Medicine Cassette Replacement for Continuous Dose Packing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional automatic medicine packing machines are limited by the space constraint of medicine cassettes, leading to inefficiencies in medicine packing operations, and manual refilling is cumbersome and prone to errors, risking medical accidents.
Innovation Solution
An automatic medicine packing machine equipped with a medicine cassette replacement system using a transfer robot to swap empty cassettes with new ones, maintaining the same orientation and facilitating faster, larger-scale packing operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual refilling of medicine cassettes is performed, then the pharmacist can refill medicines, but the operation becomes cumbersome and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service automation where the medicine packing machine automatically detects empty cassettes and replaces them with full cassettes from the storage part, eliminating the need for manual pharmacist intervention in the refilling process
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical operation of removing and installing cassettes is replaced by an automated robot arm that performs the cassette replacement operation, substituting human manual labor with automated mechanical systems
2Area of stationary object
If medicine cassettes are placed in limited space on the main body, then the machine structure is compact, but the number of medicines that can be supplied is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into two separate functional parts: the main body with mounting part for active cassette usage, and a separate storage part for reserve cassettes. This segmentation allows the machine to maintain a compact main body while having access to additional cassettes in the storage part
Solution Approach 2:
The robot arm acts as an intermediary between the storage part and mounting part, transferring cassettes from the storage part to the mounting part when needed, enabling the system to overcome the space limitation of the main body
3Ease of manufacture
If cassettes are manually refilled by pharmacists, then refilling can be performed, but the process is time-consuming and reduces packing efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs automatic self-service cassette replacement where the robot arm detects empty cassettes in the mounting part and replaces them with full cassettes from the storage part, maintaining continuous packing operation without pharmacist intervention
Solution Approach 2:
Full cassettes are pre-stored in the storage part, ready for immediate replacement when mounting part cassettes become empty, ensuring continuous operation without interruption to packing efficiency
Data Source
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AI summary
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an automatic medicine packing machine for automatically packing medicines on a dose basis according to prescription information. The automatic medicine packing machine according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may comprise: a medicine cassette mounting part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes for supplying the medicines are mounted; a medicine collecting part configured to collect the medicines supplied according to the prescription information; a medicine packing part configured to pack the medicines collected by the medicine collecting part on the dose basis; a medicine cassette storage part in which a plurality of medicine cassettes are placed and stored; and a medicine cassette replacement system configured to grip the medicine cassette and replace the medicine cassette between the medicine cassette mounting part and the medicine cassette storage part.