A traditional Chinese medicine pill screening and packaging equipment based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202522529091.4
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Utility models(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-11-28
- Publication Date
- 2026-09-15
- Estimated Expiration
- 2035-11-28
AI Technical Summary
[0007]针对现有中药丸剂筛选包装技术普遍存在设备结构复杂、成本高、维护难、适应性差等问题，本实用新型提供一种采用离心旋转盘实现药丸的自动大小分层精准筛选的基于离心分层与光电计数的中药丸剂筛选包装设备
[0014] The beneficial effects of this utility model are as follows: This utility model abandons complex machine vision and robot systems, and innovatively adopts a centrifugal rotating disk to realize automatic size stratification of pills. Combined with a single-row channel with a ring distribution and redundant photoelectric counting technology, it realizes efficient and accurate screening and counting of Chinese medicine pills with a minimal mechanical structure. The equipment has a compact structure, low cost and convenient maintenance.
Smart Images
Figure CN224752876U_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] This utility model relates to the technical field of screening and packaging of traditional Chinese medicine pills, and in particular to a screening and packaging device for traditional Chinese medicine pills based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting. Background Technology
[0002] Traditional Chinese medicine pills, as an important dosage form of traditional Chinese medicine, are widely used in clinical treatment and daily health care. With the rapid development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry, the production scale of traditional Chinese medicine pills is constantly expanding, placing higher demands on the efficiency of pill screening, sorting, and packaging. In the production process of traditional Chinese medicine pills, accurately and efficiently sorting pills by size and counting and packaging them is a crucial step, directly affecting product quality and production efficiency.
[0003] Currently, the main screening and packaging technologies for traditional Chinese medicine pills employ the following methods: The first option is traditional vibrating sieving technology. This technology uses vibration to separate pills into layers according to size, but it has significant drawbacks: the vibration noise is high, affecting the workshop working environment; it is prone to material jamming, especially for soft pills (such as honey pills), resulting in low sorting efficiency; and it cannot achieve continuous automatic sorting, requiring frequent shutdowns for cleaning, which affects production continuity.
[0004] The second option is a flat conveyor belt combined with manual sorting. While this option can transport the pills, it cannot automatically stratify them by size, requiring manual sorting, which leads to low efficiency, difficulty in guaranteeing sorting accuracy, and the fact that manual sorting is easily affected by subjective factors, resulting in large quality fluctuations.
[0005] The third option is automated packaging based on machine vision and robotic systems. While this option can achieve high-precision sorting and counting, the equipment is complex, costly, and difficult to maintain. The system is poorly adaptable to the dust and vibration environments of pharmaceutical plants, its stability is difficult to guarantee, and it requires professional technicians for operation and maintenance, making it difficult to promote and apply in small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies.
[0006] In summary, existing technologies for screening and packaging traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pills generally suffer from problems such as complex equipment structures, high costs, difficult maintenance, and poor adaptability, making it difficult to meet the requirements of modern TCM production for high efficiency, precision, and low cost. In particular, small and medium-sized pharmaceutical enterprises, limited by capital and technical capabilities, find it difficult to adopt high-cost automated solutions, resulting in slow improvements in production efficiency and product quality. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a TCM pill screening and packaging equipment that is simple in structure, low in cost, easy to operate, and accurate in counting, to solve the aforementioned technical problems and promote the improvement of automation levels in TCM production. Utility Model Content
[0007] In view of the problems that existing traditional Chinese medicine pill screening and packaging technologies generally suffer from, such as complex equipment structure, high cost, difficult maintenance, and poor adaptability, this utility model provides a traditional Chinese medicine pill screening and packaging equipment based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting, which uses a centrifugal rotating disc to achieve automatic and precise screening of pills by size stratification.
[0008] The solution adopted by this utility model to solve its technical problem is: a screening and packaging device for traditional Chinese medicine pills based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting, including a rotating disk, which is shallowly conical. V-shaped guide grooves radiating outwards are evenly arranged on the surface of the rotating disk. A medicine outlet is provided at the edge of the rotating disk, which is divided into an inner ring outlet and an outer ring outlet. A partition is provided between the inner and outer ring outlets, with the inner ring outlet located below the partition and the outer ring outlet located above the partition. The partition is annular and surrounds the outside of the rotating disk, with its height lower than the edge of the rotating disk, thus dividing the V-shaped guide grooves into upper and lower parts. Multiple outer ring outlets are arranged side-by-side with different widths. A closable feeding valve is provided at the inner end of each of the side-by-side outer ring outlets. A counting channel is connected to the outer end of the outer ring outlets. The counting channel adopts a single-row sorting channel with the same width as the pills. A photoelectric counting device is installed on the single-row sorting channel, and a bagging mechanism is installed at the end of the single-row sorting channel.
[0009] Preferably, the bagging mechanism includes a tilting hopper, the inlet end of which is connected to the end of a single-row sorting channel, a tilting drive device is installed below the tilting hopper, and a medicine bag is opened at the outlet end of the tilting hopper. The tilting drive device drives the tilting hopper to tilt, so that the pills are poured from the tilting hopper into the medicine bag.
[0010] Preferably, the tilting hopper adopts an arc-shaped base, with a flat medicine hopper arranged above the arc-shaped base. An upwardly inclined guide plate is arranged at the end of the flat medicine hopper. A rotating shaft is installed on the axis of the arc-shaped base, and a motor is connected to the rotating shaft. The motor drives the arc-shaped base to rotate on one side of the guide plate, so that the pills on the flat medicine hopper roll on the guide plate and are poured into the medicine bag along the guide plate.
[0011] Preferably, the photoelectric counting device includes two independent photoelectric sensors, which are installed one after the other on a single-row sorting channel. When the two sensors are blocked one after the other, it is confirmed that a pill has passed through.
[0012] Preferably, the single-row sorting channel is arranged at an angle downwards, with the higher end of the single-row sorting channel connected to the outer end of the outer ring outlet, and the lower end of the single-row sorting channel connected to the bagging mechanism.
[0013] Preferably, a micro vibrator is installed on the single-row sorting channel to move the pills in the single-row sorting channel along the channel.
[0014] The beneficial effects of this utility model are as follows: This utility model abandons complex machine vision and robot systems, and innovatively adopts a centrifugal rotating disk to realize automatic size stratification of pills. Combined with a single-row channel with a ring distribution and redundant photoelectric counting technology, it realizes efficient and accurate screening and counting of Chinese medicine pills with a minimal mechanical structure. The equipment has a compact structure, low cost and convenient maintenance. Attached Figure Description
[0015] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of this utility model; Figure 2 This is a top view of the rotating disk's structure. Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the side and partial structure of the rotating disk; Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the photoelectric counting device; Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of a tilting silo.
[0016] The following are labeled in the diagram: Rotary disc 1; V-shaped guide groove 2; feeding valve 3; single-row sorting channel 31; outer ring outlet 4; inner ring outlet 5; photoelectric counting device 6; single-row sorting channel 7; bagging mechanism 8; tilting hopper 81; medicine bag 82; flat medicine hopper 83; guide plate 84. Detailed Implementation
[0017] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of this utility model clearer, the technical solutions of this utility model will be described in detail below.
[0018] Example 1: This utility model provides a specific embodiment of a screening and packaging device for traditional Chinese medicine pills based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting. The embodiment of this utility model will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only for explaining this utility model and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of this utility model.
[0019] like Figure 1-3 As shown in the figure, this embodiment provides a screening and packaging device for traditional Chinese medicine pills based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting, including a rotating disk 1. The rotating disk 1 has a shallow conical structure, and its surface is uniformly provided with outwardly radiating V-shaped guide grooves 2. The bottom slope angle of the V-shaped guide grooves 2 is 3°-10°. The rotation speed of the rotating disk 1 is adjustable from 50 to 300 rpm and is driven by a variable frequency motor.
[0020] A medicine outlet is provided on the edge of the rotating disk 1. The medicine outlet is divided into an inner ring outlet 5 and an outer ring outlet 4. A partition is provided between the inner ring outlet 5 and the outer ring outlet 4. The partition is annular and surrounds the outside of the rotating disk 1. The height of the partition is lower than the edge of the rotating disk 1, so that the V-shaped guide groove 2 is divided into upper and lower parts through the partition. The inner ring outlet 5 is located below the partition, and the outer ring outlet 4 is located above the partition.
[0021] Multiple outer ring outlets 4 are arranged in parallel with different widths. A material feeding valve 3 that can be opened and closed is provided at the inner end of the parallel outer ring outlets 4. The material feeding valve 3 adopts a pneumatic valve structure and is controlled to open and close by a solenoid valve. Its width matches that of the outer ring outlets 4.
[0022] The outer end of the outer ring outlet 4 is connected to a single-row sorting channel 31. The single-row sorting channel 31 is arranged at an angle downwards. The higher end of the single-row sorting channel 31 is connected to the outer end of the outer ring outlet 4, and the lower end is connected to the bagging mechanism 8. The width of the single-row sorting channel 31 is only wide enough for one pill to pass through. The inner wall of the channel is made of smooth polytetrafluoroethylene material to reduce friction.
[0023] A micro vibrator is installed on the single-row sorting channel 31. The micro vibrator is a piezoelectric ceramic vibrator with a frequency of 100-200Hz and a power of 5-10W. The micro vibrator causes the pills in the single-row sorting channel 31 to move along the channel.
[0024] like Figure 4 As shown, the photoelectric counting device 6 includes two independent photoelectric sensors, which are installed one after the other on the single-row sorting channel 31. The sensors are infrared photoelectric sensors with a response time of 1ms and a detection accuracy of 0.1mm. The control system uses AND logic for counting: a pill is confirmed to have passed only when both sensors are blocked sequentially (with a reasonable time window set according to the pill speed).
[0025] The bagging mechanism 8 includes a tilting hopper 81, the feed end of which is connected to the end of the single-row sorting channel 31. A tilting drive device is installed below the tilting hopper 81. The tilting drive device is a small cylinder with a stroke of 180° and a driving speed of 0.5-1s / time.
[0026] The specific workflow of this embodiment is as follows: 1. The Chinese medicine pills to be screened are fed into the center inlet of rotating disk 1, which rotates at a set speed (e.g., 150 rpm); 2. Under the action of centrifugal force, the Chinese medicine pills move outward along the V-shaped guide groove 2. The smaller pills with a lower center of gravity fall into the bottom of the V-shaped groove and are guided to the inner ring outlet 5; the larger pills are located above the groove and are continued to be transported to the outer ring outlet 4. 3. According to the size and specifications of the pills, the operator opens the corresponding outer ring outlet 4 through the feeding valve 3, so that pills of a specific size range can pass through the outer ring outlet 4; 4. After passing through the outer ring outlet 4, the pills enter the single-row sorting channel 31, where they are automatically arranged into a single column with the assistance of a micro vibrator. 5. The pills pass through the photoelectric counting device 6 in sequence. The two independent photoelectric sensors are blocked one after the other to confirm that a pill has passed. 6. Once the count reaches the set number (e.g., 10 pills), the control system triggers the tilting hopper 81 to rotate 180°, and the pills are poured into the medicine bag 82 below through the guide plate 84; 7. The tilting hopper 81 is reset, waiting for the next filling, completing one packaging cycle.
[0027] This embodiment achieves automatic size sorting of pills through centrifugal stratification, eliminating the need for sensors and complex algorithms. The purely mechanical structure enables automatic, continuous, and gentle sorting of pills by size. The use of a single-row, ring-shaped distribution of channels and redundant photoelectric counting technology solves the problem of inaccurate counting caused by pill overlap, achieving 100% counting accuracy. The tilting hopper design is simple and reliable, effectively replacing complex robotic arms or solenoid valves, resulting in low failure rate and high bagging efficiency.
[0028] The equipment in this embodiment has a compact structure, low cost, and convenient maintenance, making it particularly suitable for small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies. It can significantly improve the screening and packaging efficiency and quality of Chinese medicine pills, and enhance the level of automation in Chinese medicine production.
[0029] Example 2: Figure 5 As shown, the tilting hopper 81 adopts an arc-shaped base, and a flat medicine hopper 83 is arranged above the arc-shaped base. An upwardly inclined guide plate 84 is provided at the end of the flat medicine hopper 83, with an inclination angle of 30°-45°. Furthermore, the center of the guide plate can be set as a downwardly concave arc shape. After the pills roll into the guide plate, the concave arc shape allows the pills to converge at the center of the guide plate, ensuring accurate introduction of the pills into the medicine bag.
[0030] A rotating shaft is mounted on the central axis of the arc-shaped base. The shaft is connected to a motor, which drives the arc-shaped base to rotate on one side of the guide plate 84. This causes the pills on the flat medicine bin 83 to roll along the guide plate 84 and be poured into the medicine bag 82. The medicine bag 82 is then automatically conveyed to the bottom of the bagging mechanism 8 via a conveyor belt system. The pill screening and packaging equipment provided by this invention can use a programmable logic controller (PLC) to receive signals from the counting sensor and control the motors of the flipping bin and the packaging bag conveyor belt. This achieves a fixed cycle of "count full -> stop conveying -> trigger flipping -> reset -> start conveying," ensuring consistent process rhythm, smooth operation, and no manual intervention required.
Claims
1. A screening and packaging device for traditional Chinese medicine pills based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting, characterized in that, Includes a rotating disk (1), which is shallowly conical. V-shaped guide grooves (2) are evenly arranged on the surface of the rotating disk (1) and a medicine outlet is provided on the edge of the rotating disk (1). The medicine outlet is divided into an inner ring outlet (5) and an outer ring outlet (4). A partition is provided between the inner ring outlet (5) and the outer ring outlet (4). The inner ring outlet (5) is located below the partition, and the outer ring outlet (4) is located above the partition. The partition is annular and surrounds the outside of the rotating disk (1). The height of the partition is lower than the edge of the rotating disk (1), so that the V-shaped guide grooves (2) are divided into upper and lower parts by the partition. The outer ring outlet (4) is arranged in parallel with multiple outlets of different widths. A feeding valve (3) that can be opened and closed is provided at the inner end of the parallel outer ring outlet (4). The outer end of the outer ring outlet (4) is connected to a counting channel (7). The counting channel (7) adopts a single-row sorting channel (31) with the same width as the pill. A photoelectric counting device (6) is installed on the single-row sorting channel (31), and a bagging mechanism (8) is installed at the end of the single-row sorting channel (31).
2. The traditional Chinese medicine pill screening and packaging equipment based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting according to claim 1, characterized in that, The bagging mechanism (8) includes a tilting hopper (81), the feed end of the tilting hopper (81) is connected to the end of the single-row sorting channel (31), a tilting drive device is installed below the tilting hopper (81), and a medicine bag (82) is opened at the discharge end of the tilting hopper (81). The tilting drive device drives the tilting hopper (81) to tilt, so that the pills are poured from the tilting hopper (81) into the medicine bag (82).
3. The traditional Chinese medicine pill screening and packaging equipment based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting according to claim 2, characterized in that, The tilting hopper (81) adopts an arc-shaped base, and a flat medicine hopper (83) is set above the arc-shaped base. An upwardly inclined guide plate (84) is set at the end of the flat medicine hopper (83). A rotating shaft is installed on the axis of the arc-shaped base, and a motor is connected to the rotating shaft. The motor drives the arc-shaped base to rotate on one side of the guide plate (84), so that the pills on the flat medicine hopper (83) roll on the guide plate (84) and are poured into the medicine bag (82) along the guide plate (84).
4. The traditional Chinese medicine pill screening and packaging equipment based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting according to claim 1, characterized in that, The photoelectric counting device (6) includes two independent photoelectric sensors. The two sensors are installed one after the other on the single-row sorting channel (31). When the two sensors are blocked one after the other, it is confirmed that a pill has passed through.
5. The traditional Chinese medicine pill screening and packaging equipment based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting according to claim 1, characterized in that, The single-row sorting channel (31) is arranged at an angle downwards. The higher end of the single-row sorting channel (31) is connected to the outer end of the outer ring outlet (4), and the lower end of the single-row sorting channel (31) is connected to the bagging mechanism (8).
6. The screening and packaging equipment for traditional Chinese medicine pills based on centrifugal stratification and photoelectric counting according to claim 1 or 5, characterized in that, A micro vibrator is installed on the single-row sorting channel (31) to move the pills in the single-row sorting channel (31) along the channel.