Pharmaceutical Production Machine Continuous Loading Unloading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing machines for pharmaceutical product preparation have long production cycles and low productivity due to the need for stopping the machine during loading and unloading operations, and they are not cost-effective.
Innovation Solution
A machine design with a sterile containment chamber, a robotized gripping and transporting device, and a system of belt conveyors and cradles that allows for continuous loading and unloading of syringes, bottles, and infusion bags without requiring the machine to be stopped, using a pneumatic device for maintaining sterile conditions and a star-shaped wheel for handling infusion bags.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If a robotized arm is used for transferring containers between store, weighing station, and dosing station, then automation is improved, but production cycle time increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the container handling function into two separate systems: a first conveying system for loading containers into the sterile chamber, and a second conveying system for unloading containers from the sterile chamber. This segmentation allows loading and unloading operations to occur independently and simultaneously, eliminating the need to stop the machine for these operations and thereby maintaining high productivity while preserving automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by having containers pre-positioned on the first conveying system outside the sterile chamber, ready for loading. The loading operation is prepared in advance and can proceed independently of the internal processing operations, allowing continuous operation without interruption to productivity.
2Ease of operation
If the machine stops for loading and unloading operations, then ease of operation is improved, but productivity decreases and loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent ensures continuity of useful action by designing the first conveying system to operate continuously outside the sterile chamber, loading containers during the machine's operational cycles. The second conveying system similarly operates continuously to unload containers. This eliminates idle time and maintains continuous productive action, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary conveying systems that act as mediators between the external environment and the sterile chamber. These intermediary systems handle the loading and unloading operations independently, allowing the main processing operations to continue uninterrupted while containers are transferred, thus maintaining both ease of operation and high productivity.
3Reliability
If a protective casing with access opening is used, then sterile containment is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the loading and unloading operations from the sterile chamber environment by implementing conveying systems that operate outside the protective casing. The first conveying system loads containers into the sterile chamber through the access opening without requiring the opening to be large or complex, and the second conveying system unloads containers similarly. This extraction simplifies the protective casing design while maintaining sterile containment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent resolves the complexity issue by moving the conveying operations to another dimension - outside the sterile chamber volume. The conveying systems operate in the external space and only interact with the sterile chamber at the access opening, thereby maintaining sterile containment with minimal structural complexity in the protective casing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The machine achieves increased productivity and cost-effectiveness by allowing continuous operation during loading and unloading, reducing production cycles, and maintaining sterile conditions for pharmaceutical preparation.
Implementation Method 1
a pneumatic device of known type, shaped so as to feed a flow of sterile air through the chamber 3 and prevent the introduction of air from the external environment into the chamber 3
Data Source
AI summary
A machine for the preparation of pharmaceutical products has a pocket conveyor, mobile along a loop-shaped path and provided with a plurality of pockets, each adapted to receive and withhold a respective container, and a transfer device for transferring the containers with a rectilinear motion between the respective pockets and at least one operating station for executing an operation on the containers themselves.