacturing apparatus, the capsule is continuously extruded into the cooling liquid in the capsule forming tank, and the extruded composite jet stream is sequentially cut into predetermined sizes from the tip and granulated. , characterized in that a heating means for heating the coated substance being fed is provided in the middle of the feeding pipe between the tank for the coated substance and the large diameter nozzle of the composite nozzle. Seamless capsule manufacturing equipment.