Automatic decoction system and decoction barrel production scheduling method

Abstract

The invention discloses an automatic decoction system and a decoction barrel production scheduling method in the field of traditional Chinese medicine decoction production. The automatic decoction system comprises a decoction barrel production scheduling system, an MES system, a PLC system, a medicine pouring system, an automatic water adding system, a caching system, a decoction system and a deslagging cleaning system, wherein the medicine pouring system, the automatic water adding system, the caching system, the decoction system and the deslagging cleaning system are sequentially connected through multiple sections of conveying lines to form a closed loop; the decoction barrel production scheduling system is used for acquiring prescription information from the MES system, controlling scheduling of empty barrels according to actual requirements, and transmitting scheduling information to the PLC system; the decoction station can store empty buckets after completion of production, near completion of production, or a reduction in prescription dose.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of traditional Chinese medicine decoction production, and in particular to an automated decoction system and a decoction barrel production scheduling method. Background Art

[0002] In the process of decocting Chinese herbal medicines, it is generally necessary to soak the slices after adding water for a period of time before decocting. Usually, the average decocting time is 50 minutes and the average soaking time is 30 minutes. In the automated decoction production process, in order to meet the production of more prescriptions per day, the number of decoction barrels is usually 1.5-2 times the number of decoction stations to facilitate soaking in advance. Therefore, the automated production line is equipped with a cache to store empty barrels and soaking barrels that have not reached the soaking time. Since the hospital needs to store all the decoction barrels after get off work, the number of cache positions in the cache is the same as the number of decoction barrels, which occupies a large area and has a high cost. Summary of the invention

[0003] The purpose of the present invention is to provide an automated decoction system and a decoction barrel production scheduling method to solve the technical problems in the prior art that the number of cache positions is the same as the number of decoction barrels, the area occupied is large, and the cost is high.

[0004] In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention specifically provides the following technical solutions:

[0005] An automated decoction system, comprising a decoction barrel production scheduling system, an MES system, a PLC system, and a medicine pouring system, an automatic water adding system, a buffer system, a decoction system, and a slag pouring and cleaning system, which are sequentially connected by multiple sections of conveying lines to form a closed loop;

[0006] The decoction barrel production scheduling system is used to obtain prescription information from the MES system, control the scheduling of empty barrels according to actual needs, and transmit the scheduling information to the PLC system;

[0007] The PLC system is used to control the actions of each system and each section of the conveyor line according to the dispatch information;

[0008] The medicine pouring system is used to pour medicinal materials into the empty barrel;

[0009] The automatic water adding system is used to add water to the incoming medicinal material barrel into which the medicinal materials have been added;

[0010] The cache system is used to store empty buckets and soaking buckets filled with water;

[0011] The decoction system comprises a plurality of decoction stations, each of which can perform an automated decoction process on an incoming soaking barrel according to prescription information, and the decoction station is also used to store empty barrels;

[0012] The residue pouring and cleaning system is used to pour out the Chinese medicine residue from the decoction barrel and clean the decoction barrel.

[0013] In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention further provides a method for scheduling the production of a decoction barrel, using the above automatic decoction system, including the following scheduling modes:

[0014] Decoction system exits empty barrel mode:

[0015] Before each formal operation of the automated decoction system, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is switched to the empty barrel mode. In this mode, the decoction barrel production scheduling system transfers the empty barrels cached in the decoction station to the feeding conveying line between the slag cleaning system and the medicine pouring system to empty the decoction station and meet the normal decoction demand;

[0016] Decoction system returns to empty barrel mode:

[0017] After each decoction task is completed, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is switched to the empty barrel return mode. In this mode, the MES system stops receiving new prescription tasks; and the decoction barrel production scheduling system transports the empty barrels in the cache system to the vacant decoction stations in the decoction system, and transports the empty barrels on the feeding conveyor line to the vacant cache positions in the cache system.

[0018] As a preferred solution of the present invention, the decoction barrel production scheduling method further includes an empty barrel output and empty barrel return interactive mode of the decoction system:

[0019] Before the production task is completed, when the prescription quantity in the MES system decreases, the number of empty barrels in the buffer system increases, and the number of empty decoction stations in the decoction system increases, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is operated to retract the empty barrels in the buffer system to the empty decoction stations to reduce the pressure on the buffer system;

[0020] When the prescription quantity in the MES system increases, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is operated to transfer the empty barrels cached in the decoction station to the cache system and the feeding conveyor line to free up the decoction station to meet the normal decoction needs.

[0021] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the empty barrel discharge mode of the decoction system, the empty barrels cached in the decoction system are transferred to the feeding conveyor line in batches. Every time a batch of empty barrels is transferred to the feeding conveyor line, a batch of empty barrels or soaking barrels are transferred from the cache system to the decoction system, so that the empty barrels cached in the cache system and the decoction system are circulated, and the empty barrels cached in the decoction system are gradually replaced by soaking barrels.

[0022] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0023] The present invention utilizes the idle time of the decoction station after the task is completed to place the empty barrels on the decoction station, so that the decoction station is responsible for caching the empty barrels; before the task starts, through reasonable scheduling, the empty barrels are circulated on the transmission line, and the empty barrels on the decoction station are transported out in batches, which can reduce the number of cache positions in the cache area and reduce the area occupied by the cache area under the premise of meeting the demand for decocting medicines. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] In order to more clearly illustrate the implementation methods of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for the implementation methods or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only exemplary, and for ordinary technicians in this field, other implementation drawings can be derived from the provided drawings without creative work.

[0025] Figure 1 This is a structural diagram of an automated decoction system in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] Figure 2 This is a diagram of the production scheduling architecture of a boiling barrel in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 3 This is a working diagram of the boiling system in the empty barrel mode according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] Figure 4 This is a working diagram of the empty barrel of the decoction system in the tidal mode in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 5 The figure is a working flow chart of the boiling system returning to the empty barrel mode in the embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0031] In the present invention, the hollow barrel refers to an empty decoction barrel, the medicinal material barrel refers to a decoction barrel with medicinal pieces added, and the soaking barrel refers to a decoction barrel with medicinal pieces and water added;

[0032] like Figure 1 and Figure 2As shown, the present invention provides an automated decoction system, including a decoction barrel production scheduling system, an MES system, a PLC system, and a medicine pouring system, an automatic water adding system, a buffer system, a decoction system, and a slag pouring and cleaning system, which are sequentially connected by multiple sections of conveyor lines to form a closed loop. The functions of each system are as follows:

[0033] The decoction barrel production scheduling system is used to obtain prescription information from the MES system, including prescription number, water addition amount, soaking time, etc., control the scheduling of empty barrels according to actual needs, and transmit the scheduling information to the PLC system;

[0034] The PLC system is used to control the operation of each system and each section of the conveyor line according to the dispatch information;

[0035] The medicine pouring system: after the empty barrel is transmitted to the medicine pouring system, the medicinal pieces are poured into the empty barrel manually or by equipment, and the decoction barrel with the medicinal pieces added is continuously transported backward to the automatic water adding system.

[0036] The automatic water adding system: after the medicine barrel with the decoction pieces added is transported to the automatic water adding system, the decoction barrel production scheduling system transmits the water adding amount obtained from the MES system to the PLC system, and then the PLC controls the automatic water adding system to automatically add water to the medicine barrel according to the given water adding amount, and the soaking barrel after adding water continues to be transported backward to the buffer area;

[0037] The cache system comprises a certain number of cache libraries, which are used to store both empty barrels and soaking barrels filled with medicinal pieces and water.

[0038] The decoction system comprises a plurality of decoction units, each of which comprises a certain number of decoction stations, and each decoction station performs an automated decoction process for a decoction barrel according to a set program;

[0039] The residue removal and cleaning system: after the decoction barrel reaches this position after the decoction is completed, the decoction barrel is first turned over to pour out the residue, and then the decoction barrel is rinsed with clean water to wash away the residue, so as to achieve the purpose of cleaning the decoction barrel, and then it is transported backward to the feeding conveying line;

[0040] The decoction station is also used to store empty barrels after production is finished, when production is close to being finished, or when the prescription quantity is reduced, so as to reduce the buffer pressure of the buffer system.

[0041] It should be noted that, because there are a large number of implementation methods for each functional system and each transmission line in the prior art, the present invention does not improve these, so the specific construction method is not given in the present invention. The focus of the present invention is on the overall construction logic and scheduling method of the automated decoction system. Each system and each transmission line can adopt the corresponding existing technology and can complete the corresponding actions.

[0042] The present invention further provides a decoction barrel production scheduling method. In the entire decoction automated production process, empty barrels are used as carriers of Chinese medicine and water, and are continuously circulated and transported between various areas. In order to maximize the utilization and stable transportation of empty barrels, the transportation logic of empty barrels is analyzed, and the circulation and recycling of empty barrels are mainly divided into the following three scheduling modes:

[0043] The boiling system is in empty barrel mode (working mode). Figure 3 As shown:

[0044] Before each formal operation of the automated decoction system, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is switched to the empty barrel mode. In this mode, the decoction barrel production scheduling system transfers the empty barrels cached in the decoction station to the feeding conveying line between the slag cleaning system and the medicine pouring system to empty the decoction station and meet the normal decoction demand;

[0045] In the empty barrel output mode of the decoction system, the empty barrels cached in the decoction system are transferred to the feeding conveyor line in batches. Every time a batch of empty barrels is transferred to the feeding conveyor line, a batch of empty barrels or soaking barrels are transferred from the cache system to the decoction system, so that the empty barrels cached in the cache system and the decoction system are circulated, and the empty barrels cached in the decoction system are gradually replaced by soaking barrels;

[0046] For example, after the hospital goes to work every morning, before the decoction automatic production line is officially put into operation, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is manually started to control the automatic decoction system to automatically start preparing for related work and enter the working mode. In the working mode, the decoction barrel production scheduling system needs to remove the cached empty barrels from the decoction unit and transport the empty barrels of the decoction unit to the feeding conveyor line to free up extra space for decoction barrels to meet the normal decoction needs.

[0047] After the boiling task begins, the boiling barrel production scheduling system detects that there are extra spaces on the feeding conveyor line, and then notifies the PLC control mechanical equipment to take the empty barrel out of the boiling unit and transport it to the feeding conveyor line.

[0048] Decoction system empty bucket and return empty bucket interactive mode (tidal mode):

[0049] like Figure 4 As shown, before the production task is completed, when the prescription quantity in the MES system decreases, the number of empty barrels in the buffer system increases, and the number of empty decoction stations in the decoction system increases, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is operated to retract the empty barrels in the buffer system to the empty decoction stations to reduce the pressure on the buffer system;

[0050] For example, when production is nearing the end or the prescription quantity is reduced to a certain extent, as the number of soaking barrels decreases and the number of empty barrels increases, the decoction barrel production scheduling system needs to gradually return the empty barrels to the decoction system. In the decoction barrel production scheduling system, the operator can choose to perform empty barrel recovery operations on one or more decoction units through the operation interface. When the system receives a command to switch to the unit barrel return mode, if there is no prescription task currently being executed, the system obtains the current empty barrel cache location and then instructs the PLC to transport the empty barrel from the cache area to the designated decoction unit location.

[0051] When the prescription quantity in the MES system increases, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is operated to transfer the empty barrels cached in the decoction station to the cache system and the feeding conveyor line to free up the decoction station to meet the normal decoction needs.

[0052] The boiling system returns to the empty barrel mode (off-duty mode), such as Figure 5 As shown:

[0053] After each decoction task is completed, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is switched to the empty barrel return mode. In this mode, the MES system stops receiving new prescription tasks; and the decoction barrel production scheduling system transports the empty barrels in the cache system to the vacant decoction stations in the decoction system, and transports the empty barrels on the feeding conveyor line to the vacant cache positions in the cache system.

[0054] For example, after the daily decoction task is completed, the manual mode is switched to the off-duty mode on the decoction barrel production scheduling system, and the automated production line is controlled to automatically start returning empty barrels. When the system switches to the off-duty mode, it will stop accepting new prescription tasks. In this mode, the system first monitors whether the decoction unit prescription task is completed. Whenever a decoction unit is emptied, the system will instruct the PLC to transport the empty barrels in the buffer area to the designated position of the decoction unit;

[0055] At the same time, the system will also monitor whether there are extra empty barrels on the feeding conveyor line. Whenever an empty barrel appears, the system will instruct the PLC to transport the empty barrel to the designated buffer area. When there is no prescription task being executed at the decoction station, and all the empty barrels transported from the buffer area have arrived at the designated location; at the same time, there are no empty barrels on the feeding conveyor line, and all the empty barrels transported from the feeding conveyor line have arrived at the buffer area, the decoction barrel production scheduling system will no longer perform new operations, that is, all the empty barrels have been transported to the designated location, and the work of returning the barrels after work is completed.

[0056] The above embodiments are only exemplary embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. The protection scope of the present application is defined by the claims. Those skilled in the art may make various modifications or equivalent substitutions to the present application within the essence and protection scope of the present application, and such modifications or equivalent substitutions shall also be deemed to fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An automated decoction system, characterized in that: It includes a decoction barrel production scheduling system, an MES system, a PLC system, and a medicine pouring system, an automatic water adding system, a buffer system, a decoction system, and a slag pouring and cleaning system which are connected in sequence by multiple sections of conveyor lines to form a closed loop; The decoction barrel production scheduling system is used to obtain prescription information from the MES system, control the scheduling of empty barrels according to actual needs, and transmit the scheduling information to the PLC system; The PLC system is used to control the actions of each system and each section of the conveyor line according to the dispatch information; The medicine pouring system is used to pour medicinal materials into the empty barrel; The automatic water adding system is used to add water to the incoming medicinal material barrel into which the medicinal materials have been added; The cache system is used to store empty buckets and soaking buckets filled with water; The decoction system comprises a plurality of decoction stations, each of which can perform an automated decoction process on an incoming soaking barrel according to prescription information, and the decoction station is also used to store empty barrels; The residue pouring and cleaning system is used to pour out the Chinese medicine residue from the decoction barrel and clean the decoction barrel.

2. A method for scheduling the production of a decoction barrel, characterized in that: The automatic decoction system according to claim 1 includes the following scheduling modes: Decoction system exits empty barrel mode: Before each formal operation of the automated decoction system, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is switched to the empty barrel mode. In this mode, the decoction barrel production scheduling system transfers the empty barrels cached in the decoction station to the feeding conveying line between the slag cleaning system and the medicine pouring system to empty the decoction station and meet the normal decoction demand; Decoction system returns to empty barrel mode: After each decoction task is completed, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is switched to the empty barrel return mode. In this mode, the MES system stops receiving new prescription tasks; and the decoction barrel production scheduling system transports the empty barrels in the cache system to the vacant decoction stations in the decoction system, and transports the empty barrels on the feeding conveyor line to the vacant cache positions in the cache system.

3. A method for scheduling the production of boiling barrels according to claim 2, characterized in that: The decoction barrel production scheduling method also includes an empty barrel output and empty barrel return interactive mode of the decoction system: Before the production task is completed, when the prescription quantity in the MES system decreases, the number of empty barrels in the buffer system increases, and the number of empty decoction stations in the decoction system increases, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is operated to retract the empty barrels in the buffer system to the empty decoction stations to reduce the pressure on the buffer system; When the prescription quantity in the MES system increases, the decoction barrel production scheduling system is operated to transfer the empty barrels cached in the decoction station to the cache system and the feeding conveyor line to free up the decoction station to meet the normal decoction needs.

4. The automatic decoction system according to claim 2, characterized in that: In the empty barrel discharge mode of the decoction system, the empty barrels cached in the decoction system are transferred to the feeding conveyor line in batches. Every time a batch of empty barrels is transferred to the feeding conveyor line, a batch of empty barrels or soaking barrels are transferred from the cache system to the decoction system, so that the empty barrels cached in the cache system and the decoction system can circulate, and the empty barrels cached in the decoction system can be gradually replaced by soaking barrels.

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