Medicine feeding canister for in an automated medicine dispensing device

Abstract

Medicine feeding canister for in an automated medicine dispensing device, wherein the canister comprises a housing, a storage for storing a plurality of medicine units, a discharge for discharging the medicine units and a feeding mechanism for feeding the stored medicine units to the discharge, wherein the storage comprises a plurality of medicine holders, each of the medicine holders being arranged for holding one medicine unit separated from the other held medicine units, and wherein the feeding mechanism is arranged for feeding the medicine units in the medicine holders to the discharge.

Claims

1. A medicine feeding canister, wherein the canister comprises a housing, a storage for storing a plurality of medicine units, a discharge for discharging the medicine units and a feeding mechanism for feeding the stored medicine units to the discharge, the storage comprises a plurality of medicine holders, each of the medicine holders being arranged for holding one medicine unit separated from the other held medicine units, and wherein the feeding mechanism is arranged for feeding the medicine units in the medicine holders to the discharge, wherein the medicine holders are movable, in particular with respect to the discharge, for feeding the medicine units to the discharge, wherein the medicine feeding canister comprises a plurality of stacked holding surfaces for holding a plurality of layers of medicine units, wherein each of the holding surfaces comprises an opening for transporting a medicine unit from said holding surface to a lower layer, wherein the openings in two subsequent layers are staggered in the horizontal direction and wherein the opening in the lowest holding surface forms the discharge.

2. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 1, wherein the medicine holders are movable in a rotating manner, in particular with respect to the discharge.

3. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 2, wherein the medicine holders are arranged to be moved in a loop around the holding surface.

4. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 2, wherein the medicine holders comprise compartments, wherein each of the compartments is arranged for holding one medicine unit.

5. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 2, comprising a plurality of movable walls, wherein a compartment is defined by the holding surface and between two adjacent walls and possibly the housing.

6. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 5, comprising a drivable endless belt provided with the plurality of movable walls.

7. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 6, comprising a plurality of belts arranged between the holding surfaces, the plurality of belts being drivable by the driving shaft.

8. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 1, wherein each of the holding surfaces comprises comprise a plurality of movable medicine holders which are movable with respect to the respective opening for feeding the medicine units to said opening.

9. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 8, comprising a central driving shaft for synchronously moving the medicine holders in each of the holding surfaces in a predetermined direction.

10. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 1, wherein the openings in the respective layers are staggered in a direction opposite to a moving direction of the medicine holders for forming a spiralling transport path of the medicine units from an upper transporting surface to the discharge.

11. The medicine feeding canister according to claim 1, further comprising a shaft coupling for receiving a rotatable driving shaft, wherein the shaft coupling is operably coupled to a driving shaft for moving the plurality of medicine holders via a transfer mechanism, wherein the transfer mechanism is arranged for rotating the driving shaft in a predetermined direction, regardless of the direction of rotation of the shaft coupling.

Description

(1) The present invention is further illustrated by the following Figures, which show a preferred embodiment of the canister according to the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way, wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 schematically shows the canister according to the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 schematically shows several parts of the canister;

(4) FIG. 3 schematically shows the storage unit according to the invention;

(5) FIG. 4 shows the storage unit of FIG. 3 in exploded view;

(6) FIG. 5 shows the holding plates of the storage unit;

(7) FIG. 6 shows the belt for moving the medicines in isolation; and

(8) FIGS. 7a and 7b schematically show the transfer mechanism in two positions for the driving shaft.

(9) In FIGS. 1 and 2, a canister 1 according to the invention is shown. The canister comprises a base part 11 which is provided with a shaft coupling 15 (not visible) for coupling with a driving shaft of an automated dispensing device. The underside of the base part 11 is further provided with an opening 16 which functions as a discharge for discharging medicines upon rotation of the shaft coupling 15. The opening 16 is operably connected, or in communication with an opening 17 in the upper surface of the base part 11. The canister 1 is further provided with a housing 12 which is removably connected to the base part 11 using clicking tongues 13 which are received in correspondingly shaped openings 14.

(10) The housing 12 encloses a storage unit 2 which is arranged to store a plurality of medicine units, preferably of the same type. The storage unit 2 is hereto provided with a plurality of medicine holders 20 which are arranged to store the respective medicine units in a separated manner, i.e. such that the medicine units do not come into contact with each other. The storage unit, or feeding mechanism, 2 is arranged to discharge medicine units as stored in the medicine holders 20 to the discharge 16, in this example via the opening 17 in the base part 11.

(11) FIGS. 3-5 show the storage unit 2 in greater detail. The storage unit 2 comprises a plurality of plates 21 which are arranged in a stacked manner, wherein two plates 21 extend at mutual distance for storing medicines there between. The medicines hereby rest on the plates, or holding surfaces, 21. Arranged between the plates 21 are belts 3 which are arranged to move the medicines on the plates 21.

(12) With reference to FIG. 6, a belt 3 is provided with a belt body 31 formed in a loop on which a plurality of walls 32 is provided. The walls 32 extend substantially orthogonally with respect to the belt body 31. Upon rotation of the belts 3, as will be explained in greater detail below, the walls 32 push the medicines held on the plates 21. A medicine holder 20 is hereby formed as a compartment, see FIG. 3, delimited by walls 32, the belt body 31, two plates 21 and the housing 12 in connected state.

(13) In order to rotate the belts 3, a driving shaft 33 is provided which can be operatively coupled to the shaft coupling 15 as mentioned above. Provided in the driving shaft 33 are a plurality of driving pulleys or sprockets 35 which are provided with an noncircular opening 35d for receiving the correspondingly shaped noncircular shape of the driving shaft 33. The outer circumference of the driving sprocket 35 is provided with a bevelled edge 35a which is received in a correspondingly shaped groove 31a of the belt body 31. This ensures the vertical alignment of the sprocket 35 and the belt body 31. The outer circumference is further provided with vertically oriented grooves 35b which receive protruding parts 32b of the walls 32. This prevents slip between the sprocket 35 and the belt body 31. The storage unit 2 is further provided with a supporting shaft 34 also provided with a pulley or wheel 36, wherein the belt 3 is tensioned around the two pulleys 35 and 36. Shaft 34 is bearing mounted in the storage unit 2 as is allowed to rotate freely. Also the supporting wheel 36 is provided with a bevelled edge 36a. Each of the plates 21 is provided with two holes 28 (see FIG. 4) through which the shafts 33 and 34 extend. Also a base 29 of the storage unit 2 is provided with two holes for receiving therein the shafts 33 and 34.

(14) The base 29 is provided with the lower plate 21d which is provided with an opening 22d for communicating with the opening 17 of the base part 11. Therefore, in the following, the opening 22d will also be referred to as the discharge 22d, as this opening 22d is in communication with, al least in the connected state, with the discharge 16 of the canister 1 (see FIG. 1).

(15) With specific reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, each of the plates 21 is provided with an opening 22. The opening 22a of the upper plate 21a is used as filling opening, while the remaining openings between plates 21 are used to transport medicines from an upper plate 21b to lower plate, or lower layer, 21c. The openings 22 are staggered with respect to each other, seen in a direction of movement R as indicated with the arrow R in FIG. 4. That is; the belts 3 between the plates 21 are driven in a direction indicated with A1 and A2 in FIGS. 4 and 5, wherein the an opening 22b of a lower plate, or lower layer, 21b is located in a direction opposite the movement direction A1 of the compartments with respect to the opening in an upper plate 21a. If a medicine unit is inserted into opening 22a of the top plate 21a, the medicine will fall onto location 101, which location corresponds to the location of the opening 22a, seen in projection. The unit 2 is designed such that the walls 32 only move in the direction indicated with A1, such that the medicine will be moved around the perimeter of the plate 21b to finally arrive at the opening 22b. This will result in the medicine falling onto the location 102 on the lower plate 21c, which location corresponds to the location of the opening 22b of thenow upper plate 21b. Engagement of the shaft 33 will then result in the movement of the medicine along path A2, to finally fall down on the even lower plate, until the medicine is on the final plate 21d and driven into the discharge 22d. This arrangement provides a spiralling or cork screw shaped transport path A1 A2 A3 of the medicine units from the first location 101 towards the discharge 22d.

(16) As the shaft 33 is driven in a stepwise manner, each rotation of the shaft 33 will result in each of the medicines held in the compartments to move up one spot in the spiralling buffer. This allows an efficient and controlled way of discharging the medicines, without the medicines coming into contact with each other.

(17) In order to ensure that belts 3 are always driven in the same direction, regardless of the direction of rotation of the shaft coupling 15, a transfer mechanism 40 (see FIGS. 7a and 7b) is provided. This transfer mechanism 40 is incorporated in the base part 11. The mechanism 40 comprises three sprockets 41, 42, 43 with fixed axles and a movable sprocket 45 which is guided in a guide 44. The shaft coupling 15 is coupled to sprocket 41 and the driving shaft 33 is coupled to the sprocket 42. The auxiliary sprocket 43 is in engagement with the sprocket 42. The sprocket 45 is movable between a position in engagement with sprockets 41 and 42, seen in FIG. 7a, and a position in engagement with sprockets 41 and 43. The guide 45 is hereby arranged to guide the sprocket 44 between the two positions.

(18) If sprocket 41 is rotated in direction R2 (FIG. 7a), the sprocket 45 will remain in the position as shown in FIG. 7a. The sprocket 42 will thus rotate in the direction R3. If the sprocket 41 is then however rotated in direction R1, the sprocket 44 will be urged due to the rotational movement in a direction d via guide 45, thereby moving to the position of FIG. 7b. The sprocket 44 is now in engagement with sprockets 41 and 43. This will thus still result in a rotation of sprocket 42 in a direction R3 due to the use of auxiliary sprocket 43.

(19) The present invention is not limited to the embodiment shown, but extends also to other embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.